LOL conservative dogma...
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On March 11 in Switzerland, voters did something rather unusual for Europeans: they turned down two extra weeks of vacation per year. The union-backed proposal -- which would have brought the country in line with Germany's six-week paid break -- was defeated with two-thirds of the population voting no in a national referendum.
Why turn down more time off? The Swiss, it seems, feared that extending their vacations might cost jobs and hold back their economy. As people across the continent cope with painful austerity measures brought on by the debt crisis, holidays are increasingly coming under increasing scrutiny. "We can't have a common currency where some get lots of vacation time and others very little," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a barb aimed at sunbathing southern Europeans last spring.
Outside the continent, many have long believed that lengthy European holidays are part of an overindulgent cornucopia of social benefits that's bound to collapse. Last fall, the chairman of the China's sovereign wealth fund, Jin Liqun, tied Europe's economic troubles to its "the sloth-inducing, indolence-inducing labor laws." Earlier this year, Mitt Romney warned that European-style benefits would "poison the very spirit of America." And British-born Harvard historian Niall Ferguson has written that in contrast to Americans' Protestant work ethic, Europeans have an "atheist sloth ethic."
But even if Europe is guilty as charged, what's the real cost of this "sloth ethic"? Is the European insistence on an extended beach holiday -- the European Union actually requires that workers receive at least 20 days of paid leave per year -- dragging the continent into the sea? The short answer, economists say, is no. When it comes to paid time off -- whether it be vacation, family leave or sick days -- the macroeconomic effect is "actually pretty small," according to John Schmitt, a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. "It's very hard to say that those policies are connected to any kind of a reduction in economic performance."
Case in point: Greece vs. Germany. Greeks toil for an average of 2,017 hours per year -- more than any other European country -- and take two weeks of vacation per year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Germans, by contrast, work only 1,408 hours per year -- ranking them 24th out of 25 European countries. Yet Greece is an economic basket case with unemployment at over 20%, while Germany is the miracle powerhouse of Europe, humming along with only 6.8% unemployment -- the lowest since reunification.
Part of the reason for this is productivity: Germany is the eighth most productive country in the OECD (as defined by gross domestic product divided by the number of workers), while Greece is the 24th. But taking time off also doesn't make that much of difference in the overall picture. Employees usually end up paying for their time off because employers factor the cost of that lost productivity into a pay package. (That's one reason why Europeans earn less than Americans on average per year, even if the pay per hour is the same.) Then there's the growing body of research showing that time off can actually help workers get more done. A 2009 study in Harvard Business Review, for example, showed that requiring business consultants to take time off every week actually boosted their productivity.
(PHOTOS: Mic e Obama's Spanish Vacation)
In the Netherlands, they've got the work-hard-play-hard balance down to a T. "We don't have long lunches," says Ton Wilthagen, professor of social law and policy at Tilburg University, noting that the Dutch are neck and neck with their famously productive American counterparts. "We get two rolls with cheese and a glass of milk and that's it." In return for their dairy-fueled focus, the Dutch work shorter hours each day, get six-week paid vacation and are even given an 8% holiday bonus, called a vakantiebijslag, by their employers in the spring.
In the U.S., however, it's a different story. The average American worker earns 14 days off per year, but only takes 12 of them, according to a 2011 survey by Expedia. About a quarter of Americans don't have any vacation time at all. "The U.S. is the only [industrialized] country in the world that does not have statutory requirements on employers to provide paid holiday, paid parental leave or paid sick days," says Schmitt. "We are enormous outliers."
(MORE: The Secret to Memorable Vacations: Keep 'Em Short and End 'Em Sweet)
So why can't Americans take a break? Tom Geoghegan, an American labor lawyer and author of the book Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?, says it's not that Americans are work-obsessed or that Europeans are lazy. It's simply that Europeans have "laws that require them to take [holidays]," thanks to their strong trade unions. Geoghegan says American unions aren't as concerned about the issue as their European counterparts are. "I've been pushing for years this idea of a mandatory vacation, for years with the AFL-CIO," he says. "It goes nowhere. They say, Look, we've got to get sick days before we get vacations."
http://news.yahoo.com/why-europes-lo...075610981.html
I give all of my salaried employees unlimited vacation time. Since we went to it, the staff has never been happier and the job still gets done. And there isn't much additional vacation actually taken than what they were getting before the unlimited policy went into effect.
Here's one of the many stories available on the idea if you google "Unlimited Vacation Policy"
http://www.fastcompany.com/1823415/w...e-productivity
interesting.... I like this idea because, yes, my wife and I hoard. This year I didn't (had a baby in the first month of the fiscal year), but now I am stressed that I won't make it to the end of this fiscal year.
Also, I really like that magazine (fast company).
You don't pay your employees hourly?
Not the salaried ones........
Oh ok. I see.
A hypothetical Scott: Say you had a crappy worker who tried taking advantage and started no showing consistently? When would you talk to him about it, and when would "enough be enough"?
It makes sense: as we move away from manual labour to intellectual labour, the physical presence has less and less affect on actual work being done.
Our policy works with the understanding that we have no problems so long as the job gets done. If they job isn't getting done, then we have no use for that person. To date, no one has ever taken advantage. It's kind of a peer-policed system too. If one person starts to take advantage, their co-workers would say something before I would probably notice.
+1
And in some jobs that do require a physical presence sometimes... even then employees sit around and play fantasy football or waste time on SpursTalk. What is that accomplishing?
How can I be expected to be a productive employee without knowing what the VRWC is up to?
You actually make a fabulous point. That's why I'm here right now too, after all.
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193090
I put in at #24 and #78 or so. Your presence was requested at
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...&postcount=177
If I missed something, by all means improve my understanding. It wouldn't be the first time that has happened, heh.
Enjoy.
Makes sense. With 30 days in the military, I usually have to plan around inspections, big projects etc etc
I refuse to engage this forum with any degree of actual thought anymore. Sorry.
Ah well, can't say I blame you. See you at the pub.
I am glad that this worked out for you. We tried something similar and it was a bit of a disaster. Some of the partners have gotten together to discuss re-opening an Unlimited Vacation Policy.
The one problem that I have is that I have three clients that essentially need access to me 20 hours out of the day and 51 weeks out of the year. They all close down for Christmas. Even when I or someone on my team goes on vacation we never really go on vacation. Whereas other people at my firm were able to take 1-2 months worth of time off. I suppose this is more a problem with billing hours than peopel taking advantage of the system.
That's a bummer, and I definitely admit it doesn't work for all industries/companies and conflict can emerge if some people get to take 2 months off while another co-worker in the same position can only take 1 week off with both people working their butt's off but the latter's caseload being the difference.
Many more companies in the US are getting on board with the "happy employees are more productive" paradigm. I'll use the Mayo Clinic as an example since I've done a lot of contract work for them recently. They limit the workload of their staff to reasonable levels and the resulting quality of care and research has made them a world leader in healthcare. No overtime, with an emphasis on work/life balance. The vacation and benefits packages are among the best in the US as well.
It would be great if more companies got the hint and allowed their employees to live life beyond work. It most always backfires down the road.
It's good for a small group of our work force, that's it. God bless
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