Photo by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash
European out-of-offices: “I’m away camping for the summer. Email again in September”
American out-of-offices: “I have left the office for two hours to undergo kidney surgery but you can reach me on my cell anytime”
- Samuel Pollen via Twitter
Summer is here and many countries enjoy it in very different ways. Many corporations have offices in Europe and in the United States but the benefits of vacation differ quite a lot, even though they are the same company.
A study conducted by Allianz Global Assistance in 2019 showed that half of Americans would accept a job with no vacation time if they were paid more. In 2020, an article published by INC said that nearly 1 in 5 respondents said they would rather add five more vacation days to their calendar than receive a 10% pay raise.
What would you prefer: more money and work or vacation and quality time?
The European idea of summer being for play, not work, is seemingly hard for Americans to grasp. The history behind this comes from the old manufacturing sectors. As stated in this article, “During and after the industrial revolution, entire factories in northern England would decamp to the same beachside resorts. Until the 1980s Volkswagen, a German carmaker, would charter trains at the start of summer hiatus to move thousands of Italian workers from its plants in Wolfsburg, which turned into a ghost town, to their homes in Italy. One reason is that an assembly line does not function very well without a full complement of workers, so it makes sense for them to all take time off together.” A tradition/rule that stayed until this day. Europeans' way of thinking is: “I value my time with my family, partner, dog, etc., more than the profits I could make.”
Research supports the extended vacation model in which companies that encourage employees to make time for vacation tend to produce higher levels of engagement and lower rates of turnover. For instance, the average worker in France takes 30 days of paid vacation. In Austria, people take 25 but have 13 paid holidays. In America, on average, you tend to get 2-3 weeks and 10 holidays.
These European vacation policies do not come from private companies. They are laws set forth by the federal government that employers must follow. Sadly, the US is the only industrialized country that does not have a federally mandated paid time-off policy.
According to an article published by CNBC this year, the majority of Americans that do have some kind of paid time off, reported not using all of those days. About half worry they might fall behind on their work if they take time off, with close to 20% thinking it could hurt their career growth and 16% saying they fear losing their job, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
Do Americans have the work-life balance recipe all wrong, or is it our work ethic that made America the land of opportunity?
Time will tell, but it certainly seems as though change is on the horizon with working from home and unlimited paid time off becoming more acceptable.
Written by: Sandy Rivera, Recruiting Coordinator at Hunter Crown, LLC
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