The U.S. taken another beating in the other thread re our societal and corporate attitudes re vacation/personal time off.
I feel like a bit of a fraud to join in that pity party.
I didn't get much the first year back to work but after 1 yr I earned approx 2 1/2 weeks/year and then since my 5 year anniversary, I take three 1 week long vacations and several long weekends per year. This on top of a good income and excellent working conditions. Several of my coworkers have taken 2 weeks without any hoopla for their big vacations but being a single mom I can't afford to take my kids on vacation to Europe, one a week at a time works best for us. If I talked to my manager about needing to take a month next year, they would try to make it work.
I had my babies back in the days of nurses not easy to replace and so my maternity time off was only limited to our financial planning, or lack thereof. I had some sick/PTO time plus my 6-8 weeks of SDI, if my then husband and I had planned better ie if he had a work ethic, I could have taken off as much as I wanted and there would have been a job for me. As it was I took those 6-8 weeks off without blinking.
I am sorry but don't think that the UK needs financial aid from the US,
Apparently you missed this:
I meant less-developed countries receiving aid, and other developed countries expecting the US to provide the lion's share, or even all of it, because we can better afford it.
It's good to know that some places won't approve a reasonable amount of time off, will be sure to ask about that on next job search.
I doubt they would tell you the truth about that though! They would probably mention the amount of PTO you accrue, but now how difficult it is to actually use it.
Burn out and low productivity is related to long hours of work. My workplace allows 20 days of paid vacation from 1-4 years of full time service and 6 floater days (paid time off).
Still if I could afford it, I would work only PRN and travel. Working tends to interfere with life.
It's a big ol' circle. More vacation time = spending more money on said vacation. I haven't taken a real vacation since my honeymoon, and we both knew that was a one time deal we wouldn't be repeating for a loooong time.
Maybe if everything were different, we would have more vacation time as well as more money to go along with it. ;-) One of the reasons I love working 12 hour shifts is the ability to work 6 in a row and get an entire week if I need it, so I've never really felt like I didn't get time off for the most part.
I doubt they would tell you the truth about that though! They would probably mention the amount of PTO you accrue, but now how difficult it is to actually use it.
Our vacation time sucks, but the pay is better. If I worked in the UK (and I do have a UK nursing license), I would literally take a 50% pay cut. My health care premium was only $20 a pay period, so not too expensive, although admittedly the UK take it out of their own taxes anyway. My taxes are slightly higher than they are in the UK, but not by much, not when you consider that sales tax over there is 20% (yowsers!).
You can't beat the vacation time, though...5 weeks and a paid maternity leave would be very nice. A couple of states have mandated paid maternity leave, California among them. I'm curious how it works in European countries if you have multiple babies though- if you keep having a kid right before your maternity leave is up, or only work for like 2 months and you have 4-5 kids, that's 4-5 years of not working, but still getting paid your full pay. I guess I don't understand how a company can afford that.
I am guessing that people don't take advantage of the system as to cause it to become a issue. You may be surprised how in more socialized societies, its members keep the whole group wellbeing ahead of their own. The focus on individuality that is so pervasive in the US has fractured our society and the ties that we have with each other, humanity's survival has always been tied to our capacity to unite and take care of each other.
Should I tell you about Australia's long service leave? After 10 years of service to a business we get 6 month of paid leave that can be taken at half pay for a whole year or just taken in peroids as agreed with manager. In a lot of roles this is transferable between jobs.
When building stafing profiles to staff a ward, annual leave requirements are calculated in how a manager cannot factor this in when staffing a unit I would have the union on my head.
Should I tell you about Australia's long service leave? After 10 years of service to a business we get 6 month of paid leave that can be taken at half pay for a whole year or just taken in peroids as agreed with manager. In a lot of roles this is transferable between jobs.
When building stafing profiles to staff a ward, annual leave requirements are calculated in how a manager cannot factor this in when staffing a unit I would have the union on my head.
Is it like some kind of sabbatical? You know some time off to decompress from the life of working...
Thanks it is kind of what I feel I spend my days doing replacing electrolytes after interns forget about them for 2 days!
I Believe that it is like a sabbatical, your job is there for you when you return. Alot of people use it when they have a couple of young kids at home as a way of staying at home with them for a year after your maternity leave is through (which can be 2 years total for each child adding paid and unpaid portions together). Others take it as a way of travelling for 6 months or a year and getting paid for it!
Thanks it is kind of what I feel I spend my days doing replacing electrolytes after interns forget about them for 2 days!
I Believe that it is like a sabbatical, your job is there for you when you return. Alot of people use it when they have a couple of young kids at home as a way of staying at home with them for a year after your maternity leave is through (which can be 2 years total for each child adding paid and unpaid portions together). Others take it as a way of travelling for 6 months or a year and getting paid for it!
That time off is awesome! I would take it to travel to japan and some European countries. Then come back and work to recover the spended money.
They are reducing our PTO over the next 2 years(by like 100 hours a year.) If you're over that limit, you stop accruing. They will only pay out 8 days of accrued time upon leaving. I know there are some states that say you must be paid all your accrued time but not sure about mine.
Same thing here. It's hard to use the time even if you have a ton accrued and the floor works horribly short when someone is off.
Red Kryptonite
2,212 Posts
Apparently you missed this: