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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1pRavHD:
notcaycepollard:
sixth-light:
janeymac-ie:
pervocracy:
Question for European followers (or people in other places with good labor laws): I always hear that you guys get much more vacation leave from work than we do in the US.
But in several of the jobs I’ve had in the US, I’ve had a different issue: I had vacation days on paper, but in practice there was a ton of pressure not to actually take the time off. Supervisors would encourage me to trade the days in for cash instead, which is a good option to have financially, but it means you can earn two weeks of “vacation” a year and never have a day off.
Does this happen in Europe too, or are your vacation days real?
In Ireland and your employer will MAKE you take your annual leave. It’s literally their responsibility to ensure you take the time off. I’ve been in some tiny companies that could barely cope with it and you might be told “not until we close the deal with Chile but give me your dates for after then” or “not while John is out but when he gets back” or “max two weeks at a time”, but it’s completely unacceptable to not let your employees take time off. (Our managing director nearly cried when I took ten days off once, but no one tried to make me feel bad about it.)
It’s literally in my contract that I have to take at least two weeks of my four weeks’ total annual leave consecutively every year, and this isn’t an unusual clause in NZ. (Most people do it over the Christmas/New Year break; I’m actually trying to figure out when the hell I’m supposed to this year because I’m going to be in the field for six weeks over Christmas.)
Here - and I guess in other countries where leave is mandated - untaken leave counts as a financial obligation for the employer because they legally have to pay it out in cash if you leave the job without taking it. That makes many employers very diligent about not letting you bank it up - it’s very, very common to hear someone say they’re being required to take time off for this reason, especially in January.
I feel like we in NZ are also more encouraged/mandated to take our annual leave (PTO/vacation) as ACTUAL ANNUAL LEAVE because it’s not allocated as “PTO” the way it is in the US - sick leave is separately allocated and you’re required to have at least 5 days a year. Many employers provide significantly more via union-negotiated contracts, I think I had about 30 sick-leave days up my sleeve before my dad got cancer and I had to take a bunch of it as domestic-care.
Even though you can cash out some annual leave, I’m pretty sure the max you can cash out is one week, out of a total of five. And in general, or at least in office-based environments vs hospitality/retail, people will tend to take their leave in 2-3 week increments, not just a day here and there. Our office practically shuts down from around the 18th December to almost the end of January because everyone is on extended leave.
It is perfectly possible to go your whole life as a working person in the US and never be paid for any time off at all.
notcaycepollard:
sixth-light:
janeymac-ie:
pervocracy:
Question for European followers (or people in other places with good labor laws): I always hear that you guys get much more vacation leave from work than we do in the US.
But in several of the jobs I’ve had in the US, I’ve had a different issue: I had vacation days on paper, but in practice there was a ton of pressure not to actually take the time off. Supervisors would encourage me to trade the days in for cash instead, which is a good option to have financially, but it means you can earn two weeks of “vacation” a year and never have a day off.
Does this happen in Europe too, or are your vacation days real?
In Ireland and your employer will MAKE you take your annual leave. It’s literally their responsibility to ensure you take the time off. I’ve been in some tiny companies that could barely cope with it and you might be told “not until we close the deal with Chile but give me your dates for after then” or “not while John is out but when he gets back” or “max two weeks at a time”, but it’s completely unacceptable to not let your employees take time off. (Our managing director nearly cried when I took ten days off once, but no one tried to make me feel bad about it.)
It’s literally in my contract that I have to take at least two weeks of my four weeks’ total annual leave consecutively every year, and this isn’t an unusual clause in NZ. (Most people do it over the Christmas/New Year break; I’m actually trying to figure out when the hell I’m supposed to this year because I’m going to be in the field for six weeks over Christmas.)
Here - and I guess in other countries where leave is mandated - untaken leave counts as a financial obligation for the employer because they legally have to pay it out in cash if you leave the job without taking it. That makes many employers very diligent about not letting you bank it up - it’s very, very common to hear someone say they’re being required to take time off for this reason, especially in January.
I feel like we in NZ are also more encouraged/mandated to take our annual leave (PTO/vacation) as ACTUAL ANNUAL LEAVE because it’s not allocated as “PTO” the way it is in the US - sick leave is separately allocated and you’re required to have at least 5 days a year. Many employers provide significantly more via union-negotiated contracts, I think I had about 30 sick-leave days up my sleeve before my dad got cancer and I had to take a bunch of it as domestic-care.
Even though you can cash out some annual leave, I’m pretty sure the max you can cash out is one week, out of a total of five. And in general, or at least in office-based environments vs hospitality/retail, people will tend to take their leave in 2-3 week increments, not just a day here and there. Our office practically shuts down from around the 18th December to almost the end of January because everyone is on extended leave.
It is perfectly possible to go your whole life as a working person in the US and never be paid for any time off at all.
