Also, how long do you take a holiday/vacation for?
France - never got some since i always was in internship/short/seasonal contracts. I have huge free time in unemployment periods though, and some are ‘paid’ by social aids, around 1 week each month if i worked the previous one. The legal basis is 30 days otherwise.
Canada. 20 days PTO, 5 PEL, 11 holidays
US, unlimited vacation and PTO and the major holidays off. We’re encouraged to take off a minimum of 1wk per quarter. Definitely unique in the states. I work for an extremely large startup. Don’t know how long this vacation plan will last. lol.
Til it’s bought by a VC. 😉
Oh it’s worse than that already. We’re owned by a PE group.
US - unlimited
Unlimited paid time off? That means you are unemployed and rich?
No, my work just doesn’t like to track PTO.
That’s kind of mysterious, can you elaborate? Are you self-employed or a CEO or something like that?
I am an owner in the business and we have decided that we want to pay for outcomes instead of butts in chairs. I don’t care if everyone leaves at noon if the work is done. And I certainly don’t want to track it.
Interesting, thanks for your frankness!
but is it really unlimited? At my last job, it was “unlimited with manager’s approval”, which basically means as long as the manager approves you’re good to go, no hard limits, but in practice managers wouldn’t approve more than 2-4 weeks (10-20 work days) a year, usually.
There are some things that influence the actual time off:
- I am bonused on my hours billed, so if I’m off more that 6 weeks in a 6 month period, I won’t get my bonus.
- I work from home, so I don’t take as many days off for being sick because I’m not worried about spreading germs.
- I don’t like to make out of office plans, so I take PTO between contracts. If I have a lot of work going on, I take less time off.
No, I don’t have PTO. Guess.
USA, I usually take a day or two at a time, either when I’m sick or I have a doctor’s appointment.
I get 40 hours of PTO per year and both sick and vacation come from the same pool, sick days count as “points” though and you get 3 points in a 6 month period, exceeding that is termination.
Unpaid time off isn’t an option until you run out of PTO.USA. 4 weeks. Gotta love a good union!!!
Canada - Four weeks vacation. Five and a half years with the company.
To explain for those not in Canada… It is usual in Canada for a job to start with a low level of PTO an then add a week every few years that you stay with the company. This usually is capped at 6 weeks.
You can, of course negotiate an amount of PTO when you accept a job. Someone coming into a more senior position wouldn’t expect to start with just two weeks of PTO.
Thanks for adding context.
You usually don’t get holidays for the first year. After that you start with two weeks. It usually takes much longer to get another week and you might get 4 weeks after 10 years, 15 years in many cases.
Fortunately for me, my bosses respect me and when they couldn’t get me the pay bump I wanted they gladly hooked me up with time off instead.
US - 0
None at all, no sick, no holiday, no federal holiday, absolutely no PTO. If I don’t go in I simply don’t get paid.
Same and same.
USA, no paid time off.
But I make enough to take off a few weeks a year anyway.
US, in theory, unlimited PTO, but here’s the problem in the US…
PTO is up to your employer, and while my employer is very generous, my wife’s is not.
So I can’t really take a holiday. I’d LIKE to, I have time available to take, and places I’d like to go, but it’s not like I can tell my wife “Sucks you have to work, anyway, going to Vegas! See you next week!”
Pro top : take lots of pictures while on the vacation to Paris France. Send her the pictures. She’ll be very greatful that you thought of her on your trip. Trust me.
In the US. I get all federal holidays plus my birthday and a few extra holidays (like an extra day around new years, Thanksgiving and Christmas) plus I get 25 days of paid vacation but no sick days. In 3.5 years I’ll get the maximum of 30 days/year.
Our vacation time is tied to years of service.
1 year = one week 1-5 years = two weeks 5-10 years = three weeks 10-20 years= four weeks 20-25 years = five weeks 25+years = six weeks
Of course by “week” I mean 5 days of vacation.
Australia: 20 days PTO by law, 13 public holidays (depends on the state, but no less than 10 which are national), 10 separate days for use when sick or caring for someone who is sick. There’s more entitlements for different scenarios but this is pretty much the baseline.
UK here. I get 30 days paid leave a year, and will have 2 or 3 weeks away on vacation throughout the year and use the rest of the days for just chilling.
My employer will literally hassle me to use all the days, and is not happy if I don’t take my full entitlement.
Germany.
- 30 vacation days.
- 16 public holidays.
- Unlimited sick days.
These are all paid, all working days.
I started this year with 9 vacation days from last year, I had to take them before the end of March, so I just randomly took a couple of weeks in Feb and Mar.
I usually align my vacation days with my kids school holidays, but I take 2-3 weeks continuously in the summer, usually late August.
It’s a bit misleading to count the public holidays which are always on a Sunday. The normal maximum you can get with days that can fall on a weekday is 14 in the city of Augsburg.
And the number of sick days is not unlimited. The cause for the illness/injury must not be your fault. And then it’s limited to six continuous weeks for the same cause. It’s a bit more complex, but the gist is that it’s not unlimited.
It’s not limited to 6 weeks, you just need a doctor to tell your company you need longer (and your compensation is lowered iirc). Someone who gets run over by a lorry and has to stay in hospital for months doesn’t lose their job, like they would in the US.
Public holidays vary per Bundesland. Berlin has the fewest!
The part about not losing your job is true. The six weeks are mandated by law, it’s how long your employer has to pay your full salary. After that your health insurance will pick up the bill, paying “Krankengeld”. This is limited to 78 weeks within a three year span. Krankengeld is limited to 70% of your income before taxes.
