Surf’s up: today we’re talking about vacation time, and how it’s different around the world
Hi again, welcome back to Plain English. I’m Jeff, JR is the producer, and you are listening to the best podcast for learning English with current events, and a speed that’s just right for learning. Today is Episode 176 of our semi-weekly program, and that means you can find all the episode resources for today online at PlainEnglish.com/176.
Coming up today: how much vacation time do people get around the world? Is your country the one with thirty statutory days off, or is it the one with zero? Your country is probably in between, but we’ll talk about the differences in paid time off around the world. In the second half of the program, you’ll discover what does it mean “to leave something on the table” and we’ll close with a quote, since it’s Monday. Sound good to you? Great.
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How vacation time differs around the world
As we hit the middle of summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere, one thing is on everyone’s mind: vacation. So I thought I would do an episode about how vacation time and vacation allowances are different around the world. The numbers I’ll give in today’s episode apply to full-time workers, so if you work hourly or something less than full time, the numbers might be different.
But before we start, let’s talk about why taking vacation from your job is good for you. Vacation time is important, not only because it’s good, we like it, but because it’s good for our productivity. Two reasons for that—you may have heard the term, “recharge your batteries.” You need to reduce the physical stress on your body and allow you mind to recover from the pressures of work. Vacation can mean different things to different people—the point isn’t to just rest, like sleep all day, but to do something that makes your body feel good. If you sit at a desk a lot, then maybe an active vacation is good for you; if you work construction, then perhaps a more relaxing vacation is in order. Whatever it is, to make the most of your vacation, you should be doing things that vary your routine, make your body feel better.
Another benefit, though, is that it makes you more creative. Now, you might be thinking, I don’t work in a creative field, I’m not a designer or anything. But many people can benefit from creativity at work. Can you improve a process? Is there a new customer or product you might want to develop? The ideas for Instagram came to Kevin Systrom when he was walking on the beach in Mexico. In fact, a survey of 1,000 small businesses in the UK found that a fifth of new business ideas came to their founders on vacation.
It’s a time where people can think deeply about a subject, not be interrupted as much, not have to face the pressure of the day to day. Getting out in nature, reading books, trying new food, meeting new people, and getting exercise are all things that can spark creativity. I can tell you that my best ideas—for Plain English and for my day job—don’t come while I’m hunched over my computer, banging away on the keyboard.
Now that we know why it’s important, let’s ask how much people generally are entitled to.
Workers in the EU are guaranteed at least 20 days of paid leave, while the UK, France, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Luxembourg all have national minimums even higher than that. We normally think of Europeans of being the vacation champions, but Brazil actually has a higher legal minimum: 30 days of annual paid leave, once you have been at a company for a year. In France, by the way, you just have to work somewhere for a month before you’re entitled to your vacation. Spain also offers a generous 30 day vacation policy, and they don’t allow companies to pay employees extra in exchange for taking less time. South Africa has a complicated vacation law, but one provision says that workers are entitled to 21 consecutive days off—so three whole weeks all at once. In Australia, you get an additional week of paid vacation if you do shift work. So nurses, police officers, and such, they all get more time off than the 9-to-5ers.
And then there are the Americans. We are the only country in the OECD group of developed countries that does not mandate paid vacation, although most full-time workers do get it. Whether we take it or not is another story. A study by the travel industry—admittedly, the travel industry has an interest in getting us out of the office—but a study by US Travel in 2018 said that just over half of American workers did not use their full vacation allotment. In fact, a total of 705 million vacation days went unused, and Americans left 212 million vacation days on the table.
Why do people do this? Some people are afraid to take it due to workplace pressure. If you’re not available, you might be passed up. You might have aggressive goals at work, and taking two weeks off could just put you, well, two weeks behind when you get back. What kind of vacation is that, if you’re just worried about your workload the whole time? The average number of days taken in 2017, the most recent year I could find, was 17, so just over three weeks a year.
What are workers doing when they’re out of the office? In too many cases, the answer is, keeping an eye on work. A survey by the career site Glassdoor found that 29 percent of employees were contacted during their vacation about a work-related matter. I’m surprised it’s that low, to be honest, at least based on my experience.
Of course different countries have their own vacation traditions. It’s becoming more and more common here in the US for companies to shut down during the week of Christmas. Norway has its “fellesferie,” a period of about two or three weeks that people take as vacation all at the same time in July. Businesses either close entirely or operate on light summer hours during those weeks. In the Netherlands, they have called “bouwvak,” when people in the building and construction industries take holidays together. And don’t even try to get anyone in France on the phone in the whole month of August!
So what kind of a vacation should you take? French-style and just head to the beach for a month? Or mini-vacations throughout the year, taking a day or two here and there? Most people recommend taking a vacation twice a year. The key is, it has to be long enough to get a real benefit, but you need to save enough days to spread throughout the year. If you have three weeks off, take two weeklong vacations and save a week for long weekends, things like that.
I’d be curious how this works for all of you—what do you think? Is it best to take vacation all at once and do something epic, or sprinkle it throughout the year? I think I’m about moderation: find two times during the year to take some extended time off, a week, maybe a bit more, but I also like to save some days in my back pocket in case I just really need an unplanned long weekend.
By the way, I activated comments on our web site, so go on there and add your thoughts about this episode. PlainEnglish.com/176. This is unrelated, but I hadn’t activated the comments feature because I kept getting this really annoying spam in the comments before. But I think I have the spam under control now, so I turned on the comments feature. So now a great way to practice a little bit would be to go on the web site, and just leave your thoughts on the episode topic. This is a good one to share how many days of vacation you get per year. I’ll even get it going—if you want to learn how many days I get at my job, go onto PlainEnglish.com/176, scroll down, and I’ll post my number of vacation days, plus my strategy for how I like to take them.
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