{"id":761,"date":"2011-08-24T09:35:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T07:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=761"},"modified":"2015-04-27T21:57:57","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T19:57:57","slug":"the-land-of-little-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/the-land-of-little-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"The land of little vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve lost count of<\/span> the number of people here in Germany who’ve asked me if I’ve been on vacation recently. When I tell them I’ve shown up<\/span> to work faithfully<\/span> every day in August, they give me a strange look. Going to work at the hottest time of year is just not what you’re expected to do here.<\/p>\n

In the United States, I’m sure I’d get a different reaction. People there would consider it barbaric<\/a> to work at an indoor temperature of 32 \u00b0C (90 \u00b0F), as I’m doing now, but they would not be surprised to find me at the office in the first place<\/span>. Americans simply have less vacation time than Europeans.<\/p>\n

Typically it’s two weeks’ paid vacation per year if you’re starting out in a job or profession. Over time, this rises to three weeks \u2014 time enough for just one big trip, if you wanted to take it.<\/p>\n

So how, and why, do Americans get by with<\/span> this?<\/p>\n

Idle hands are the devil’s work<\/h2>\n

Many take advantage of<\/span> long weekends<\/b>. Five of the 10 federal<\/span> holidays are always on a Monday; Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday; and people usually connect the Fourth of July to the nearest weekend.<\/p>\n

They also use their ordinary time more efficiently<\/b>. Stores are commonly open until 9 or 10 p.m. during the week and until 5 p.m. on Sundays. Take the car, load it up<\/span>, put the contents in your large refrigerator<\/span>, and you’ve saved yourself at least four more trips.<\/p>\n

There is no law that guarantees Americans paid sick days<\/b>. Since most employees will be sick for a few days each year, however, many employers plan for this. Workers are usually given a certain number of days in which they are allowed to be sick without penalty<\/span>. Unused sick days can often be taken as vacation at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Some companies also offer their employees “personal days<\/b>” \u2014 a small number of days each year in which the employees can celebrate their birthday or anniversary or any other occasion without having to go to work. In practice, the employees can choose any days they want.<\/p>\n

So with the right job, for a person in good health, things start to look more reasonable<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Hard work is its own reward<\/h2>\n

Now, it must be mentioned that Americans are very proud of what they call their Protestant work ethic<\/b>. The Puritan settlers<\/b> of the 17th century believed that hard work was the key to spiritual salvation<\/span>. Other pioneering peoples held a similar view, and the Amish<\/b> and Mennonite<\/b> communities certainly still do.<\/p>\n

This attitude has left us with sayings like \u201cHard work is its own reward<\/b>\u201d and \u201cIdle hands are the devil’s work<\/b>\u201d, along with the idolization of the self-made man<\/b>. Wholehearted service to the religion of capitalism is expected, for it makes possible the society we live in. I’ve heard many disparaging<\/span> comments from Americans about unionized<\/span> workers who, as I’m told, watch the clock<\/span> in order to take breaks<\/span> that are required by law, instead of staying to finish the job.<\/p>\n

This summer’s debate<\/b> over the debt crisis<\/a> has focused on “entitlements<\/span>” \u2014 government payments to those who don’t work or can’t work. Many Americans are convinced that they work hard while other people are slacking off<\/span>. But do Americans really work more than other people?<\/p>\n

Among the 34 industrialized nations<\/a> surveyed<\/span> by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the country<\/a> whose people work the most work hours per year is Korea<\/b>, followed by \u2014 who would have known? \u2014 Greece<\/span>. The United States<\/b> is ranked in the middle, between Italy and New Zealand. The countries that work the least are the Netherlands<\/b> and, um, Germany<\/b>.<\/p>\n

So on that note<\/span>, I think I’ll be taking some time off soon \u2014 after I’ve worked hard to write a few more columns for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve lost count of the number of people here in Germany who’ve asked me if I’ve been on vacation recently. When I tell them I’ve shown up to work faithfully every day in August, they give me a strange look. Going to work at the hottest time of year is just not what you’re expected to do here. In the … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[230,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}