Whenever I went to a convention (Remember when PC’s were such a big deal they had those computer shows with a convention center full of manufacturers and distributors?) it was on the company dime. I had evenings off, but they certainly didn’t pay for a weekend and these things lasted maybe 2 or 3 weekdays. Same with trips to head office - business trip sounds like a big deal, but -even less time. the one time I got to fly the (rented) corporate jet, we were a few hours behind schedule, arrived in town about 10PM and in the riinky-dink airport we spent half an hour trying to find the car rental people after hours. We were done and flying out by 4PM the next day. almost zero extra time outside the offices.
Fun fact - we got to the hotel at 11PM and the one guy who lived there says “I know a good bar.” Off we went to a stripper club, but the (naked) girl on stage spent the next 2 minutes after we got there waggling her butt at our table before the show was over for the night. She came over to the table and said “You guys missed the show”. I replied “we caught the tail end…” I though she was going to haul off and hit me.
But to get back on topic - it’s all paid for by the company, it’s considered a business expense, no extra money or tax deduction in Canada. The only bonus was points on the credit card and airline air miles. Then about 2000 the outside accountants got involved, travel pretty much stopped except for management, and no more such conventions or training trips. (Cheaper to bring one instructor up to us). The bean counters even put in the rule that the most senior person had to sign for business meals - thus avoiding the trick of the boss bringing along an underling who paid for the meal and then the boss approved the expense claim.
but you pretty much nailed it - the USA has an uncompromising hire/fire work culture with not much time off for employees and a dependency on the company for healthcare insurance; which explains why we get that impression.
years ago the company I worked for had a golden handcuffs problem. Canada has some fairly solid pension rules, but the calculation of net present value of a pension that won’t happen for 20 or 30 years means that somewhere around 15 or 20 years in, say around age 40, you would be foolish to quit and get almost nothing in pension 25 years later versus sticking around and retiring with a much larger pension in 15 years. Followed by the opposite problem, good people retired in their mid-50’s to go double-dip with another employer. the bean counters solved both problems by discontinuing the pension plan in favour of a retirement savings plan.