ONLY TWO WEEKS VACATION PER YEAR IN THE US???

"Jonathan" wrote in message
news:483un0lc2o3rmp3kju8enknp9h845l1v50@news...
When an American friend told me people in the US only have two weeks
of paid leave PER YEAR I could scarcely believe it. He said yeah but
we get paid public holidays.

In the UK we get 4 to 5 weeks paid leave plus public holidays .

Some companies may offer that, as I do for my employees. However, the
statutory minimum is four working weeks and the public holidays count as
part of that four weeks.

Other
countries like France get 5 to 6 weeks plus public holidays. Plus
they only work 35 hours per week yet they are one of the most
productive countries in the world.

The 35 hour week in France was political move, aimed at reducing
unemployment. Unfortunately, while it may have increased the number of
unskilled jobs, it did not magically increase the number of skilled workers
and there is a serious shortage of those. The government there is no
seriously considering making it possible to work longer hours, in much the
same way that workers can opt out of the UK's 48 hour maximum.

If this is true about the US, how can the average American live under
such a system and not lose their mind???

Life can't all be about work. It seems such a system would breed
highly neurotic and hysterical people. I wouldn't want to live like
that no matter how much they paid me.

I can remember when 50 hours a week or more and two weeks holiday was as
much as any Briton could expect. A lot of people would use those two weeks
doing a seasonal job, like hop picking, because the holidays were unpaid. It
was what people were used to and it is only by comparison with what we get
today that it seems harsh to some people. However, as a UK employer, I find
that my main problem is keeping overtime under control. My staff generally
prefer to work longer hours for the extra money. While that is useful when
there is a short-term increase in workload, productivity suffers if it goes
on for more than a couple of weeks.

Colin Bignell