cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4946559
I have to beg and plead my mom to take her vacation days or stay home when sick. I'm so glad I don't have the self-destructive American work ethic older generations seem to have.
My parents work manual labor and they rarely take time off even when sick. They’re afraid of being fired for no reason, but also anti union lol
Well when those days are also your "sick days" you tend to want to hold on to them. My manager is out sick with COVID for like the 4th or 5th time. In Summer.
My employer pooled sick days and PTO, then got mad at us if we took more than 3 days off "unapproved" per quarter. "Unapproved" time was anything without more than 24 hours notice to your supervisor.
Love to get write ups for having 4 sick days in a 3 month time period
Iv just have them add my PTO to my paycheck and burn it up. Why save it for a sick day, money is money no matter when you get it
With the union we are able to sell or purchase up to 10 days. Payments / deductions spread across the year so its not like you get a lump sum, but it's something nice to have on hand.
Americans don't believe themselves to be temporarily embarrassed millionaires. They believe themselves to be temporarily embarrassed slave owners.
Americans live in terror that they're on the cusp of losing their job and will need to become slaves in the gig economy.
How much is it a factor that America has at will employment where the employer can fire the worker for arbitrary reasons like taking all of their leave?
Oh you are sick and used all your PTO / Sick days? Looks like you're getting points for being absent. Oh 3 days? Looks like you got too many points. HR will send you your separation letter now.
also your workplace health insurance is cancelled.
Not from a left perspective. But I meant it more like, they don't even care about being millionaire, so long as they have their slave to boss around. It also has some vibes of how people always imagine going a knight or noble in the past and never a serf full of worms shitting their guts out in the barley fields.
Almost certainly public holidays are included in the uk figure at least. Legal minimum for a full time UK worker is 28 days. Few companies offer more than the minimum.
So account for the part time workers, and average probably is around 27.
A few months ago my employer put a cap on how much PTO any employee could have at three times what they could earn in a year. Tons of people got the difference paid out in cash and were pissed about it.
I have three coworkers who don't use all of their vacation days and it infuriates me. When I talk to all of them, they are all paying off car notes and other consumer debt. Two of them are in their late 30s, the other one maybe late 40s.
BUT THEY'RE PAID VACATION DAYS, I basically shout in their faces. Yet I am met with blank stares in response.
other big diff between countries is ability to bank leave rather than use it or loose it
the worst thing in aussie is boss can force you to take leave when it suits them (typically over xmas when everything is $$$ and over run with breeders).
