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Add-on to "Time for Time Off!!" |
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This is a brief add-on to my previous blog about vacation time. In “Time for Time Off” I wrote that many European countries give generous vacation policies for their workers. I highlighted Sweden for all of its bathrobe-toting, beach-lounging, gardening CEOs that leave their boardrooms for over five weeks each year to get some well-deserved down-time. Well, I think it is time that France got a hurrah as well.
Yesterday, my very good friend gave me a ring. He is working in the marketing department of a large corporation in Paris on a short contract. While working for only 8 months at the company, he is given six weeks of vacation. Six! Even I, vacation-lover as I am, was a little flabbergasted. Here is a young fellow working on a short contract, and he cashes in more vacation than most people can hope to get in their most senior years of working.
I know, I know. Many of you are probably getting worked up and ready to write me to say that this is why the French economy is slow and the American one is a powerhouse. Even I can concede that six weeks off on an eight-month contract is a tad exaggerated. But, the fundamental fact remains the same: in Europe even the corporate world recognizes that vacation is a necessary part of being a good employer, and of getting good work back from their employees.
I’m not saying give everyone six weeks off on their first year of working. But I am saying that the fact that employers in the States are not required by law to offer any vacation at all is equally preposterous. - Astri
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