A couple I run into on occasion has a taste for travel both in the US and abroad.
What makes them stand out from the crowd is that they take around 3 months vacations a year.
She wants 6 weeks summer vacation, they settled for 3.
Today they are on their way to Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic Republics.
They organized their work around their play time.
She believes that she keeps him sane, healthy and more productive.
They return from their various trips, batteries recharged and full of new ideas and perspectives.
Refreshing by American standards
As to the reasons why more of us in the USA don't take at least a couple weeks off in the summer, Ezra Klein in Why We Don't Vacation Like the French (American Prospect, July 07) offered an answer:
Research in No Vacation Nation wrote that the United States,"is the only advanced economy in the
world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation." Take notice
of that word "only." Every other advanced economy offers a government
guarantee of paid vacation to its workforce. Britain assures its
workforce of 20 days of guaranteed, compensated leave. Germany gives
24. And France gives, yes, 30.
We guarantee zero. Absolutely none. That's why one out of 10
full-time American employees, and more than six out of 10 part-time
employees, get no vacation. And even among workers with paid vacation
benefits, the average number of days enjoyed is a mere 12. In other
words, even those of us who are lucky enough to get some vacation
typically receive just over a third of what the French are guaranteed."
In sectors such as the hospitality industry, in some states employers who offer 'vacation time' to their staff have the option to pay them less than minimum wage for this 'earned benefit'.
Musician Jonathan Coulton in Summer Vacation (June 17) reminds us that the idea of Summer is to Slow Down:
can and pry apart some space for doing just that. I’m not promising to
write you a bunch of songs exactly, in fact I kind of have to keep my
goals a little fuzzier than that in order to not frighten the muse
away. I don’t know exactly where I’m going or what I’m working towards,
and I forgive myself in advance for that because that’s sort of the
point."
Should paid vacations be part of health benefits instead?
Like the outdoors, there is an inexpensive option in 2009, the US National Park Service offers 2 Fee-Free Weekends at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees on the following dates:
- July 18-19, 2009
- August 15-16, 2009
Amongst those included is the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (pictured below, from National Parks site).
Working for the Yankee Dollar on Monday Work Etiquette # 96
Previously: Can Boredom Steal the Show at Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston?