By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - General Discussion - You're working: how many days do you get off per year?

mirgro on 25 March 2010
twesterm said:
mirgro said:

My goal when I left home wasn't "I'll mingle with people," it was just "it's early/late and I want to get to work/home." While I exchanged random words with people on the days I was in a good mood, those were very rare. The two cases I mentioned earlier were just pure coincidence. A late metro once followed by a coicidential run in/conversation, and a stop unroutine stop at a coffee stand outside the metro. In either case I wass not even remotely trying to be actively looking for people for me to know down the road.

I ever said that what I did will work for anyone else. All I said wass that there is a miniscule random chance that you will get to know any person you meet. In Europe you meet people by the thousands by simply doing your routine, not so in the US. By increasing the number of occurrances the chance of an outcome is increased. If you play to lottery and you play it thousands of times, you have a much greater probability of having a winning ticket in those thousads than if you have bought only several hundred.

Yeah, but again, that's because you're just a social person, not because of where you live.  I'm sure if you drove home every day you would find some way to go out and talk to people.

I would not say I am a type A personality, if that's what you mean. At the same time I rarely go out with the goal of meeting people in mind. I just go to work, to eat, or to entertain myself. I have had really good conversations with totally random persons and if I meet them recurrently we would get to know each other better. If I keep running into the same person on the way to work, I will probably talk to them. There is no cahance of that happening in my car. I understand there's Starbbucks, and McDonalds, and other eateries in the US as well, but they also have a drive-thru. In fact, very few working people seem to take the time to sit down and eat there at all.

I have noted how huge churches are in the US too, and even if a person doesn't believe or not so much they still go. I was wondering about that until I noticed just how social people are at churches. There are people, and this goes for Europe too since I actually know a woman like that in Barcelona, that just go to church so they can see and meet people, so they can socialize.

I think this whole thing comes from when people are just kids. In the afternoons, I will maybe pass dozesn and dozens of children playing on the streets in residential areas in Europe. Meanwhile in the US neighborhoods will have a small group of kids playing or riding a bike. The rest are dependent on their parents to take them to far away parks. Same thing with teenagers. They have serious troube getting around in the US, they can't drive and the transportation system is a pain in the ass, meanwhile in Europe they can go wherver they want and aren't restricted by their parents' ability to ferry them around in their cars.

It's no wonder why so many people think so fondly of their college days, it seems like those are the best days most people in the US see, between the imitationss they have as children/teenagers and the repetative and unsatisfying driving to/from work alone in a car, it would make sense that the time of their lives was where they are in an environment that encourages unrestrained, passive, socialization.



Around the Network
voty2000 on 25 March 2010

I'm working 60 hours a week and get no time off due to being a sub contractor. I'll get time off when the job I'm on is over. Have had no time off in 8 months and the job doesn't end for another year. Hopefully my company will have a new job lined up but if not, I'll be looking for a new job on my time off.



TheRealMafoo on 26 March 2010

There are 365 days in a year. I work 236 of them.



Kasz216 on 26 March 2010

Not only do Americans get less vacation days. More often then not they don't take them... often times you get paid BIG money if you don't.

There is a reason America is considered one of the hardest working countries in the world.

Not sure where Australia is but i'm sure you'd find this interesting.

Italy 42 days
France 37 days
Germany 35 days
Brazil 34 days
United Kingdom 28 days
Canada 26 days
Korea 25 days
Japan 25 days
U.S. 13 days

My worst has been zero days a year... and my best has been 2 weeks with additional mandatory vacations of a week or two in the summer called "Summer Shutdown." and another break the week of "Christmas"  So 20.

 

 



Kasz216 on 26 March 2010

My dad on the other hand, had enough vacation time, that with his sick days he could take off the entire months of November and December with some October thrown in.

He was just a tool maker at a Car Company.

Of course you earned extra vacation days by working on the weekends... and he was the best tool maker they had so he worked a lot of weekends.



Around the Network
Kasz216 on 26 March 2010
nordlead said:
mirgro said:

I do computer work where deadlines are a huge part of the work and maybe it's different in other types of work, bu it was very prevalent in he software engineer type. Going by ranking of best jobs in America where they factor in things such as stress, time off, and income, software engineers have been first consistently for several years. I jus felt that if the best of the US can offer is the way I see it, things don't really get any better.

Also why would I want more free time when I am old? I can go to clubs, bars,  beaches, mountains, anywhere, right now and as I get older I'll have less and less energy to do social things. Because people socialize a ton more when they are young than when they are old. Even if the goal is early retirement, it's still anti-social.

As to the broad idea of how the US is overal anti-social. In your average day, how many new people do you see between your waking and night hours that aren't tied to your work? With how many of them do you converse and exhange even just a greeting? How many new "ideas" are you exposed to in a month outside of your work? Where and idea can be as simple as "this spors team is doing really well," and "I think you are faking your ID?"

Unless you live in NYC I won't believe anything more out of you that's more than 1, unless you work at sales or some oher managing job.

I don't know if you have travevelled aroud a lot or not, but not calling the US very poor socially when you have seen how European, or even Mexican or Quebecan (?), cities work would be very strange indeed.

this is rather presumptuous. I used to meet new people every week when I used to do volunteer work. You only meet people if you choose to do so. That has nothing to do with if you are in a big city or not, or if you are clubbing or not. I could live in a big city, and I would still ignore 99.9% of the people I walk by in a month.

Now I don't as much, because I prefer to spend time with my family and new child, yet I still manage to meet new people.

Not to mention... most people I know go out after work.



Kasz216 on 26 March 2010
mirgro said:
nordlead said:
mirgro said:

I do computer work where deadlines are a huge part of the work and maybe it's different in other types of work, bu it was very prevalent in he software engineer type. Going by ranking of best jobs in America where they factor in things such as stress, time off, and income, software engineers have been first consistently for several years. I jus felt that if the best of the US can offer is the way I see it, things don't really get any better.

Also why would I want more free time when I am old? I can go to clubs, bars,  beaches, mountains, anywhere, right now and as I get older I'll have less and less energy to do social things. Because people socialize a ton more when they are young than when they are old. Even if the goal is early retirement, it's still anti-social.

As to the broad idea of how the US is overal anti-social. In your average day, how many new people do you see between your waking and night hours that aren't tied to your work? With how many of them do you converse and exhange even just a greeting? How many new "ideas" are you exposed to in a month outside of your work? Where and idea can be as simple as "this spors team is doing really well," and "I think you are faking your ID?"

Unless you live in NYC I won't believe anything more out of you that's more than 1, unless you work at sales or some oher managing job.

I don't know if you have travevelled aroud a lot or not, but not calling the US very poor socially when you have seen how European, or even Mexican or Quebecan (?), cities work would be very strange indeed.

this is rather presumptuous. I used to meet new people every week when I used to do volunteer work. You only meet people if you choose to do so. That has nothing to do with if you are in a big city or not, or if you are clubbing or not. I could live in a big city, and I would still ignore 99.9% of the people I walk by in a month.

Now I don't as much, because I prefer to spend time with my family and new child, yet I still manage to meet new people.

There. That's the crux of the problem in the US. Socializing is an "opt in" feature, not something that happes whether you like it or not. In just about all other nations, socializing is autmatic and you have to opt out of it and work really hard to avoid it. In the US you have to actively be social, otherwise you get in your car, go to work, do your job and socialize with colleagues, get in your car, go back home, work on your garden/computer/personal project/family matters/hobbies, and then sleep.

I also understand that you would ignore 99.99% of the people that ignore you on your way to work, or when you go out to eat, or wherever you have to leave your home, however that 0.01% is still a very big amount considering you run into a lot more than 100 people in your daily goings on, and, this is the very big one, because you ignore them doesn't mean they ignore you, and you end up forced to talk, yell, get angry, whatever at them.

I am sure that if you ask anyone from any country they will hate the people who piss them off, yet it has been shown that by having to deal with annoying random people, or just anoying friends, you learn how to deal with problems wen things aren't going your way. Humans are social, and even the things you hate about socializing seem to be greatly beneficial to people, there are dozens of studies that show just how social of an animal a human really is.

What... are you even talking about.  I have a Psychology degree and I have no clue.  Forcing to interact with people on the street does nothing to help you.  In fact, it can make things WORSE.

Culture differences in interaction are only helpful when they occur in places like school, work or a bar.  Places where you are going to keep seeing the same people and have to be social.

If it's a place like the street, people will just avoid certain social groups and ascribe negative tendancies to them.  The whole "advantage to mixed cultural relationships" only really works when it's built over time with people of that different culture.



fmc83 on 26 March 2010
TheRealMafoo said:
There are 365 days in a year. I work 236 of them.

As this year has 52 saturdays and sundays, you get 25 days off (national holidays included). Sounds allright, but not too good...



http://nintendo-geheimtipps.blogspot.com

fmc83 on 26 March 2010
Kasz216 said:

Not only do Americans get less vacation days. More often then not they don't take them... often times you get paid BIG money if you don't.

There is a reason America is considered one of the hardest working countries in the world.

Not sure where Australia is but i'm sure you'd find this interesting.

Italy 42 days
France 37 days
Germany 35 days
Brazil 34 days
United Kingdom 28 days
Canada 26 days
Korea 25 days
Japan 25 days
U.S. 13 days

My worst has been zero days a year... and my best has been 2 weeks with additional mandatory vacations of a week or two in the summer called "Summer Shutdown." and another break the week of "Christmas"  So 20.

 

 

That's some interesting stuff. Where did you find it?



http://nintendo-geheimtipps.blogspot.com

NJ5 on 26 March 2010
Kasz216 said:

Not only do Americans get less vacation days. More often then not they don't take them... often times you get paid BIG money if you don't.

There is a reason America is considered one of the hardest working countries in the world.

Not sure where Australia is but i'm sure you'd find this interesting.

Italy 42 days
France 37 days
Germany 35 days
Brazil 34 days
United Kingdom 28 days
Canada 26 days
Korea 25 days
Japan 25 days
U.S. 13 days

My worst has been zero days a year... and my best has been 2 weeks with additional mandatory vacations of a week or two in the summer called "Summer Shutdown." and another break the week of "Christmas"  So 20.

 

 

Those numbers seem a bit different from those on this site:

http://www.mainstreet.com/slideshow/lifestyle/countries-tons-vacation-time

First I thought it was including public holidays, but that doesn't seem the case either.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957