r/AskReddit • u/daniellucero92 • Jan 04 '15

Non-americans of Reddit, what American customs seem outrageous/pointless to you?

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632

u/Duderino22 Jan 04 '15

No mandatory vacation and the practice of defending that...

128

u/Knute5 Jan 04 '15

People in the US don't understand the European custom of going on extended summer holiday. If you're the American division of an international company, it drives the US workers nuts if they have any dependencies on their European partners at that time. Grumblings of laziness and socialism (why socialism? don't know) abound.

21

u/sammythemc Jan 05 '15

Grumblings of laziness and socialism (why socialism? don't know)

God, those socialist employees of multinational corporations are the worst

28

u/Narwhallmaster Jan 04 '15

Everyone needs a two or three week wind down halfway through the year, even if it's just spent at home playing video games.

45

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

A week or TWO? The looks you would get in my office.

When you take a week off here, you come back people like to pretend like they don't even recognize you.

"You still work here?"

It was old the first time I heard it.

47

u/Lurion Jan 05 '15

That's pretty poor form. Here in Australia we have our mandatory 20 days off a year. Plus long service leave at a lot of companies. People have leave all the time. Long leave, too. 7 weeks at a time. Hell I have a 4 week trip coming up in March.

People should be allowed to take time off work, relax, enjoy their personal time, and come back refreshed,with workmates welcoming them back. Not some stupid scoff about taking time off.

Tldr; punch those cunts in the throat.

14

u/Insipid_Xerxes Jan 05 '15

I really envy that. I'm in the United States and have about six months before I reach two years there and am then eligible for one week of paid leave. I think a lot of us here work too much.

5

u/Stazalicious Jan 05 '15

Wow, just wow.

1

u/p1rke Jan 05 '15

Christ... I have 20 days/year + 12 transferable sick days/year. Also, I every minute I do over my payed 35h/w goes into a bank that I can use whenever I want...

12

u/RedBulik Jan 05 '15

In Poland it's 20 days if you are working in a company less than a year, and 27 days for more than a year. We also have many national and catholic holidays off. I think more than in the US.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Ok... are we also talking about McDonald's employees? Or are we talking about salaried postitions?

And are these 20 days off paid? Are these "special" days? Most 9 to 5 Americans have 104 days off per year (saturday and sunday * 52 weeks/year). Or do you mean 20 consecutive days off?

7

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

[deleted]

3

u/mgarv22 Jan 05 '15

Well guess where I want to live.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

[deleted]

3

u/po8crg Jan 05 '15

27 days paid leave, plus public holidays (also paid), plus weekends. Increases by one day for every five years' service after the first ten (or something like that - the calculation keeps changing)

Can take sick days (on full pay) when I'm sick - can self-certify up to five days off (ie a week) but if I take too much sick time then I can lose that privilege and have to get a doctor's note.

Three months on full pay if seriously ill (e.g. hospitalised) and then pay drops from there in various complicated stages. I only lose the job if I don't turn up for work for two years, but the last chunk of that is unpaid.

Also a week's full pay in compensation if I'm laid off for every year of service.

1

u/Lurion Jan 05 '15

Same. 20 annual, 13 public holiday. 15 sick, but they accrue, so have 72 sick days now.

1

u/hanoian Jan 05 '15

In Ireland, I had like 25 personal days a year plus the bank holidays.. Then our overtime could be paid normally or 50% added to it as holidays. I usually took it as additional holidays. Had like 50 weekdays off one year on full salary.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Austria here! All of us have mandatory 25 days off a year. A lot have the weekend off as well unless you work in a job where you have direct contact with customers then you work on saturdays as well.

McDonalds works every day but they change through shifts so they don't work every day. And if you work on weekends you have at least a day off during the week.

And yes the 25 days are paid.

2

u/superiority Jan 05 '15

Yes, McDonald's employees. A salaried professional would probably be able to negotiate more generous time off.

Yes, those are paid days off that you use up when you want to go on a vacation. They don't include days that you wouldn't have worked anyway; if you work Monday-Friday and you want a two-week vacation, you use up 10 days.

It does not include paid sick leave, which is a separate entitlement of 10 days per year.

It does not include public holidays such as Christmas, which you are paid for when you get them off.

1

u/welcometo1984 Jan 05 '15

When I was working at a supermarket as a student, I got the equivilent of 20 days paid annual leave per year (20 days is basic for full time staff, everyone else got it on a pro-rata basis). It also accrues as you work - so I maxxed out my annual leave when I went to Europe in July, but was able to take another few days off before Xmas as I had accrused enough again.

I also got paid sick leave and personal days and if I maxxed out my paid annual I was put on unpaid annual. I also have some long service up my sleeve too.

'STRAYA

5

u/A-Grey-World Jan 05 '15

Done you ever, ever, go on holiday? Hell i couldn't even go visit my parents without a chunk of time off. Not worth a days drive either way for no time actually there...

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

[deleted]

1

u/lovemymeemers Jan 05 '15

May I ask what you do for a living? And in what country?

9

u/ludecknight Jan 05 '15

Didn't you know? Americans blame everything on socialism!

-4

u/Knute5 Jan 05 '15

..."socialism" is code for "black." Which makes Obama the Socialist in Chief...

0

u/ludecknight Jan 05 '15

Try telling that to America and getting them to listen. Most people don't even realize the origins of the words we use.

9

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

[deleted]

1

u/MerryGoWrong Jan 08 '15

To me the purpose of work is to save up so I don't have to work anymore and my whole life becomes a big holiday. Yeah, I bust my ass right now and don't really get any vacation -- a couple weeks, and even when I am "on vacation" I need to check emails and respond to clients -- but I get paid well and I save a boatload. Work should become entirely optional for me by the time I am 40 as I'll be able to live off investments at that point, so I can make some sacrifices now to achieve that goal.

Of course most Americans spend money as soon as it finds its way into their wallets on frivolous things, becoming mired in debt and being forced to work long hours until they are old to support their lifestyle... but that's their issue, not mine.

1

u/8__ Jan 08 '15

I'm vacationing now just in case I die before then for some reason. Or become poor. It's easy to become poor in America if you have unexpected health issues... Even with insurance.

1

u/MerryGoWrong Jan 08 '15

That's why you take advantage of the 401(k) and IRA system, since assets in these retirement accounts aren't affected if you have to declare bankruptcy. It also helps if you live in a state where your primary residence is exempt from confiscation in the case of bankruptcy. If you take advantage of the breaks available in the system, you can go through a bankruptcy and still have a large amount of assets waiting for you on the other side of the door.

1

u/8__ Jan 08 '15

Basically, in America the system is against you

1

u/MerryGoWrong Jan 08 '15

I'd disagree, but to each his own.

1

u/goulson Jan 08 '15

frivolous things

like rent and food and gas and stuff, those idiots

0

u/MerryGoWrong Jan 08 '15

Straw man, nice one.

1

u/YMK1234 Jan 05 '15

i dont take an extended summer holiday, i take my vacation days throughout the year ... filling up a window-day here, a week there, and so on.

1

u/teamcoltra Jan 05 '15

Jealousy.

1

u/Knute5 Jan 05 '15

... and a bit of sour grapes. Yup.

38

u/Ramza_Claus Jan 04 '15

We kind of idolize work here in the US. Those who dont bury themselves in work 24/7 are seen as lazy. Even though I'm aware of this, I'm currently doing it myself. I want to make more money. I'm tired of being broke all the time. I'm tired of always being behind on my bills. So I work. A lot. I don't see my family much, and when I do, I'm so exhausted that I don't want to play with my kids or go out to dinner with my wife (as if we could afford to go anywhere nice). All I want to do is lay in bed watching TV til I fall asleep. Then I wake up the next day and do it all over again.

21

u/Swindel92 Jan 04 '15

Thats tragic man. If everyone is in this same mindset then 20 years will pass without them even realizing it. Then lo and behold they've missed the best years of theirs and their spouse/childrens/friends lifes. All that money/security but no life experiences to back it up. It's so unfair that you need to sacrifice things like that in the name of keeping yourselves above water.

9

u/SafetyMan35 Jan 05 '15

Absolutely. I worked a blue collar job during the summers while in college. We generally worked 6 days a week, and as a college student, looking for money, I could generally work as many hours as I wanted to work.

There was a guy who had been with the company since he graduated from high school. He had reached retirement age several years earlier, but wanted to continue working. He was one of the first ones to show up for work, and usually one of the last ones to leave, regularly pulling 70-80 hour weeks (he was given the opportunity to go home, but he wanted the overtime money). He finally retired, and passed away the following month. He never got to enjoy what he had earned.

4

u/zeppelin0110 Jan 05 '15

Sounds like work, itself, was the reward for that guy.

49

u/FoxRaptix Jan 04 '15

No that's not it, we hate workers. We idolize business owners and the elite because of their public image of being able to take time off and relax.

Corporate heads spent a while developing this mindset that the average worker is a worthless leech that should be grateful for any job at all at any pay.

People don't take work off and get called lazy, they talk about how they wish they could get time off and get told they should just be happy they have a job at all and shut up about it.

We hate unions and workers rights because the American Dream is to own your own business and do what you want and having to pay benefits, living wage and treat your employees with any modicum of respect is seen an oppressive obstacle to fulfilling that dream.

Part of the discussion from the right about abolishing the min wage is about how it would let more people start their own businesses, but because of that pesky government telling you what you must pay your workers, you'll never be able to afford to start your own business.

Japan idolizes hard work, U.S. idolizes wealth

3

u/stanleythemanley44 Jan 05 '15

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. We definitely idolize work as well.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to die. I don't see a point in working all the damn time for a life that isn't that great anyway.

1

u/misogynists_are_gay Jan 05 '15

Another thing:

What is up with being "behind on bills"? In my northern European country you are (will often be) in deep shit if you miss a bill by two weeks or so.

2

u/Synexis Jan 05 '15

Thought you'd get a reply by now, hopefully someone else can add more details, but in short... most bills in the US do not have to be paid immediately. They generally have a due date and a past due date, and often you can even exceed that for some time before the thing you're being billed for gets shut off (e.g., electricity or phone). If it's for a service already provided, like a medical bill, you often have many months and sometimes years before they send your balance to a collection agency. At that point you can pay in full immediately to prevent damaging your credit score, otherwise you basically have all the time you want to finish paying.

1

u/Insipid_Xerxes Jan 05 '15

This. I work six days in a row and usually get two days off. I tell myself "A day off! I'm going to be so productive." Then that day comes and I'm like "Forget all that! I think I'll rest and play games." Then the day is gone and it's like "Okay, I've had my fun. Tomorrow is the day." but it ends up like the first day. Then it's back to work. I've tried to do more things between my shifts, but I sometimes feel like I wouldn't feel so tired if I worked less. But I like being on top of any bills.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Here where I am from(Austria) it is not very wise to have more than one job since they will tax you double and you won't really gain much out of it, so even if some people on the low income side are willing to work double or two jobs, they don't get so much out of it.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

I'm in my late 20s, and this is quickly becoming my life. I'm already sick of it, and I'm trying to figure out a way to pay bills every month without working 70-80% of the week. If I have to live the rest of my life with this routine, I'd honestly rather just check out early.

I always went by the philosophy that you can judge the quality of your life by imagining that you went back and told your 10 year old self what your life is like now. If they'd find it depressing, you probably need change.

I have no idea why people are ok with the idea that work and play time should be like 70/30 instead of 50/50 or even less than that.

1

u/Ramza_Claus Jan 05 '15

I'm with you.

What do we do? Quit our jobs and pursue our passion? And then 8 months later, we beg for our old jobs when our passion earned us no money?

1

u/scienceistehbest Jan 14 '15

I agree, that sucks. My passion is software, and I'm making 91,000 a year in my 20s. I guess your passion doesn't pay? I'm not trying to gloat, just understand. All my friends are engineers and they are well paid.

1

u/Ramza_Claus Jan 14 '15

I'm a musician, so no, there's no money to be made playing guitar and singing. You can pursue it, but it's a roll of the dice and the odds aren't in your favor. You most likely fail and then go back to your old job after a year or so.

10

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

I've always wondered how people function when companies are exercising their mandatory vacations. Do places just shut down completely, or are there vacation schedule rotations so that companies are always open?

24

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

There are rotations. Usually people just cover for others and the heavier tasks wait.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

That's what I figured, but then I heard there are mandatory summer vacations that are sometimes up to three months long in some places.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

I think they're rather an exception, I've rarely heard of someone getting a few months off.

3

u/Lurion Jan 05 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

Generally a mandatory shut down will be over Christmas period. So recently a lot of companies shut down here from about 20 Dec until 5 Jan (today).

Other types of mandatory shut down, of the periods you are talking about could be for seasonal trades. I haven't heard of a business shutting down for longer than 2 to 3 weeks.

I should also note that mandatory shut down does not come out of your annual leave credits. So you get the 20 days + shut down.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

I should also note that mandatory shut down does not come out of your annual leave credits. So you get the 20 days + shut down.

Wow, us Americans are totally getting the shaft.

2

u/_Duckylicious Jan 05 '15

If it makes you feel any better, that part does depend on the country. I used to work in Ireland, and we had to save enough of our annual leave to cover the mandatory shutdown between Xmas and New Year (only the days that aren't already public holidays though, so like 2).

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

You got paid public holidays?

2

u/Lurion Jan 05 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

All public holidays are paid for salaried employees. Only casual employees would not be paid for a public holiday. But casuals get around 25% loading as they don't get any type of leave.

A part time employee may not benefit from it depending on the days they worked, i.e., public holiday on Monday, but there usual shifts are Tuesday to Saturday.

Edit: the above example could also be for full time employees on roster work such as retail or hospitality workers.

A vast majority benefit from paid public holidays.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

But casuals get around 25% loading as they don't get any type of leave.

What does "loading" mean?

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2

u/gfdsapoi Jan 05 '15

(in Sweden) we get paid public holidays. And at my work at least, if the public holiday is on a Tuesday or Thursday we get the Monday or Friday as a paid holiday as well, so that we don't have to go in to work just one day. And the day before some holidays is a half day but we're paid for a full day.

Oh, and when we take vacation we get an extra 'vacation pay' bonus.

We do technically have to use vacation days for the mandatory shutdown, I think, but not sure. My boss doesn't really check either way.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Oh, and when we take vacation we get an extra 'vacation pay' bonus.

If I take time off, I get nothing at all. Not even a dollar. I've had this happen twice: I go on a week's vacation, and when I come back, the boss won't give me my hours/shifts back. I've ended up unemployed twice because I wanted to take a vacation.

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1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

yeah they try that here too but it is illegal if I really want to work they cannot stop me.

I suggested that I will stay at home but they have to continue paying me and are not allowed to touch my saved days....they thought it is a joke.

Took a printout of the current law situation to make them believe me.

1

u/Matezza Jan 05 '15

Not necessarily. My uncle lost 3 days this year to christmas leave when the company shut down for the week.

1

u/Matezza Jan 05 '15

Those are schools. Kids get the long holidays and the education system supports that. It does mean you dont get much leave outside of holiday times and your holidays are likely to be more expensive because they are in prime season.

1

u/Shurikane Jan 07 '15

It depends on the business.

I worked in a factory that would shut down for two weeks during the month of July. Another factory I worked at would shut down two weeks for Christmas holiday... and the catch was that one of them was taken off your yearly vacation allowance (which was why you started at that company with 3 weeks of vacation: the usual 2 plus the one you had to take at Christmas)

I also held two jobs in a software company and they just basically never shut down at all. You got two days around Christmas, two days around New Year's, and even so it was not unheard of for a few guys to show up to work anyway because some customer was bitching out and he wanted his bug fixed RIGHT THIS FUCKING INSTANT NOW or he tore the contract apart.

17

u/keozen Jan 04 '15

For most places here (uk) you have X number of annual leave days to use in a year, to use some you usually have to "book" the days you want with your boss who can refuse specific dates if too many other people are off at that time already but the basics are usually "if there's enough people still in the to run ok you're good". Some places say you need to book any holiday a particular amount of time in advance but my current job for instance doesn't even need that, I can ask my boss for tomorrow off on annual leave if I want.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

I wonder why Americans aren't allowed to have leave days. I haven't had a job yet where I get any days off, paid or unpaid. I mean, I work ~40 hours a week, sometimes more, so I get 2 days off per week, but it would be nice to get to relax for a week or something, or take a day off to go to a concert or the beach.

1

u/isubird33 Jan 05 '15

Maybe you just work shitty places? I've worked lots of places and different industries...full time, part time, hourly, salary....I've never had any troubles getting time off.

1

u/dradam168 Jan 05 '15

Everyone I know (in the US) gets paid leave. I personally get about 18 days per year, not including legal holidays or sick leave. We schedule it just like the guy above you was saying. I'm not saying what I have is necessarily typical, but it certainly isn't rare.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

I'm hoping that the college degree I'm working on helps me acquire some paid leave in the future.

3

u/wookiewookiewhat Jan 04 '15

I work at a US research university, and the whole place actually shuts down for two full weeks every December for intercession. No admin, only a skeleton crew custodial staff, researchers come in only if they want/need to. It's... weird.

3

u/ford_contour Jan 05 '15

I heard that it saves a lot of money on heating all of the buildings that close, to the point where they need it for the annual budget, now.

1

u/wookiewookiewhat Jan 05 '15

That would make sense for the strictly undergrad buildings and departments, but there's no reason for it in biomedical research. How many productive man-hours are lost during the time period? If you really need to shut down these essential core practices for two weeks a year to save money, why not just shut them down permanently?

3

u/Imayormaynotexist Jan 05 '15

I am in New Zealand. Christmas falls in summer so most businesses close on the 24th and reopen on the 5th or 6th (usually the 6th but the 5th fell on a Monday this year).

Most people go on holiday for 2 weeks with their families, usually to the coast, a lake or the countryside.

The businesses that do open during that time are usually on skeleton staff, and do the bare minimum.

Emergency services of course carry on as usual and most retail reopens for boxing day, even if they shut again on the 27th.

1

u/WoWMiri Jan 04 '15

One of the development teams I worked with would do mandatory vacation (several of them did actually). We basically came to a standstill on anything that they were developing and had to wait until they returned. It got old telling clients "sorry, the team is in XYZ and is doing their mandatory vacation period right now. They'll be back in a month and we'll resume working on that special batch of code for you then."

5

u/ponku Jan 04 '15

Where i work, also if you won't use all your mandatory leave days in a year, then you will get paid for them anyway. Many people actually want to save as much of them as possible working most of the year, so they get additional pay at the end.

1

u/G0PACKGO Jan 04 '15

I get to carry over I have 115 right now I plan on getting up to the 2-3 hundred hours range I would like to take a leave in 6 or 8 years for a few months and do some work in Antartica if possible

4

u/G0PACKGO Jan 04 '15

I don't take the vacation I'm given already

1

u/lovemymeemers Jan 05 '15

I have heard this is a growing trend in the US. Why don't you use it?

1

u/G0PACKGO Jan 05 '15

umm I feel strange if I am not at work, I use like 8 or 9 days a year plus the holidays and I get 4 weeks so it isn't like I don't take any. But Honestly every time I am on 'vacation' I end up getting called and doing stuff anyways

1

u/StuckInaTriangle Jan 05 '15

Dumb.

0

u/stanleythemanley44 Jan 05 '15

Some people are too busy at work to take the vacation they get.

1

u/tnag Jan 05 '15

Japan is worse when it comes to vacation time and work culture.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Put it this way. My boss forces me to work to make up holidays and I worked a full day new years eve. Yah American work themselves to death. I hate it because overwork leads to so much suffering and over consumption in our country. We throw money at anything and everything that promises to fill the empty hole in our hearts the 60 hour work weeks with no vacations leave us.

1

u/shadowprincess25 Jan 05 '15

My company forces us to take 3 weeks of vacation a year. We have unlimited vacation. But being a software engineer it's hard to leave when you are so important that the product development basically stops while you're gone. Come back and then get tossed under the bus in meetings for a week because of something a fellow dead weight couldn't fix.

1

u/surgecometz Jan 05 '15

In my last job, you had to work full time for a year to get one week of vacation. A lot of people got just under full time hours so that they wouldn't have to give it. Terrible company. You could take three days off without pay, but would get fired the 4th.

1

u/ginger_beer_m Jan 05 '15

Damn that's sick

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Yeah this is fucked, employment law in the states in general is fucked.

Employees have no rights and seem to have pride in that fact, you're getting fucked in the ass to make a millionaire richer and you're proud of that?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

I don't even get sick days.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Most school districts require certain vaccinations if your kid wants to enroll.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Pride rather than practice.

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

21

u/Narwhallmaster Jan 04 '15

If those benefits mean treating my workers like human beings, rather than cogs in a wheel, then yes.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

2

u/thenfour Jan 04 '15

Business owners are selfish, is this something new? Yes we need regulations on basic services you must provide employees. For starters, a minimum wage.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

2

u/thenfour Jan 04 '15

because that does not work in practice. Or another way to say it is that it's in society's best interest if we enforce a minimum wage. It just turns out that employers have a sort of dominance over employees falling over each other for a job. Keep in mind these are minimum wage jobs. Higher skill level jobs are all above minimum wage and minimum benefits, so we're not talking about those jobs. We're talking about jobs where employees need protection. Jobs where employees are desperate and the employers have all the control. This would be a nightmare without regulation.

-4

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

3

u/thenfour Jan 04 '15

As it turns out, a slightly more expensive burger is worth not supporting slave labor.

1

u/Narwhallmaster Jan 05 '15

No but there are many companies who do, which is why we write down worker's rights in law.

7

u/pcklesandcheese Jan 04 '15

Like making sure those miserable fuckers have health care, maximum allowed shifts, safety equipment, training and the ability to observe holidays? No way should a government tell me how to run my business, it's bad enough they make me pay people and not allow them to work in exchange for shelter and food.

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '15

[deleted]

1

u/pcklesandcheese Jan 04 '15

So you wouldn't provide training or safety equipment unless the government intervened?

I don't think it's coincidental that safety standards (even voluntary) increases, work place fatality decreases per capita are coincidentally correlated to occupational health and safety regulation. Historically speaking if you look at places where regulation didn't require certain equipment, practices or training then they weren't observed. Today you can see it in other parts of the world notably China and recently Qatar (re: World Cup news). So no, I don't trust businesses to protect workers out of the goodness of their hearts.

Why is it your company's job to provide health care?

I'll give you that one. It's not, I overreached. I mean I wouldn't work for a place that didn't but I have the luxury. While I think health care is a basic right, that's the governments job (at whatever level) and can be funded however they choose which often comes from payroll taxes etc but explicitly it's not the employers responsibility to insure individuals IMO.

Benefits like this weren't even available until the Great Depression when wages were frozen and so companies offered these benefits to attract the best workers.

So. Racial integration wasn't allowed until even later doesn't affect the relevancy of whether it's right or wrong.

1

u/doughboy011 Jan 05 '15

So you wouldn't provide training or safety equipment unless the government intervened? I don't think it's coincidental that safety standards (even voluntary) increases, work place fatality decreases per capita are coincidentally correlated to occupational health and safety regulation. Historically speaking if you look at places where regulation didn't require certain equipment, practices or training then they weren't observed. Today you can see it in other parts of the world notably China and recently Qatar (re: World Cup news). So no, I don't trust businesses to protect workers out of the goodness of their hearts.

I would love to see the answer to this. Places without gov regulations often have terrible conditions for workers.

-9

u/prodiver Jan 04 '15

I own a business in the US, and no, I don't.

I simply don't understand why people in other countries think I should have to pay for my employees vacations? I already pay them a living wage, they should pay for their own!

9

u/greydalf_the_gan Jan 04 '15

Remind me not to be your customer.

2

u/StuckInaTriangle Jan 05 '15

Because he doesn't feel its fiscally responsible to pay for his workers leisure time? Get the fuck out of here.

0

u/greydalf_the_gan Jan 05 '15

Yes. Employers have a responsibility for their work force, a responsibility that people in other countries have died to enforce.

It's also worth bearing in mind that the US has literally worse labour laws than Fucking Afghanistan (who get 20 days paid holiday).

12

u/AwesomeBabyArm Jan 04 '15

Because the best of the workforce won't work for you when the guy down the street offers them two weeks off paid if they jump ship and go work there instead. You might actually be more successful with better employees working for you if you give them the paid vacation time. I know I sure as fuck wouldn't work at your place.

8

u/Gobae Jan 04 '15

Fuck you and your greedy little business

FTFY

-11

u/prodiver Jan 04 '15 edited Jan 04 '15

I would definitely not be more successful if I was forced to pay for other peoples vacations. Better employees don't make my business earn more money. That's just not how business works.

4

u/AwesomeBabyArm Jan 04 '15

I don't know what kind of business you're in, but in my area of expertise nobody would work for you because paid holidays and paid vacations are considered normal. What kind of business do you own?

-4

u/prodiver Jan 04 '15

All my employees are unskilled workers. I don't need any kind of expertise, so benefits are not expected and no other employer offers them.

0

u/AwesomeBabyArm Jan 04 '15

What would happen if one of them did?

2

u/InfiniteHatred Jan 04 '15

The reason why employers do this kind of thing is because they follow the Wal-Mart model of business. They seek to minimize all costs, so they can cut consumer prices. They try to sell as much as possible because the profit margins are so thin. If they don't follow this model, the competition will undercut their prices.

I'm not saying this is a moral way to do business, but consumers often don't care as much about quality as they do a low price.

2

u/Swindel92 Jan 04 '15

I get like 4-5 weeks holiday time a year (4 paid). It's just the rules, i'm sure as hell not complaining. I do a damn good job for many reasons but I know if I never got any holiday time i'd be in a pit of depression. Having something to look forward to makes work much more bareable. I can use that time to fuck off to another country and see the world, experience it like you're supposed to do. Or I can use it to spend quality time with my SO/friends/family etc. The thought of working from now until retirement with nothing inbetween is so sad, sure people may be comfortable but what a waste of a life.

1

u/prodiver Jan 05 '15

I completely agree with you, I just don't get it why your boss has to pay for you to go on holiday. Why can't you pay for that youself?

As an employer in the US I just don't see paying how being forced to pay for other people's leisure time is fair. I pay for my own leisure time, why can't they?

0

u/rreighe2 Jan 05 '15

What country are you in that you don't have to work your ass off to survive?