From what I know, I work for a very large insurance company, it's mostly healthcare department due to consequences of COVID. Which shouldn't have happened, but it id.
> This include Germany, the 'chosen child' every proponent points at in these discussions
I'm not German and I do not particularly trust Germany, in fact I think it's one of the worst Western European country to live and work.
> A few weeks off barely makes a dent
But it makes a difference, that's the point.
I was simply pointing out that paid vacation it's a tool that's very useful for companies too, as for the 70s and th 80s, I was there, it was much worse than today.
My parents worked for the national healthcare in my Country, in 12 hours shift, 5 consecutive nights. Now it's 8 hour shifts for a maximum of two consecutive nights and then you get mandatory 36 hours off and morning shifts for a week.
Try working 6 days a week for a month and then 5 days a week for a month and see how much those "only few days" make a dent in your well being.
> Surprise, that's the same culture that exists in most EU-countries. Just less hardcore.
I work 220 days/year and I'm off 145 days, it's pretty standard here if you have a standard contract, so no freelance, no contractor, no off the books, etc. (230 work days might be closer to the average, I got +10 days of holidays for thermal treatment, to cure my chronic sinusitis, yes, we have that too and the State also pays for the treatments)
Which is not exactly a "few weeks".
Could be better, but could be US style or Japan style.
p.s. the law in japan just forces employers out of work at least for a few days to counter their extreme workaholic culture, which is nothing like what we have here in Europe.
From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_b...)
Minimum mandatory paid vacation days, normalized for a five-day workweek:
Japan: 6–10 days
My Country: 23–28 days
Where is that, that you get 145 days of vacation?
It includes weekends (52 of them), sick leave (paid), thermal treatments (paid), national holidays (paid, unless on a non-working day) and vacation (24 days, paid)
I also get 8 hours of paid permits per month, but I can take at max 4 consecutive hours per day. They are valid for a year, if I haven't used them after that, they get paid and the counter resets.
all of that in Italy.