Last week’s poll asked what you do when you go camping and also asked for tips on how to keep the kids interested and avoid them hating you and camping for the rest of their lives for dragging them along. I was honestly blown away by the fact that most respondents did not enjoy camping and chose the options best associated with that. However it’s clear that most people enjoy doing more than just hanging out at the campsite so I guess we’ll have to play it by ear as The Rooster gets older and see how things go for us.
This week’s poll comes with me noting the length of my vacation and the resulting look of absolute shock and then horror that follows the statement. “You’re serious?” or “Why would you want to go on vacation for that long? I’d be bored.” Listen, Americans are utterly ridiculous when it comes to vacation compared to the rest of the world. Somehow along the way we’ve not only come to accept the measly average vacation time we’re provided but that anything longer than a few days is just wrong.
A study which I read last year, which I cannot locate now, noted that the minimal vacation length is 14 days. Not 7, not 10, not 13 but 14. If you take anything less than 14 you do not come back refreshed and you do not perform as well as those who take a full two weeks off. However, being that we’re one of two nations on this list which do not mandate vacation time, how are any American employees even supposed to get close. America has been named the no vacation nation and while some believe it’s part of the American way of life, others caution it’s a detriment to everyone involved.
Now, while some people don’t get any vacation there are those that do and refuse to take it. I worked with these people at the state. They would accrue hundreds of hours of vacation but felt they were all too important to the institution to take any time off. Being that the majority of them did nothing as it is, I never understood the mindset and was happy to hover at only the number of hours I needed for my next vacation by the time I got to the date.
So what about you? Do you not take advantage of all the vacation days you are provided (if any)? Would you be offended if someone told you that they were taking a vacation which was nearly a month long? If you don’t use all of your vacation, why? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on below and vote on the sidebar. After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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July 3rd, 2011 at 7:15 am
At my work a vacation of more than 5 days is unheard of, very rare occurrence. Even the five day vacations have changed as now the expectation is that when you’re out of the office you are still available on email and picking up voice mails. Matter of fact thinking it through, I can’t remember a vacation I’ve taken in the last 5 years, except during the holidays when no one is around, when my cell phone didn’t ring while on vacation and someone from the office was calling me about one thing or another. I’ve had three vacations have to end early when a boss or coworker called to tell me I needed to get back to the office because of some crisis or another.
Makes me not want to bother with vacations.
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:08 am
Sank’s post is one of the main reasons I refuse to work in the private sector. It’s a job, not a lifestyle. Corporations typically require you to put them first. I would never end a vacation early to go back to work because my boss said so. [and that is why I won't work in the private sector :)]
I don’t get paid vacations days to use whenever I want, but I get breaks all through the year and summers off. Not complaining.
July 3rd, 2011 at 9:34 am
I get thirteen days of paid time off per year, accrued over the course of the year. So, for me to take a three week vacation (assuming using fifteen days since weekends wouldn’t be counted) it would require me to literally take no paid time off for a year so that I could bank my time, and then wait until a little ways into the following year to when I had accrued fifteen days. Once I hit the five-year mark with my company, I’ll get another week of PTO, and then another at ten years. Some people do start at three weeks in my company, but you have to enter at a fairly high pay grade to do it. Two weeks starting out is the going standard in the private sector, from what I understand.
Honestly, it’s a huge step up from when I was doing consulting/contract work, when I got five days max per year, and some places don’t even offer that, to say nothing of scant or nonexistent other benefits. The tradeoff there being that you typically get paid a bit more. I took a two week vacation once during this period of my life, and it required a lot of planning to be able to go all that time without pay.
I work with someone who just took a week and a half to go overseas on vacation, and she literally had to work four full weekends just to be able to get all her work done so that she could do it. Granted, it was during one of our busiest times of the year on my team, so that’s part of the reason why, but I don’t think her situation is that unusual either.
I also know that one reason why some people save up their PTO is that they don’t have flexible working arrangements that let them work from home, after hours, etc., which requires them to use paid time off for things like going to the doctor, spending time with family when they’re in town, and so forth. In my case, I usually just make up the time during the week (coming in early or staying late), unless it’s an all-day type of thing.
So, yeah, I wouldn’t be offended if someone told me they were taking a three week vacation — that would be silly; more power to them. But I would certainly think it unusual, at least for the private sector.
July 3rd, 2011 at 9:56 am
I work in a small business, and for a long time, people were simply not taking long vacations because our owner really never did. I never really understod that, and I always took the vacation I earned, which is two weeks after a year. We also get comp time in lieu of overtime, so that can add up pretty quickly. Now, more of us are taking the vacaton they earned, mostly to avoid burnout, and because we’ve started taking an attitude of cross training, so one person doesn’t feel obligated to stay all of the time. I think it makes for happier employees…or at least less stressed ones.
July 3rd, 2011 at 10:18 am
Up until about 1965, most families were able to go on vacations to wherever they could afford. It was an American tradition. It still is in most of Europe. LBJ’s Great Society blunder changed all that and so much more of our way of life. Suddenly Mom’s needed to find some work and daycare, too. Older kids ran around unsupervised and our whole culture has been deterioring since. It has become all about profit and greed, me first, the heck with you. When governments combine to absorb most discretionary income for the average family, vacations that are designed to refresh and renew workers, become a luxury few can afford and society suffers. Before 1965 drugs were rarely even heard of. Divorce was far less common. I could go on and on but when good hard working and skilled people can only barely get by in the once greatest nation on earth, something needs to change.
July 3rd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I agree with Marty. My dad always made time to take a long family vacation with us at least once a year. We’d take two cars, a fold-out camper and a tent, and see America.
Nowadays, people don’t think it’s a vacation unless they pile their kids into a plane and take off for exotic beach country. I think it’s sad; I think when people travel this country at eye level, they feel invested in it. Also, if you spend your time working all year just to afford that little bit of time on a beach, you miss … well, a YEAR.
Also, I know too much about the poverty of the people working those resorts in faraway places. I could never feel good about that.
My husband is a workaholic, and rarely took time off for family vacations. I deeply regret that. I wish I’d taken a tougher stance about it.
July 3rd, 2011 at 10:04 pm
I get the equivalent of around 31-32 8hr days off per year (I work compressed but it is about 6 1/2 weeks total). That is for vacation or sick time, it’s all one pot. Luckily I don’t often have to take off work for being sick. Maybe every couple years a day or two.
Last couple years I have been taking vacation 2 weeks at a time twice a year and actually going someplace and one week to just stay home and putter around.
This year was on vacation for two weeks in Feb. In Oct will be off for three weeks to visit Europe and cruise across the Atlantic so no 1 week time off this summer. Next Feb will be two weeks in Belize.
I don’t vacation much in the mainland US. I like Mexico and the Caribbean to get the hell away from MN winter.
July 4th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Vacation is something on my mind, mostly because I was promised if I work a holiday weekend I’d get 1.5x the hours worked as time off (worked 38 hrs in 3 days.) So recently I was like, how the heck are they going to figure that out, and then how the heck am I going to get all the work I need to do done and use up all that time? Yeah, f me.
For the past 25 years, vacation wasn’t something that I valued. I’ve always had so much going on, if I took vacation time two things were happening. Stuff at work simply didn’t get done, and I had too many things at home I had to do that I spent time doing things at home. My dad was a work-a-holic, and my wife’s family was big, so neither of our families had a history of taking family vacations.
With my current job I have made an active effort to have a position where if I’m gone, the world will keep spinning. When negotiating employment they offered 2 weeks of vacation to start, I asked for 3, and got it. Last year, in a new position and with some prorating confusion I ended up loosing 2 days (they don’t allow any vacation to roll over, they want you to take it). that won’t happen again.
what am I planning for the vacation time? I don’t have any good ideas right now, but I’m working on it. Funds are tight this year, but I’m saving for some fun times yest year.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Claire, I am not sure your employer offering “comp time” for overtime is actually legal. At worst you should get 1.5 hours per hour worked over 40 like mikeh gets (and I am not sure if that is legal either but am too lazy to check right now). Even though unions are fucking stupid, they did play a part in making laws that protect us today.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:33 am
lefty,
When I worked under AFSCME it was 1.5x comp time for OT. Whether that was a stipulation in the union contract I am unsure but that’s how we were compensated.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:47 am
I just took a 3 day vacation, as a few of you know.
Background. Ms. lefty has had a pretty vigorous last few months of work. Extremely stressful, 14 hour days at times, downsizing of her work group in which she had to work through, etc. It all culminated in some major meetings last week, ending around noon on Friday.
She arrived home to a clean house, dog at the kennel and two surprise plane tickets to California as our children were both up north at friend’s cabins for the long weekend.
3 days later she can claim 3 nights of sleep in excess of 10 hours each night, a trip to the spa at the hotel we stayed at and a visit to the David Bruce winery that was simply heaven on earth, not to mention discounted wines from there for the rest of our life. We found some off the beaten path restaurants that were out of this world along with some really great “tourist” spots and had one of the better times of our time together even though our luggage was about 36 hours behind us.
Bill, I think it is great that you can find 3+ weeks to vacation, but sometimes 3 days is enough to recharge the batteries simply because I (and Ms. lefty, I think) really like our vocations almost as much as our vacations.
And on the above note, if you have not tried a Pinot Noir from the David Bruce winery, you should. They were tasting a 2001 fermented from their estate at $35 bucks a bottle that would rival any red wine I have ever tried in my life.
Lastly, artichokes are apparently in season in CA. Local farms were selling them at 12 for a dollar, and the menus in that area were totally taking advantage of that. Wonderful.
July 5th, 2011 at 10:40 am
I think it’s sick that 1. vacation time isn’t required in the US, 2. we get so little if any, and 3. people don’t use it to the fullest. I go on a 1 week vacation and a smaller 4 day vacation every single year which is nothing and people think it’s strange and that we must be rich or something (not even close). If my work would allow it I would take way more than that. I know how important it is to take that time of and away and I wouldn’t be able to stay sane without it!
July 5th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Growing up we took at least one major 2-week road trip vacation every 2 years and at least one or two week-long vacations every year. As I got older they got longer. When I was 15 we did a 3.5-week trip west. When I was 17 we upped the ante and did a month-long road trip to Alaska. Drove through the night 5 times on that trip, camped most of the way, all in an extended van with 10 kids, the youngest being 5 months old.
I put a huge value on vacation, but I tend to spread it out more than you Bill. More than 2 to 2.5 weeks can get long, though the last time I did a trip over 16 days was as a kid and being in an extended van with 10 kids gets long after 2.5 hours. My wife and I are heading out in August for 9 days, road tripping to California for a wedding. It’ll be the 3rd time since our 16-month-old twins have been born that we’ll have had 5-9 days away from them. Last summer we took them on a 16-day road trip to California and Michigan when they were 5 months old. My employer gives me 4 weeks (20 days) and I use it all. It would probably take a 40-50% raise to get me to even think about giving up any of that. Both my current and previous employers started at 3 weeks vacation, so I guess I’ve been pampered by American standards.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Joey, we went East for a few days this spring (5 or 6 days) and then we were in Vegas for a work conference for a week. Later this year we’re heading East again for a other 5 days. Pretty spread out IMO.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
How is a work conference vacation? I travel six to eight weeks per year but it ain’t no vacation but rather more work than when home.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Lefty, my wife and kid were there and when the conference was over for the day we spent time doing stuff around town.
July 5th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
That sounds like a normal day of work for me when I am home.
July 5th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I use my vacation days almost faster than I can accrue them. I’m fortunate that my recent jobs have allowed around four weeks of vacation. It’s nice to be able to take several trips per year.
Having just returned from a 12 day vacation, I’m wishing I had been able to add two more days to reap the benefits of a full two weeks off.
July 10th, 2011 at 7:02 am
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