Today's Room for Debate in the New York Times asks, why Americans don't have longer vacations. Interesting topic. To read the debate and join it click here.
Austria has 13 national holidays. The minimum vacation time is five weeks. As a reporter in Vienna in the 1990s I got so much vacation time (plus the national holidays plus compensation days for working Sundays) that there was no way I could have spent it all. Unfortunately for my employer the unconsumed days and weeks carried on to the next year and further to the next. When I quit my job the paper had to pay me for all the free time not taken which added up to almost three months salary. I spent it all.
Austria has 13 national holidays. The minimum vacation time is five weeks. As a reporter in Vienna in the 1990s I got so much vacation time (plus the national holidays plus compensation days for working Sundays) that there was no way I could have spent it all. Unfortunately for my employer the unconsumed days and weeks carried on to the next year and further to the next. When I quit my job the paper had to pay me for all the free time not taken which added up to almost three months salary. I spent it all.
Comments
I love my time off - two to three weeks a year. If I had five weeks plus 13 days, I'd be so organized I'd bore myself - ha. More likely, I'd find more creative projects to add to my repertoire. :) I wonder how businesses afford it?
debi
Mind you, I'm not complaining, just curious. I appreciate the European approach to vacation. Overall, my husband's colleagues and our neighbours seem more relaxed, more active and less stressed by work than we felt when we lived in California. Austria is a wonderful place to live.