3 ms·

People accept the current situation for two reasons: 1. Protestant Work Ethic (work is morally good, not-work is morally bad, therefore do work) 2. Capitalism

People accept the current situation for two reasons: 1. Protestant Work Ethic (work is morally good, not-work is morally bad, therefore do work) 2. Capitalism race to the bottom (if you take 2 vacation days, the company can fire you and hire someone who will take only one, then fire him for someone who will take none) It really, really sucks. But if you get any ideas about standing up for your rights or organizing your labor, remember that the nail that stands up is hammered down. That, plus most coworkers will look at you bug-eyed if you propose that working conditions can be improved by worker organization and negotiation with employers-- after all, they're just trying to do their part and earn their portion, not get involved in some scary organized/unionized/socialist political mess. There's not even a cultural foundation to build something like a campaign for more sensible vacation policy. Indeed, the cultural foundation is predisposed against such things.

smsm42 13y ago
I have never seen someone fired or heard about someone fired for taking vacations, at least not in the industry I work in. I have, however, read a lot of history of unionized workforces having lavish vacation and sick policies (e.g. one municipality has to fire entire police force due to unions becoming unmanageable - at any given day, 1/3 of workforce was out of work[1]) and pension costs destroying local budgets and pushing them into bankruptcy. Another municipality had to pay union teacher 40K to leave since he was accused of 23 instances of sexual assault on students but it still wasn't possible to fire him. "Rubber rooms" for such people in NY are notorious. Here's another guy[2] who has $110K salary and well-protected union rights - he is a criminal and a fraud, and yet he and his union sued the state and won not only his job back but back pay. And he also works in correctional system. The press is flooded with such cases, this is just a random sample. Thank you very much, I do not want any of this crap nowhere near me. [1] http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/27/crime-rate-in-camden-nj-going-down-after http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/27/crime-rate-in-camden-nj-go... [2] http://www.suntimes.com/news/24282009-418/state-prison-official-fired-from-dcfs-for-lewd-and-highly-sexualized-emails.html http://www.suntimes.com/news/24282009-418/state-prison-offic...

smsm42 13y ago

I have never seen someone fired or heard about someone fired for taking vacations, at least not in the industry I work in. I have, however, read a lot of history of unionized workforces having lavish vacation and sick policies (e.g. one municipality has to fire entire police force due to unions becoming unmanageable - at any given day, 1/3 of workforce was out of work[1]) and pension costs destroying local budgets and pushing them into bankruptcy. Another municipality had to pay union teacher 40K to leave since he was accused of 23 instances of sexual assault on students but it still wasn't possible to fire him. "Rubber rooms" for such people in NY are notorious. Here's another guy[2] who has $110K salary and well-protected union rights - he is a criminal and a fraud, and yet he and his union sued the state and won not only his job back but back pay. And he also works in correctional system. The press is flooded with such cases, this is just a random sample. Thank you very much, I do not want any of this crap nowhere near me. [1] http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/27/crime-rate-in-camden-nj-going-down-after http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/27/crime-rate-in-camden-nj-go... [2] http://www.suntimes.com/news/24282009-418/state-prison-official-fired-from-dcfs-for-lewd-and-highly-sexualized-emails.html http://www.suntimes.com/news/24282009-418/state-prison-offic...