In many parts of Europe, it’s common for workers to take off weeks at a time, especially during the summer. Envious Americans say it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit.
Some 66% of U.S. workers say companies should adopt extended vacation policies, like a month off in August, in their workplaces, according to a Morning Consult survey of 1,047 U.S. adults.
Can someone from Europe explain how this works? Surely everyone isn’t off for the whole month of August. I’ve been hearing this for as long as I can remember. How do people do anything if everything is closed? Need food… sorry, the market is closed. Need to get somewhere… sorry, the trains aren’t running. Need clean water… sorry, we shut down the treatment plant for holiday.
I always hear about his August thing in Europe and it makes 0 sense. Is this some half-truth people blow up in attempts to manipulate others into getting something that doesn’t actually exist?
Well… factorys and stuff usually close down entirely for 3 weeks… but stores etc is still open… in sweden we also have alot of young people who have 10+ weeks of holiday who works a few weeks in the summer to help out, get some cash and work experience… ita highly regulated though… no shift work, no dangerous work etc… So society still runs like normal… but perhaps a bit slower…
Thanks, this makes sense. I assume the factories stockpile a bit to get through the slow month while they’re shut down.
When talking about the young people’s holiday, is that the break from school rather than a work holiday? So they have a summer job? In the US we differentiate “summer break” from school vs “vacation” or “pto… paid time off” for a break from work. Just trying to make sure I’m conceptualizing this right.
Am from Europe, I can confirm. The whole continent turns into a paleolithic society for the month of August.
I’ve always wanted an ooga booga vacation.
Well crucial services like public transport and water keep running. Some people also take off in July, or September if they don’t have kids. But life definitely slows down in the summer. Lots of smaller businesses, especially restaurants will often just be closed for a few weeks. Large grocery chains stay open of course. It all depends on the amount of manpower to be able to spread out vacation periods.
In Sweden atleast we usually get 25 vacation days and are entitled to 4 weeks in a row. So you can take a month off if your employer accepts it at the time you want it. Not everybody takes the same 4 weeks and not everyone takes 4 weeks in a row. I took 2 weeks last month and I’m saving 2 weeks for christmas.
Thanks, that makes much more sense. August might be a popular time, but if you wanted your 4 weeks in May, or break it up, that would be fine too. Do you ever take single days, or do people tend to block it for weeks at a time?
It’s very similar for me here in the US. I get 25 days as well. I don’t think there is any legal protection for taking off 4 weeks in a row, but I’ve taken the whole month of December off in the past. I knew a co-worker who went on a month long cruise, however, there is some risk. I didn’t hear anything bad about when I took my time, but I heard someone make a comment about the guy who went on the cruise to the effect of, “if you can take a month of than why do we need you?” That being said, the cruiser is still with the company and the guy who made that comment is not. I often take 2 weeks off at a time, especially if I’m going overseas (I went to Sweden in 2018 and loved it), and that has been totally fine.
I do recognize that not everyone in the US is in my position when it comes to vacation, and it took me 10 years with one company to get to that level of vacation. A lot of these articles make it sound unheard of. I think vacation policies one of the big gaps between office workers and retail, for example. I think I’d be more likely to try my hand at different career fields if things like vacation and sick time weren’t so hard to earn at some places.
You usually get 25 days and you can use them whenever or wherever you like, as long as your employer aprooves of it. People usually only use 20 of the 25 days as you can save 5 days each year. There is a limit on the amount of saved vacation days and also how long you can save them for.
With sicknes we dont get paid at all the first sick day but after that we get 80% pay, after one work week we need confirmation from a doctor if we need to stay home longer.
Same in Denmark
In Estonia we get 28 vacation days every year, and companies are free to give out additional free days. For example I get three additional health days per year. It’s compulsory to have one vacation that is at least 14 days long, and the rest can be used as you wish.
Interesting. I don’t love the idea of being told how to break up my time off, but I will say that having 2 weeks has a certain restorative effect that a few days or a week just don’t do… so I think that would be helpful for a lot of people. I used to do that every year, but haven’t done it since the pandemic… maybe that’s why I’m so stressed out and burnt out. This has given me some things to think about and some trips to plan.
In the Netherlands, people get 4 weeks mandatory paid leave (set by law), which is valid until july next year and usually 1 week ‘optional’ which is valid longer. (when working full time, 40h/week, when working 36 or 38h there will be more days leave) Schools close for 6 weeks during the summer, when it’s hottest. (august) Also there is a 3 week period in each region for building companies to be closed. This period falls within the summer holiday of the schools.
Most workers with children (and those working at building companies) take their leave during the summer, when it’s usually quiet anyway. Those without the need to go on holiday during those periods, usually stay at work and catch up with the work that was left behind by those that are on holiday. (and enjoy their holiday when it’s cheaper, outside the high season)
Employers are required to allow personnel to take at least 3 weeks off, when requested, as personnel tend to get overworked when they can’t wind down, which is not beneficial to the company as well costs the country money. (loads) On the other hand, personnel can be forced to take time off when they are overworked and have paid leave left. Mandatory leave usually expires after 18 months with no financial compensation (unless the company didn’t allow leave, which is against the rules anyway), optional leave expires after 5 years and gets paid out.
It takes planning, but apart from schools, the building industry and very small businesses, nothing closes. This is well, as nobody would want to be on leave all together, the black saturdays we have are terrible enough as they are. (started as a French phrase for the busiest saturdays on the road due to holiday traffic and spread across Europe)
Yeah it’s false, at least for The Netherlands (as that is my point of reference). Maybe you can have the whole month off if you save up your days but the majority of the working population does do some work in August.
The thing is if you try and stay on work in August (Which is totally an option, the officers are not normally actually physically closed) you end up butting up against the fact that everyone else has left, and you can’t talk to anyone. So unless your job can be done 100% by you with zero input from anybody else you can’t get any work done.
Other companies and other departments are closed, so you just end up not doing anything anyway, so you may as well be off.
Besides is the one time of the year that you can guarantee all your friends / family will be available at the same time to go on holiday together.
Italy here. Usually factories and many offices shut down for at least 2 weeks in August. Essential services obviously stay open.
Some other services may or may not decide to close, like a butcher may decide to close for a few weeks in the summer. Same for some bars/restaurants etc. Not all of them, some of them.
Also there’s a huge difference between where you are. If you live in the industrialized north, then what I described it’s more or less true, but if you live in the south, it’s all completely different. August becomes the busiest period for the tourist-centric south, with bars and restaurants working at maximum capacity, beaches and cities all full of tourists and service workers actually increase in this period.
It’s obviously not 100% all society shuts down, but if you are an American company trying to do business with Europe in August, just keep in mind that lots of stuff will be postponed to September.
Hey, no you get to pick when you take that “month off” I get 26 days leave + bank holidays. I get to pick how to spend the 26 days. Bank holidays are mandatory. So I could take more than a month off in a row if I wanted to.
Its not exatcly how it works( at least in poland ). You usualy get x amount of free days( 20 or 25 depending on how much you worked )that you can take plus free days for public reasons weddings,blood donation etc… Its just that its usualy june/july/August. Some companies opt out to just give all their employees days off on the same day since they cant really function if half of their worforce wants to go on vacation at the same time and those that need to function all the time do the nescessary magic to somehow maintain the nescessary pepole. In essence its not mandatory but rather customary and non tourist cities( or non tourist areas ) in Poland(europe) kinda die off for a month or two.