There is much more to life than work. We all have families, friends, and a beautiful world to enjoy. We need more time off to enjoy it.

    • renrenPDX@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yeah my German friend tells me of his coworker that he hasn’t seen since early this year, out sick. Can’t be fired, and no replacement. Or take a week off and be sick the following week. It’s not without its drawbacks but significantly better than what we have here.

      Here, we tend to be afraid to take sick days.

      • Kage520@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I’ve been with the same company almost 20 years, and I’m that time have taken so little time off, I have accumulated 75 days. But I just had a child a couple years ago, and this year I took 8 days off throughout the year, since she brought home so many sicknesses. One of those required 3 days off, and I actually got a doctor’s note because it was 3 consecutive days and that’s the policy.

        It still came up in my review. I basically got a “barely passing” score with “needs to be more reliable”.

      • Damage@feddit.it
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        4 days ago

        Idk how it works in Germany, but here only the first 3 days of sick leave are paid by the employer, after that it’s the national welfare agency that pays.

        • Therobohour@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Three days? Its pretty hard to recover from a broken back in three days. Or childbirth. Or the flu for that mattet

          • Damage@feddit.it
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            24 hours ago

            You misunderstand, you take as many as you need (there’s a limit in theory but that’s… Complicated), it’s just that after 3 days you are paid by the welfare agency, not your employer. For you it’s the same, you still get your usual paycheck and your employer wires you the money, but they are reimbursed.

            It’s an answer to the frequent criticism “but if you stay in sick leave for a long time it’s damaging to your employer!”

        • NokogiriSama@piefed.social
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          4 days ago

          You get 6 weeks full pay from your employer and after that you get 70% pay from your health insurance for up to 72 weeks.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      5 days ago

      The thing is, it’s not that Americans don’t have time off, it’s that we don’t have GUARANTEED time off.

      It all depends on who you work for.

      The only guaranteed days, generally, are New Years Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Some employers, but not all, make exceptions for New Years Eve, the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas eve.

      But again, it depends on who you work for. The banking and financials industry get President’s Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. “Bank holidays”.

      In the end, nothing is guaranteed, employers are allowed to do what they want. Service industry? Fuck you, you’re working.

      Technically, today is Labor Day and I could have had it off, but I volunteered to work so I could take tomorrow off for doctor stuff.

      • Therobohour@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        “It all depends on who you work for.”

        Then it’s complete byllshit then? Any company at any time can just change it whenever they like. Man,im sorry to say it,but America is bullshit

        • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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          2 days ago

          Oh, definitely… and get this…

          My employer is very reasonable. Time off when I need it, vacation time, sabbaticals, etc.

          My WIFE’S employer, not so much.

          So if I want to take a 2 week vacation, totally do-able. My wife can’t.

          So I can pack up and go to the Bahamas for 2 weeks. But I’d be going by myself. “Bye baby! See you in 2 weeks!” She can’t so much as drive me to the airport.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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              1 day ago

              LOL @ weeks. TBH, I don’t know what she gets, and the process to apply for time off is so inscrutable, she may as well not have any at all.

      • Damage@feddit.it
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        4 days ago

        Technically, today is Labor Day and I could have had it off, but I volunteered to work so I could take tomorrow off for doctor stuff.

        So here in Italy you get 168 hours of holidays, which you have to schedule in agreement with your employer; then you also have 104 hours of leave, which you can take whenever you need to, and your employer cannot refuse them. At a previous job we also had, as a second level agreement over the national collective contracts, 10 hours of medical leave, which you could use for… doctor stuff.

        edit: you don’t HAVE to take your holidays, but most employers FORCE you to, because it’s costly for them if you don’t, they pay more taxes and may get fined

          • Therobohour@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Thats fucking heartbreaking. If I was you I’d take my last paycheck and move to anywhere in the eu,ASAP. Free Healthcare, days off and employers that aren’t complete fuckers

            • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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              3 days ago

              Most Americans have a separate bank of “Sick Time” from their normal “Vacation time” bank, if they have any at all.

            • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 days ago

              See, my current employer leaves that up to our managers. Some managers consider all sick leave PTO, some consider it “do whatever you need to do” and it’s kinda insane.