Are Americans all work and no play?

[David Floyd]

Today I'm working 12-9, but last week I worked around 60 hours. Gotta love the overtime

[Jon Miller]

I am salaried

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I have you beat. I get paid not to work. Not much I'll grant you but I don't have any real expenses.

I usually work much less than 10 a week

it is true that I have to do something, usually that is fairly minimal (I do know some TAs that work hard though)

Jon Miller

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
it is true that I have to do something, usually that is fairly minimal (I do know some TAs that work hard though)

I would have thought that teaching a class (or is it only my University that has them do that?) would be harder work.

[DanS]

I wonder if this will eventually become an issue at trade negotiations and that countries like those in the EU who give legal minimums will start to insist on reciprocal legislation in the rest of the world or seek trade restrictions to remain competitive if they don't get it.

I doubt it. Most non-first world countries have six day work weeks also.

[The Mad Monk]

I've been working twelve-hour-plus days, including weekends, since on of our technicians quit for another job and another on got fired for taking three hour 'lunch breaks' off-site. That leaves two of us to run the QC lab in a twenty-four hour facility.

I get ten days vacation and three floating holidays.

[The Mad Monk]

...and now, I have a splitting headache.

[DanS]

Hopefully, you're paid hourly?

[mindseye]

I take this issue seriously enough that it was one of the reasons I left the US. The constant scamper-scamper just to earn a lousy two weeks off per year left me realizing that I was literally working my life away.

And yes, I knew people who did not use their vacation hours (and subsequently lost them, i.e. no compensation) because they were "too busy" for a holiday. At the Fortune 500 corp where I worked, I was one of very, very few people who regularly took a one-hour lunch break. Many took about fifteen minutes, I think most worked while they ate.

Eating - the second most pleasurable physical experience a human can enjoy - and most of my co-workers reduced it to mashing a cold sandwich into their food hole while they continued pawing their keyboards. Pathetic.

As a sidenote, the sharply limited vacation time is one of the reasons so many Americans are so ill-traveled. Scratch off two days for flight time/jet lag, and many decide they aren't left with enough to make a trip to Europe/Asia/Oz worth the airfare.

[C0ckney]

yeah i know what you mean mindseye, i couldn't live without my half hour at lunch (the again i work on a farm and i'm fecking starving by launchtime ).

[The Mad Monk]

Yes, I am one of those odd, lucky few who are both salaried and get overtime. I am raking in beaucoup bucks.


Now, all I have to do is survive long enough to spend it.

[Provost Harrison]

I agree with Ted, it is a hard life and you have to do things you don't want to do. I am in a job where I feel unfulfilled and underutilised, underpaid yet overworked at many point...why? Because my attempts to find another job have been unsuccessful...and I can't live off nothing...

[MrFun]

Re: Re: Are Americans all work and no play?

Originally posted by rah




One job that I worked at I never used all my vacation.
The reason was that I couldn't find time to fit one in between all by "BUSINESS" trips that were really PAID vacations. 4 star hotels, golf, gourmet meals, and then sit in a conference for a few minutes or close a deal on a golf course. Don't let the rantings of America's elite fool you with their fake sob stories.

Where I work, (just had my 5th anniversary) I only get three weeks paid a year, but I also get 2 week paid for short term illness which I can take whether I'm sick or not. If I don't use it I get a 1/2 pay bonus at the end of the year. This type of thing is more common then you think, (since the last three places that I've worked had similiar policies.) So not all companies in the US are that bad. I would almost hate to see legislation passed since some companies might use it as an excuse to cut back to whatever the legislation proposed.

RAH

interesting points, RAH

BUT, my concern was not with the elite or upper class -- I am wondering how little of vacation time the middle and lower position employees of the same companies get? They might be overworked, and they don't get the four-star hotels or high-class golfing on "paid business trips."

[Sheik]

Is it that American companies undervalue their workers much more than other industrial countries?

I doubt it. It probably has to do with the administrations that have been elected and the general social norms.

[Saras]

People that work for their own businesses have it the worst. I haven't had any vacation for 2 years.