

Want to be happy? Don't live in the UK - ila
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/sep/22/happy-dont-live-uk

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byoung2
When they say the French get 36 days holiday, and the UK gets 28, is that
holidays plus vacation? In the US, the average is 8 holidays and 10 days
vacation, which seems absurdly low in comparison. Can someone clarify?

~~~
DanBC
Public holidays ("bank holidays") in England:

([http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandh...](http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_073741))

We get eight days, sometimes with an extra day for special occasions (royal
weddings, etc)

Vacation ("holiday") is 28 days, but could include public holidays.

([http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandh...](http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_184563))

> _All workers have a right to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave,_

Sometimes workers might be forced to use some of their vacation over
Christmas.

Some low paid workers will use their annual paid sick leave as informal
holiday to supplement their holidays. I worked with people who would tally off
their 12 paid days on their holiday chart. This, obviously, makes things
tricky for the employer. (That particular employer started asking people to
provide doctors' notes for any sick day on a Monday or Friday, or any over 3
days. Since that's not a legal requirement doctors would charge for the
letter. (NHS doctors are allowed to charge for some things) and so the
employer was forced to take this cost. Since, at the time, it was hard to get
to see a GP within 2 days employees would have to take time off work so they
could see a doctor to get the sick note that would cover them for the time
they had off earlier in the week. A 7 minute appointment would often be late;
so an employer would need time to get to the appointment, time to wait, and
time to get back. Since no-one knew how long they'd had to wait they would
often do a bit of shopping while they were in town.

This scheme did nothing to stop the lazy skyvers. But it did make things
frustrating for the honest.

tl:dr Cheap labour is not the only reason China is taking so many tech
companies.)

~~~
byoung2
Thanks for the reply. As an American, I'm insanely jealous. Although I've
effectively been following the European model by taking 6 weeks of vacation
per year...I take my 2 weeks paid, and then another 4 weeks unpaid.

