Just saw a blurb in the elevator (they have these little TV screens) that said in Finland employers are required to give 30 days vacation and 14 holidays. Not too shabby.
Wow. Do you mind saying what field you’re in?
Some people where I work use all 13 sick days each year, but most don’t. Partly because of the of the benefit of having sick leave on the books at retirement- but also because people may be genuinely out sick for much more than 13 days ( I’ve known people who were out for months), and if we don’t have time on the books, we don’t get paid.
I would use about 5 of my 15 sick days each year. I’d probably get a head cold which will take 2 or 3 sick days and then I’ll use a couple if my daughter gets sick. I don’t think anyone else takes their full complement either. They accrue so I think I’ve got about 80 sick days available to me if I were to really get sick.
We have a colleague who was diagnosed with cancer. He used his sick leave, then all of his vacation leave and the company put him on light ground duties and kept paying him for some time but eventially they had to stop. He then gets loss of (pilots) licence insurance funded by the company which is about $300,000, so he’s ok for quite some time.
Oh gosh, no I don’t end up ever using all my sick days (and I won an award for it). If someone is sick for more than their allotted days, we would work it out on a case by case basis – things that would be taken into account are whether the employee has a history of abusing sick time as opposed to someone who just had the bad luck to be sick often, if the illness is documented by a doctor, and if the supervisor is willing to “advance” sick days from the upcoming year. These would all be situations where an employee has used up all the sick days and comes down with the flu or something relatively minor where we are talking about “a few” days off.
For a longer illness, many (but not all) types of employees are protected by things like short term disability. This is like an insurance paid out by the state to cover loss of wages. There is also a law called the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave while their job is protected. For FMLA, the employee needs to apply for it, which includes providing documentation. This could include situations like breaking your leg. The 12 weeks doesn’t need to be all at once – let’s say for a severe injury someone could take four weeks out, and then be out one day per week for physical therapy. The “family” part is that it includes situations where the employee is a caretaker for a child or other immediate family member with the serious illness or injury.
Private company (but feeding off the taxpayers, as it’s a defense contractor)
[ul][li]Five weeks PTO (vacation + sick leave), in 0.1 hour increments (I have 23 years with the company; I think newbies start with 2 weeks PTO)[/li][li]12 holidays[/li]The kicker: the whole company shuts down between Christmas and New Year’s. It is a wonderful thing to have that week off, because everyone else is off, too, and I’m not falling behind at anything during that week. It’s much more pleasant than other vacations.[/ul]
Private security at a mall. Our Assistant Director, for reasons known only to him, re-does the schedule every week. And by re-does, I mean that on Tuesday I learn when I’ll be working the following Sunday thru Saturday. It changes every week, and could be pretty much any time day or night, any shift. All for the low low price of $8.25 an hour. It is supposed to be part time, but I end up working about 40-50 hours every week (I like the overtime pay because I’m actually making closer to what I think I’m worth).
I assure you, my resume is out.
Private company, US. A large overnight delivery company.
On paper I get 15 days of vacation per year. However, a normal month only has me working 12 or 13 days so the vacation goes a long way. Vacation can be “expanded” to cover more days if you desire.
I also get the equivalent of 12 days of sick leave per year.
So far this year I have used all of my vacation and 2 sick days. I used all of my vacation at once and was able to put together a string of 48 consecutive days off. I looked at my calendar and from Jan 1st through today (June 14th) I have worked a total of 49 days.
And yes, our vacation system is the envy of the industry.
Private company, U.S.
I don’t get any paid vacation time, but get unlimited un-paid vacation. I think last year I took something like 12 weeks off and am on pace for that same number this year.
Me too. In addition, where I work, we’re allowed to accumulate up to 24 credit hours (we don’t get OT) and use it as vacation. And it is 10 holidays a year.
I don’t get any paid time off. One of the many reasons I’m job hunting…
Here too. No sick days and I have to work all federal holidays that land on my schedule. (Worked two Christmases in a row… :mad: :mad: )
It’s a blessing AND a curse though. Getting time off is basically a matter of asking for it and/or finding someone else who wants to work for you. If you know someone who wants more hours and you set it up correctly, calling in because you don’t feel like working that night is a perfectly acceptable practice. 
Just the same as Cunctator, except we may accrue leave as much as we wish.
And just the same as Cunctator, (I hope!) we get 3 months long service leave after 10 years.
Plus, I’m also getting September 7th off this year (I think) because they are shutting down most of Sydney for the G8 conference, and Lord High Poobah Shrubya will be here. :rolleyes: (Is it G8? Something, anyway, that shuts down the streets and will make CityRail suck worse than normal.)
Since half our office drives in from the North Shore, we’ve said to heck with it.
Cheers,
G
Yes, I forgot to mention the long service leave provisions.
It’s APEC I think. Not that anyone cares. It’s a day off. And you wouldn’t want to be in the city anyway. With President Bush in town the security people will be everywhere.
I’m casual so I get no annual leave.
I just had my 27th year anniversary at work and received 212 hours of vacation and 40 hours of sick leave. Time to take a few days off.
I work in the financial sector in NYC (in a technical role), and with 7 years at my present job, I get:
5 weeks (25 days) Vacation days;
3 “Personal” days (conceptually meant to encompass “personally significant” days not on the holiday calendar, e.g., Yom Kippur, Chinese New Year, etc., though otherwise treated as equivalent to a Vacation day);
and 9 holidays for which the firm is closed for business in the US:
New Year’s Day
MLK Day
President’s Day
Good Friday
Memorial Day
Independence Day (4th of July)
Labor Day
Thanksgiving (Thursday)
Christmas Day
In addition I get 6 “occasional absence” days, AKA sick days, which are expected to be used for my own illness or in taking care of someone else’s (sick child or dependent) or in case of emergency (the boiler in my house fails one morning in the dead of winter as I’m getting ready to go to work).
Australia, federal employee:
20 days annual leave. Can accumulate up to 2 years worth (40 days) after which it must be taken (and I am currently on forced leave).
15 days personal leave (sick leave, carers leave, emergency leave etc.). Accumulates without limit, but no compensation for unused personal leave.
In my department, people use about 10 days personal leave per year on average (I use about 3 days per year).
Long service leave of 3 months after 10 years service. Accumulates without limit. Note that long service leave is taken as calendar days, so a month’s leave will be about 30 days.
11 public holidays in ACT. In addition to those posted by **Cunctator ** (post #35) there is also
Canberra Day (second or third Monday in March)
Extra holiday between Christmas/New Year
Contract worker. In my contract it’s spelled out that I get 20 days of leave every contract period, and can carry over 10 of those days for a single year, which means that I can never accrue more than 30 days of leave in a year. This is slightly better than the norm for most Japanese workers, considering I don’t have mandatory overtime like many of them do. Going overseas to visit family every couple of years eats up about 15–20 days, which is probably why the original contracts mine is based on were relatively generous with time off.
I get sick leave too, but in practice you’re only allowed to use it if you’re admitted to the hospital, have a doctor’s appointment, or get a certification of illness from a clinic. If you just stay home sick, you’re expected to use annual leave in lieu of sick leave.