How to get more time off from work
If there’s one thing that most employees crave over salary increases, my bet is that it must be more time off. But how can you (or I, for that matter) get more time off from work? Can we just approach our bosses and ask them?
While honestly approaching your boss and asking him for time off might work, the folks at CareerBuilder have examined some statistics that suggest that you must take much more drastic measures to get your coveted extra time off. The results of these studies suggest that the one way you can guarantee that you will get more time off— is by leaving the United States.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an organization which, among other things, calculates the number of hours people work in industrialized countries, Americans work more than anyone else in industrialized nations. The OECD considered time off for vacation, sick time, national holidays and other days off and came up with the following statistics on how much employees around the world work each year:
It shouldn’t surprise you that seven of the ten countries on this list are part of the Group of Eight (G-8), the countries that collectively represent about 65 percent of the world economy. What is surprising is that despite being such hard workers, Australia, Spain, and the Netherlands are not part of the G-8. Also surprising to me is that Russians apparently don’t work as hard as the rest of the countries on this list, and they are a major player in the G-8.
It’s no secret that the US has the hardest working people in the world, but do we vacation as hard as we work? Apparently not. The United States is one of the only industrialized countries that does not have a government mandated minimum vacation policy. In fact, Expedia.com surveyed six countries and found that Americans also start out with fewer vacation days -- 12 on average -- than workers in any other country surveyed.
Here’s a list of the average number of vacation days workers receive in six of the industrialized countries from the list above:
Not only do we have less vacation time to start of with, but we also don’t use all of it. Expedia.com also found that only 69 percent of US workers use all of their vacation days, and that the average American worker gives back three vacation days a year amounting to a whopping $54 billion gift to their employers.
Well, at least we’re generous, right?
While honestly approaching your boss and asking him for time off might work, the folks at CareerBuilder have examined some statistics that suggest that you must take much more drastic measures to get your coveted extra time off. The results of these studies suggest that the one way you can guarantee that you will get more time off— is by leaving the United States.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an organization which, among other things, calculates the number of hours people work in industrialized countries, Americans work more than anyone else in industrialized nations. The OECD considered time off for vacation, sick time, national holidays and other days off and came up with the following statistics on how much employees around the world work each year:
- United States: 1824 hours per year = 45.6 weeks
- Australia: 1816 hours per year = 45.4 weeks
- Spain: 1799 hours per year = 45 weeks
- Japan: 1789 hours per year = 44.7 weeks
- Canada: 1751 hours per year = 43.8 weeks
- Great Britain: 1669 hours per year = 41.7 weeks
- Italy: 1585 hours per year = 39.6 weeks
- Germany: 1443 hours per year = 36.1 weeks
- France: 1441 hours per year = 36 weeks
- Netherlands: 1357 hours per year = 33.9 weeks
It shouldn’t surprise you that seven of the ten countries on this list are part of the Group of Eight (G-8), the countries that collectively represent about 65 percent of the world economy. What is surprising is that despite being such hard workers, Australia, Spain, and the Netherlands are not part of the G-8. Also surprising to me is that Russians apparently don’t work as hard as the rest of the countries on this list, and they are a major player in the G-8.
It’s no secret that the US has the hardest working people in the world, but do we vacation as hard as we work? Apparently not. The United States is one of the only industrialized countries that does not have a government mandated minimum vacation policy. In fact, Expedia.com surveyed six countries and found that Americans also start out with fewer vacation days -- 12 on average -- than workers in any other country surveyed.
Here’s a list of the average number of vacation days workers receive in six of the industrialized countries from the list above:
- France: 39 days
- Germany: 27 days
- Netherlands: 25 days
- Great Britain: 23 days
- Canada: 20 days
- United States: 12 days
Not only do we have less vacation time to start of with, but we also don’t use all of it. Expedia.com also found that only 69 percent of US workers use all of their vacation days, and that the average American worker gives back three vacation days a year amounting to a whopping $54 billion gift to their employers.
Well, at least we’re generous, right?
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