That sounds pretty bad. You feel the pressure to take less vacation because things are busy at work. In European workplace culture, the demands of the work ten

That sounds pretty bad. You feel the pressure to take less vacation because things are busy at work. In European workplace culture, the demands of the work tend to be immaterial to the amount of vacation you can take. If things are busy, it's up to your boss to figure out how to handle them while you are away. If they can't do that, it's seen as their failure, not yours. However, if your employer knows in advance that things will be busy, they have a limited ability to adjust the timing of your vacation, but they usually have to do that months in advance.