Also, how long do you take a holiday/vacation for?
Canada. Union. IT. Mixed Gov/corp contract.
100% WFH (anywhere, but within the country if you’re on the gov stuff)
22 holiday-days a year. But given the 9x9 fortnight means an extra day off within the paycheque, timed around stats it means 7 weeks.
Generous supplemental medical and dental and vision plan, workday ends precisely at 4:39 and no one expects you to stay a millisecond after; but we stay to either finish or mothball a task so it’s an easier pickup. Evenings and holidays are fucking sacred and you won’t get contacted unless it’s a break-glass all-hands event.
The job is too much fucking Ansible and not enough real work, but I joined because I know the staff and it’s a really great and cohesive team. New openings only when someone retires, and with luck I could end up sailing the world on half pay for life like the guy whose seat at I took over.
Spain:
12 national holidays.
29 vacation days.
4 sick days without a doctor signed medical leave. As many as I need with a medical leave.
No, I don’t have PTO. Guess.
A new employee starts with: 1 discretionary day of their choosing 9 holidays (sometimes 10 if Xmas is on a Tuesday or Thursday) 12 days sick leave (accrues if not used) 12 days vacation leave (there are max, so people have to use it eventually) For a total of 34 or 35 days of leave
I have been working for 15 years so I get the max of 21 days of vac, making my total leave 43 (or 44) days of leave available each year.
I tend to use vacation for two or three one week vacations and then sprinkle the rest around for other needs. The few times that I have had to work overtime I can choose the overtime at 1.5 vacation leave instead of extra pay so a couple of years I got a few extra days of vacation to make up for overtime. I will get funeral leave which is a separate thing from vacation or sick leave when my father in law passes away in the next couple of months.
While I make less as a state employee than in the private sector, I don’t have obligated overtime and I have never been denied leave in the couple decades of working at the state. Plus the private sector in the state is not required to provide any paid leave at all, which is a fucking travesty.
I’m in the US
I get 3 weeks of PTO a year and 3 weeks of sick leave
UK. I get about 30 days plus bank holidays, pretty standard at my firm that people push it up to the max. Biggest perk I get is being able to work in between days off remotely, so I can be away for 3 weeks and work 5 days, so it would only cost me 10 days off. Its great for traveling.
Daughter is a teacher at a private school, she gets about 17 weeks or 85 days plus the 1 bank holiday that doesn’t fall inside school holidays. Thats after teacher training days, which are days the teachers have to be at school but the kids do not. I would kill for that allocation, but not the dealing with other peoples kids every day part.
U.S. (California)
- unlimited vacation time (my boss very much lets me use it too)
- 40 “sick” hours a year
- “ bereavement leave “ (death in family)
- 12 holidays
I will admit I am lucky for being in the US. It most likely helps that I work for one of those evil Silicon Valley tech companies.
I have 4 week of vacation per year can’t move them. Boss is pretty chill so he give us 2 extra. They are not paid vacation, but i get canada EI for those.
We also have 13 (14?) holiday These are paid by money taken from my salary each week( ± 15%) and given back twice year a in a lump sum (btw 3k-5k depending on the hours you worked) a month before our 2 week mandated vacation.
I’m also permanently on the canada EI. I just went and look it up, i could go 34 week without working (minus the 4 mandatory vacation week) and they would pay me 668$/ week, but i have to stay in canada to get that.
Switzerland, 25 days + bank holidays. + the week between 24.12 to 02.01.
UK, 25 days as standard (not including paid bank holidays) plus my employer has the option to buy/sell up to 5 days so I usually buy 5 extra. Also, if you have left over holiday days, you can carry over 5 to the next financial year.
Additionally, the standard legal of 9 months maternity leave.
Also, unlimited paid sick days providing you don’t take the piss; longer than 3 days you should ask for a note from the GP. Longer than 2 weeks you should arrange a meeting to discuss the situation and what (if any) adjustments can be made.
I will also point out that mental conditions must be treated the same as physical conditions so if you need to take a mental health day then you can.
Also my job is very flexible about working arrangements.
The standard is hybrid working, 2 out of 5 days in the office. But depending on what your job is you could be fully WFH or full-time in the office.
If you feel you can only work part-time and your manager agrees then you can.
And the contracted hours are 37.5 per week and flexible start so you must be available between the core hours of 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm, and as it’s the UK Fridays you can finish at 12. Providing you’ve logged enough hours for the week, if you want to finish early you can or take a longer lunch break to run an errand.
Oh and the cherry on top is the company tries to match annual pay rises with inflation and give a very good reason if they can’t fully match it. That’s not very common in the UK and one of the main reasons, aside from the fact that it’s a nice place to work, why I’ve stayed with them because I don’t feel pressured to move jobs to stop my pay getting eroded by inflation.
US, self employed (HVAC, family business) so if we don’t work, the business (and by extension, us) don’t make any money. That being said, we set our own schedule, so if we want to take time off, we can.
Germany
I’ve been off work for three or four years now. Long Covid is a bitch. The paperwork was monstrous but now me and my wife get paid by a combination of the state’s pension, health insurance so my wife gets paid for caring for me and my unable-to-work (can’t think of the proper name) insurance.
But usually I’d get 26 to 30 vacation days per year.
UK. 30 days plus Bank Holidays as paid leave. Also, we have a flexible working system where we can work additional hours to accrue up to five days’ leave. Longest continuous period I’ve taken off was three weeks. It’s also WFH four days a week.
When I was applying for this job I was offered - and accepted - a job at an American company which paid a few thousand more but didn’t do flexi hours or WFH. It actually felt pretty good letting them know I wouldn’t be starting and why.
Germany.
- 30 vacation days.
- 16 public holidays.
- Unlimited sick days.
These are all paid, all working days.
I started this year with 9 vacation days from last year, I had to take them before the end of March, so I just randomly took a couple of weeks in Feb and Mar.
I usually align my vacation days with my kids school holidays, but I take 2-3 weeks continuously in the summer, usually late August.
It’s a bit misleading to count the public holidays which are always on a Sunday. The normal maximum you can get with days that can fall on a weekday is 14 in the city of Augsburg.
And the number of sick days is not unlimited. The cause for the illness/injury must not be your fault. And then it’s limited to six continuous weeks for the same cause. It’s a bit more complex, but the gist is that it’s not unlimited.
It’s not limited to 6 weeks, you just need a doctor to tell your company you need longer (and your compensation is lowered iirc). Someone who gets run over by a lorry and has to stay in hospital for months doesn’t lose their job, like they would in the US.
Public holidays vary per Bundesland. Berlin has the fewest!
The part about not losing your job is true. The six weeks are mandated by law, it’s how long your employer has to pay your full salary. After that your health insurance will pick up the bill, paying “Krankengeld”. This is limited to 78 weeks within a three year span. Krankengeld is limited to 70% of your income before taxes.
USA
I currently have 80hrs of vacation and 40hrs of sick-time + a floating holiday Also the major holidays
And a winter shutdown (~one and a half weeks)
