How much vacation do you take?

It seems that most US citizens only get 14 days, and they don't even use them! :eek: I wonder why that is.

Expedia vacation survey

	Days given	Days taken	Days unused
France	30	30	0
Spain	30	30	0
Denmark	30	30	0
Brazil	30	30	0
Germany	30	28	2
Italy	28	21	7
UK	25	25	0
Sweden	25	25	0
Netherlands	25	23	2
Norway	25	21	4
India	25	20	5
Ireland	21	20	1
Argentina	21	20	1
Australia	20	15	5
Canada	16	15	1
Mexico	15	14	1
Singapore	14	14	0
U.S.	14	12	2
Japan	11	5	6
South Korea	10	7	3
Total	24	20	4

Germany, France, Spain and Denmark top the list with 30 paid vacation days, while the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and the UK come in second with 25 days. European respondents also turn most of it into holidays. German respondents said they use 28 of 30 days, while France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark use all of them. American respondents earn 14 days, from which they use 12.


Asia, however, is more vacation averse. According to the survey, Japan is the most vacation-deprived nation in the world, with respondents saying they receive 11 paid days each year but only use five of them. South Koreans take seven out of their 10 days.


Hard working employees can also be found in India, where five days from a total of 20 are not used, respondents said. “In India, vacations tend to be viewed as a guilty habit,” marketing head of Expedia India, Manmeet Ahluwalia, said in a press release. “As many as 54% Indians spend vacations usually secretly checking emails.”

Besides economic performance, vacation levels might have an impact on the employees’ temper. Top scorers in the recentLegatum Institute’s listof the world’s happiest countries have many things in common.


One of them, however, is a high number of vacation days.

I always took ALL my vacation time, and ALL of my sick time. Heck, if someone is going to pay me to take off and have fun, I'm all for it! :D

Must admit I saved my sick time on an annual basis, so if I did get ill I had time coming. Then if I left the job during that year, I'd get the pay for the saved time, so that was also good.

My jobs mostly had 4 weeks off annually for vacation, I think 2 gave me 6 weeks; but I was at the executive levels.

When I retired, I was at the point where I got 4+ weeks of vacation - 4 weeks for 20 years service, and then 1 additional day for each year over 20. The company I worked for did not allow you to carryover unused days (except in extenuating circumstances) into the next year, and if you didn't use them, they were lost. I don't know of anyone there that never used all of their days that they were entitled to. I sure used mine! :D

I did a research paper last semester on something called 'workaholism' which has been notorious in the US and Japan. Many people become obsessed with work and making money so they don't take as many days off. It's pretty interesting to read about, but it does end tragically sometimes.

I've only had part-time jobs or seasonal jobs thus far so I never got told how many days I can request off. My places of work have generally been very generous with that, except for Six Flags...but I don't work there anymore.

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Originally Posted by Freedom

I always took ALL my vacation time, and ALL of my sick time. Heck, if someone is going to pay me to take off and have fun, I'm all for it! :D

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Good for you! :D Of course, I use all my days, too. Not that I have a job now, but you're still entitled to 5 weeks of vacation whether you have a job or not.

Teachers, of course, have 7 weeks of vacation.

I've heard about the one additional day per year you've worked for a company - I guess that is fair, but younger people are surely not happy about it. Do many companies have that rule?

Yes, it seems that the US and Japan works a lot more than the rest of the world, and China, too for that matter, but I'm sure many in these countries go down with stress. Some even do in Denmark. With the unemployment figures we have, it's a shame that some can't work less, so others could get jobs. It seems to all or nothing.

What??? People not using their vacation??? That is crazy.

I have been at my job for 25 years. I just got to the point where I earn 26 days a year and 4 personal days. I haven't been on a real vacation for about 10 years. When I was married and the kids were young we always went to the beach every year. Last year when Caleb got married at the beach was like a little mini vacation. I really miss going to the beach for a whole week.

My employer starts out giving you 7 days your first year of employment and then you get more in like 3 or 5 years and then when you hit 15 you get more and then 25 years is the max of 26 days. You start out with one personal day and they go up to 4 as you move through the ranks.

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Originally Posted by happylabs

What??? People not using their vacation??? That is crazy!

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I don't get it, either.

The table below outlines the Danish Holiday Act:
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/The_Danish_Holiday_Act_11011Final/$FILE/The Danish Holiday Act 11011Final.pdf

hubby gets 4 weeks of vacation I think and he earns time for the overtime he works. We always use ALL of it. His vacation days reset in May and we already have a bunch of trips planned lol. a week long trip to canada, a week long trip to florida (a few days at the inlaws house and a couple days at disney) both of those vacations are in september and then another week at Disney in December.

Plus a few random days off here and there to "extend" a weekend and such.

Where I work you only get 10 days of paid vacation days per year and when you've been with the company for 10 years and over you then get 15 days. I've been with the company for a long time so I do get the 15 and I use all of them. As for sick time, we can only use it if we are sick so I never use all of them unless I have surgery or something that requires a long recovery time. We now also need a doctor's excuse if we're out sick for more than a couple of days. We are allowed to carry over some of our sick time to the next year and as far as I know we can also carry over any unused vacation time. We also get our birthday as a paid holiday so I really have 16 paid vacation days.:) We used to also be able to use our sick time for personal time off or even vacation time when work was slow but ever since the poor economy we can't.:( Sometimes if we have to work on a Saturday we can also get comp time which would go towards vacation time. I usually just take staycations, I just stay home during my vacations, because I can't afford to travel and I have 6 cats to take care of and I don't have any one close by that could cat sit them. I also can't afford the prices of professional pet sitters.

That table may be a bit skewed. In general, as far as I know, many American companies START with two weeks (10 days) vacation and 3 personal days. It is true many people leave some on the table; I am not one of them.

I am, at this point, middle management. I get 4 weeks vacation, three personal days and usually 3-4 floating holidays. As far as sick time, mine is unlimited, so it's not a matter of taking/leaving. If you're sick, if you have surgery, you stay home. I also use one day every 7-8 weeks for my IV treatments, which is paid.

As far as leaving vacation on the table: so many American companies, my own included, are cut so close to the bone as far as personnel, you can't take off because there is just too much to do and no one to cover. It's a sad result of a combination of the economy and some very badly run companies, IMO.

A week here and a week there is nice, and also to be able to extend weekends.

Wow KAK, 16 days aren't much, and I bet you work more than 37 hours a week. You need to talk to you boss and negotiate. ;)

I think is unfair that the rules aren't the same for everybody.

[QUOTE=Randi;2411740 Not that I have a job now, but you're still entitled to 5 weeks of vacation whether you have a job or not.

I've heard about the one additional day per year you've worked for a company - I guess that is fair, but younger people are surely not happy about it. Do many companies have that rule?
[/QUOTE]




I'm confused. How do you get vacation if you don't have a job?

And that one additional day per year only came after I reached 20 years with the same company, and earned 4 weeks vacation. Since I had 22 years with them when I had to retire, then I was receiving 4 weeks plus 2 days. I also got 12 paid holidays (including my b'day), and I think it was 7 sick days. If you had to be off work for surgery as an example, then you went on short term disability for up to 6 months, and then long term disability if it went beyond 6 months, and of course that was with pay, but on a decreasing rate scale.

And I am speaking only of the company I worked for - they all are different and set their own policies and procedures.

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Originally Posted by krazyaboutkatz

Where I work you only get 10 days of paid vacation days per year and when you've been with the company for 10 years and over you then get 15 days. I've been with the company for a long time so I do get the 15 and I use all of them. As for sick time, we can only use it if we are sick so I never use all of them unless I have surgery or something that requires a long recovery time. We now also need a doctor's excuse if we're out sick for more than a couple of days. We are allowed to carry over some of our sick time to the next year and as far as I know we can also carry over any unused vacation time. We also get our birthday as a paid holiday so I really have 16 paid vacation days.:) We used to also be able to use our sick time for personal time off or even vacation time when work was slow but ever since the poor economy we can't.:( Sometimes if we have to work on a Saturday we can also get comp time which would go towards vacation time. I usually just take staycations, I just stay home during my vacations, because I can't afford to travel and I have 6 cats to take care of and I don't have any one close by that could cat sit them. I also can't afford the prices of professional pet sitters.

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As much as I miss the beach, I do LOVE my staycations. I will take a Friday and the following Monday sometimes and make a 4-day weekend. I am becoming very much a homebody. Sometimes I think I could be a hermit - LOL!

I've been with my company over 8 years. We do not get sick days. We accumulate PTO (paid time off) as we work. Depending on how long you've been here determines how much PTO you get per days/hours worked.

We usually try to take a week long vacation each year. The past several years its only been going up to Tahoe (our home away from home) for a week. Back when we first go together we went on nice tropical cruises or trips (Carribbean, Hawaii, Mexico, Florida, Belize). Hopefully someday we will be able to do trips like that again.

Pomtzu, I think Randi means she TAKES vacation. Not that she necessarily gets paid vacation. And if I'm wrong..........I'm moving there!!! :)

I get 14 hours a month vacation and 8 hours sick leave a month so a bit over 4 weeks a year, I have about a years time on the books because I get called on the weekend a lot so time off is used to compensate so don't end up touching my balances a whole lot. I will run it out when I retire.