[OC] USA vs Europe Work Culture: Nearly 30% of Europeans took more than 25 vacation days, while only 6% of Americans took that much time off according to a survey of 1,228 employees

Posted by toso_o

20 comments

  2. I work for a European company and live in the US. I can confirm that this is probably true, just based on what I see.

  3. Company I work for would literally fire me for taking a vacation, as they’ve written up or fired others for missing 3 or more work days in a year – including holidays and scheduled days off. Technically illegal, even here in the US, but unfortunately extremely common, as workers only have rights if they can afford the court costs and lawyers.

  4. i can’t speak for all of europe, but in The Netherlands we get 20 days per year by law. Those 20 days you have to use before July 1st of the next year. So 20 days from 2024 you have to use before July 2025. This was done in an effort so people would not hoard their days off and never use them, but actually force them to use them.

    This however does not include days off you get extra, like most companies would give 5 days extra. I get about 40 days a year myself and i use em all!

  5. And then you get people who boast about how few leave days they’ve taken. Yes, work harder wagey.

  6. There are European people that take less than 25 days off per year?! That alone is shocking to me.

    Or wait: this include part-time jobs perhaps, which have less vacation days?

  7. It’s the classic example of what do you prefer work-life balance (like in Europe) or higher salary (like in the US). Some people would rather have more time off whereas others like to maximise their income.

    I’m a solicitor in England (attorney/lawyer for Americans) and I personally work to support my personal life and I think I would go insane if I had only 15 days holiday a year (I need that time off to clear my brain) but I appreciate that many Americans would probably think I’m insane for preferring that over more money.

    Rather amusingly I’ve spent four weeks of my annual leave this year in the States noticing how much more expensive the US is these days compared to the UK! About a decade ago, I would have said the cost of everything as a tourist was about equal.

  8. I’ve stuck around through acres of bullshit to earn my 5 weeks PTO, and I damn sure use it every year. My bosses hate it, and keep putting more and more restrictions on our ability to use it, but I’ll be damned if I’m leaving PTO on the table at year-end.

  9. Wait what? In my country you are obligated by law to use your 20 vacation days each year, it is illegal not to use it.

  10. They gave us “unlimited PTO” at our company expecting none of us would take it, now we all take 30+ days a year lol

  11. I think the much more jarring point to make out from this data is that **60%** of Europeans took 21 or more days off, compared to only **13%** of Americans.

  12. I’m sitting with 35 days of PTO per year in the USA. This includes required federal holidays, sick days, and every other reason for not being at work.

  13. Data can be more beautiful if you split those blocks in such a way that each corresponding range between the two columns aligns vertically. E.g. same top hight allows you to see the difference between 25+ on both columns if you add extra white on both sides to align them.

  14. I would guess that many of the people working in the US don’t have 25+ days of vacation to take at all.

  15. As an American I have been in each category for multiple years. This past year is the first time I had 25+ days. I can not tell you how much it means to be able to take a day and just do little things like taking care of things at home or visiting family. For Reference I have 9 legal holidays of PTO if holiday is on a weekend I get PTO I can use any day, 5 Personal Holidays of PTO, 21 days of Vacation PTO, and 16.25 days of sick leave that accumulates year to year without limit that is full pay.

  16. As an explanation for the Americans. Vacation days are vacation days and sick days are sick days and have nothing to do with vacation days.

    At least outside the USA.

    In Germany, if you get sick during your vacation, you get your vacation days back

  17. what type of jobs in the US give 25+ days of PTO? I’m curious

  18. I remember being absolutely dumbfounded when I heard folks in China got basically no annual leave (this was decades ago) but even more dumbfounded hearing that americans only got like 2 weeks mandatory or whatever the hell it is….

    Like, unless you get rich enough to never work again (which is significantly more like in america but not for my lazy ass…) then FUCK that man.

    My time off is the time worth being alive for. Doing work is just….fucking…work. Yuck.

  19. Terrible chart choice for comparisons. We’re supposed to match the same-lightness across bars, but they’re different tones!! Why not a histogram?

  20. everyday I learn something horrific about the States. 26% don’t take annual leave??? you guys should tear down your government

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