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Americans have long taken pride in our hard working nature. We staunchly stand by our determination to work until we collapse from exhaustion. 40? 50? 60 hour work weeks? Not unusual. Work through holidays? Expected. Vacation for longer than a 3 day weekend? Almost unheard of.
Get ready for some numbers, people:
Only 14% of Americans get a vacation of two weeks or longer every year. And even then, most don’t use their vacation time for fear of losing their job or getting laid off for being “lazy”.
127 other countries in the world have a minimum paid-leave law including:
- Australia - four weeks by law
- Europe- four and five weeks by law
- Japan - two weeks by law
- America- none…. by law.
If our sanity wasn’t enough reason to remodel our work ethic then health stats indicating a huge drop in the risk of heart attacks might (30% in men and 50% in women).
Either way, it all comes down to our desire to keep our jobs, look tough, handle the workload, and earn our keep like good Americans. People are afraid. Not only do we want to keep out of the minds of our bosses when “cutback” season is upon us, we also don’t want to come back from a vacation with 500 emails, a back log of phone calls, and the rest of the year trying to play catch up.
Just something to consider.
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October 27th, 2007 at 5:51 am
I used my two-four week vacations in small snippets. Mental health days each month were more important than a whole week or two off for me. Of course my job, in the space program, was one stressful mutha too, not to mention I was a single parent with an asthmatic child.
October 27th, 2007 at 7:46 am
After nearly two-months (maybe more) of 50-60 hr weeks… many overnights and late nights… I have two more days of normal grind.
Then, one long week of nothing to do except not look at the computer for work.
Chalk that up to not enough worker bees in the hive, I guess. But as long as I have a job… I have to be happy about it. (Evidence of your fraidy cat American worker behavior model).
Thanks for stopping by, Ms. Missive.
October 27th, 2007 at 7:51 am
I used my two-four week vacations in small snippets. Mental health days each month were more important than a whole week or two off for me. Of course my job, in the space program, was one stressful mutha too, not to mention I was a single parent with an asthmatic child.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:46 am
After nearly two-months (maybe more) of 50-60 hr weeks… many overnights and late nights… I have two more days of normal grind.
Then, one long week of nothing to do except not look at the computer for work.
Chalk that up to not enough worker bees in the hive, I guess. But as long as I have a job… I have to be happy about it. (Evidence of your fraidy cat American worker behavior model).
Thanks for stopping by, Ms. Missive.
October 28th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Hello Sniderman. I think that's a very American attitude to have, "But as long as I have a job…I have to be happy about it." I suspect this is a mantra a majority of over worked Americans say to themselves. I take pride in how hard our citizens work, but am concerned that this ideology is actually causing more national harm than good. Overworked. Mentally strained. Slower productivity because of the stress. And that may, in turn, require us to work longer hours to catch up. I think it's a vicious cycle.
Thanks for stopping by to give us a glimpse at your situation!
October 28th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Hello Sniderman. I think that’s a very American attitude to have, “But as long as I have a job…I have to be happy about it.” I suspect this is a mantra a majority of over worked Americans say to themselves. I take pride in how hard our citizens work, but am concerned that this ideology is actually causing more national harm than good. Overworked. Mentally strained. Slower productivity because of the stress. And that may, in turn, require us to work longer hours to catch up. I think it’s a vicious cycle.
Thanks for stopping by to give us a glimpse at your situation!