why are americans satisfied with 10 days paid vacation?

Question

I live in europe and I have good quality of life here. my most pressing question in the states always was: what am I supposed to do with TEN days of vacation? How do you guys deal with that?

sorry, I forgot to mention - the minimum by law is 18 - but most everyone gets 30 (working) days - that is six weeks. the norwegians fare even better.

there is no minimum time of employment to get this vacation. you get it from the very first day whether you are management or secretary, mcdonald flipper or nurse..... its a great system guys

Answer 1

Not everybody in America gets 10 days vacation. I get 18 days a year for vacation and 15 days sick leave plus 12 paid holidays. If I don't want to take the time I don't lose it at the end of the year, I can accumulate it and use it towards early retirement. That's the up side. The down side is that there are a lot of people in America that don't get ANY paid vacation time. It just depends on what type of job you're in.

Answer 2

Ten days is actually two weeks if you figure in the weekends. And it depends on how long you have worked for a company. With a lot of companies after five years we get fifteen days or two weeks.
But you will be surprised at the number of us Americans that never use all their vacation time and sell it back to the company at the end of the year. Or have to be made to take their vacation time if the company doesn't buy back vacation time, or lose vacation time because we didn't take it.

Answer 3

Well most companies start you with 10 days a year but if you stay at a company for any length of time, the 10 days increases to 15 and so on.

However, I think most Americans are satisfied with 10 days of vacation because taking time off is expensive. By that I mean that when you're at work, you are not spending any money (you're in fact earning money) but when you are off of work, you tend to shop more, eat out more, etc... If you throw in real vacations, you are really spending you hard earned money. Its just plain cheaper to go to work.

Besides, most people would rather be at work than visiting their cousin Jane or uncle Albert. :-)

Answer 4

huh? length of vacation varies here from company to company and depending on position. I get 2 weeks (which is 14 days) + all the holidays. Others above me get 3,4 and even more weeks per year depending on their seniority and position, so I don't know what you're talking about.
And we have the holidays, AND if you work for the government or bank or school, we have all the federal holidays. I don't think it's bad.
Oh and I forgot the sick leave time which I can use for personal time as well.

Answer 5

10 days? Isn't that old school days?
For past 8 years we at my company gets 15 days (3 weeks)a year paid...15 paid holidays, 1 week (5 days) sick days and 2 personal days.
Depressing yeah, shame we have to work for it....lol
Really all is good and worth the pride of earning.
How we deal with it? Simple, take it as it comes and wait for the next year to roll around.
Have fun!

Answer 6

They do not know any better. I live in the US but work for a UK based company. I get 20 days and currently have 8 weeks accumulated.

Answer 7

Legal minimum in Europe is only fifteen - most of us get more, but it's just part of your contract of employment - negotiate.
AND whatever you consider to be a "national holiday" even Dec 25, is at your employer's discretion. It's not guaranteed.

Answer 8

Are you implying we need more vacation days or that 10 days leaves you with idle hands? You don't make much sense.

Answer 9

Take a vacation from the minds trangressions

Answer 10

Ten days with Pay, ask for more time off, without pay if that is not enough for you . You may just get it.