this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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I've never had a two weeks vacation. I'm 52.. If I have 36 hrs off in one block I go camping.
This is insane. Why would you put up with this?
Because some people need to have multiple hyper-yachts and who are we to stand in their way?
There are millionaires and billionaires in Europe though, so clearly it is possible to have decent work-life balance and still support the excesses of a rich upper class, assuming that's a requirement.
The amount of productivity lost because of paid leave is almost negligible, study after study has shown that people are less productive the more overworked they are. So staff with no time off work longer hours but are less productive for those hours, the end result is it pretty much equals out. If it didn't, the US economy would be doing better then it is, €1 is $1.16.
Studies show programmers are about as productive if they only work 80% compared to 100%. Or so I recall, gotta dig that one up. Personal experience is the more people linger in the office the less (quality) programming gets done.
My take is that people seem to like it, I mean why are they staying late for free otherwise?
Nah, it's a dumb reason to do anything, much less hand wealth to a bunch of people who don't give a shit about the workers who got them there. It was more tongue in cheek than anything.
Less time off has more to do with middle managers justifying their pittance than anything else.
The exchange rate isn't really the best indicator of the economy because either side can print more or take excess money out of circulation.
Not that your other points are wrong or anything. Just wanted to point that little thing out.
What the fuck am I going to do about it? Get arrested bringing the people responsible a lake city quiet pill?
Well what do you have to lose?
The trick is that so much is tied to our employment, including health care. Wanna start a ruckus and get fired? Cool, you'll lose your health insurance and the cancer will kill you. It's not like the company down the street is any better.
And sometimes the company you work for, or the company down the street, is causing the cancer.
Or your out trying to protect your neighbors, and ICE or DHS shoots cancerous chemicals into the streets.
This is America.
Everything. Everything we have.
Let me tell you what it's like to be poor, since it seems you don't understand. The less money and agency you have, the more every little thing counts.
Our families, our pets, our few nice things... They are everything, and they can be taken from us if we slip up just once.
What else can we do? A lot of people underestimate how fucked over us working class folks are here in the US.
The ultra wealthy have been fracking our livelihoods for generations. If we're not hospitalized or crippled by medical debt, we just consider ourselves lucky.
It's insane no politicians are banking on this, or are they, "trump style", maybe?
In New Zealand if you have an office job there's a decent chance you're not even allowed to work for at least a week, often two, sometimes three over the Christmas/New Year period.
The days between Christmas and 2 January are not even considered working days when calculating working days in contracts.
I'm an American and luckily I work for a company that does the same thing. We "shut down" during that time. They even give 4 weeks of PTO a year starting off. This is no where near the norm.
Sounds like the semiconductor industry. The pay is good, but they will try to destroy your soul during those 11 months.
Haha here the legal minimum is 4 weeks plus 12 more paid public holidays on top.
Yeah. I know nearly every where else has it so much better. If I felt like I had the ability to immigrate, I probably would.
Cries in working in health care
You might not get the public holidays at the same as others but you're still entitled to them taken in lieu!
Oh for sure. It was more the 2-3 weeks off at summer that I was envious of. Although I know lots of people still have to work as well, so I can't complain too much.
Ironically my gf is a health care worker and she actually earns more PTO than I do.
Tbh I get 5 weeks AL a year (although only after 5years) so I'm really complaining about not much. I can take leave over summer like everyone else, but only every third year or so as there has to be somebody working
Well staffing is a different issue all together. She definitely had some times where there wasn't enough staffing and they couldn't have people go on PTO.
Come work on IT projects in government. There's a contractor stand-down period for like 3 weeks over Christmas so even if you work there's almost no one around (yes the government said they would cut down on use of contractors, they said a lot of things).
The work has to be done whether it's officially on the books or not.
I would consider it if I had the skills, but I don't
That is sweet.
There's a two week period you basically have to take off, because everyone else is also on holiday, so you couldn't work if you wanted to.
You don't have weekends?