Small percentage or no, it's still the model for the producer/consumer in the information age.

But one question: how does this fit with the medieval-superstition ethos being pedaled by the latte-sipping hypocrites who run things these days.

"What's up with the rest of us?"

#1: Too broke to go anywhere. Remember that flat median wage you mention every so often?

In Germany, they call it going to Balconia.

A lot of workers can't go on vacation because they don't have any vacation time, or if they take the vacation time they allegedly have, they'll get fired.

When my wife had a pink-collar pod-farm job in insurance, they were all told that while they had one week after one year, which they shouldn't take if they didn't want to have to defend it at annual review time, and two weeks after three years, no more than one week of which was to be actually taken.

The bosses were perfectly willing to pay the comp, they just didn't want anyone where they couldn't be bossed.

wow that quote is really misleading/poorly worded--"40 percent of consumers had no plans to take a vacation over the next six months — the lowest percentage recorded by the group in 28 years." If that's the lowest percentae ever to have *no plans* for a vacation, it sounds like more people than ever are planning to take a vacation. That would be the opposite of what the rest of the piece implies.

Quaker's right, it's the money. Or lack of it. The only person I know who vacations for a full two weeks every year spends that time with his in-laws at their gulf coast home.

Is it really that hard to understand that the middle class is getting squeezed pretty badly and a 2-week getaway is expensive? Even people who make a decent living have to make the choice between paying down their debt or saving more money for the vacation, or getting that expensive dental work done, or getting all three and going into more debt.

What percentage of the american workforce even gets vacation?

I've never held a job that received vacation.

I know my spouse does, but she doesn't 'plan' her vacations so much ahead of time, but she's a workaholic.

FWIW, the linked article says 25% of the workforce doesn't receive any vacation time.

My guess is that money is a definite factor. Even if you earn a decent salary, uncertainty probably hits vacation plans hard. It's the kind of big ticket item that seems pretty frivolous if you're worried about your job.

Of course, Americans have always been vacation misers, so this is only part of the answer.

PS, that American Pie ice cream tastes terrible.

Speaking for myself, I can't take any prolonged time off (say more than 4 consecutive days) because there's no-one to really fill in for me. The more time I take off, the more work piles up in my absence & is waiting for me once I get back. And I'm just a lowly 40k/per/yr salary man.

Even though I get five weeks paid vacation (& unlimited sick days), I mostly snatch a few days here & there, usually taking a day or two either side of a long weekend (I get all stat holidays as well).

I took my first extended vacation in twelve years just this year when my daughter came to visit -- a week &1/2 off & 2 weeks paying for it in built-up workload.

A two-week vacation isn't even thinkable in my position. Oh, & Kevin, yes, there are other things I prefer spending my salary on - rent, food, bills & maybe even a night once every 2-3 months.

I just started an entry-level consulting job after finishing college. I get five days of paid vacation this year not counting the eight standard holidays. The most vacation a person can accrue is 21 days - after ten years on the job.

This is nuts!

It's one of many emerging realities of post-labor America. When you perceive your job security as subject entirely to the boss man's whim, and you are easily replaced, then you are not going to do anything the bossman might not approve of, such as asserting your right to a balanced life.

It's also the time. If you've only got two weeks of vacation/paid leave a year, you'd better save some of those days to wait around for the plumber, for a parent-teacher meeting, or other stuff of that nature. So that leaves you with a week's actual vacation, probably.

With all my experience in the service industried (grew up in a tourist town) and as a temp worker in the city...

...Every time I see the numbers that say that a minority don't get vacation or health care it just doesn't jive with what I see on the street.

I know that unemployment figures currently dn't include:
• Seasonal workers
• unemployed over 18 months
• under employed
• working two jobs
• temp workers

So this makes me think that 'getting vacation' includes those who have vacation time that will never vest - those in the service industry who get a job 'if you work here three years you'll get vacation' but very few people (out of the workforce at any store) actually work that long; some short season happens, and they're laid off, get a better offer from another store, or something happens (kid, school conflict, bad manager) and they're not working there.

I dunno, it just seems fantastic that three out of four people actually get vacation days.

I wonder what thir numbers are vs the whole population? Who aren't they counting?

Btw, it'd be interesting to see the percentage of that 43% that might cite "fear of travel" (due to the terrorist threat) as a cause for not vacationing.

I'm not that nervous about flying anywhere within my own country (Canada), but I'd think twice about flying overseas or even into the US. I should imagine that fear-factor is ratched up even more in the US.

America is boring. I went to San Francisco a couple weeks ago for a conference and, except for the hills, downtown SF could've been Chicago or NYC. And this is one of the country's most interesting, unique cities! On the way from the airport, we passed seemingly every chain imaginable in the Daly City/South SF area, which, not coincidentally, is exactly what I see when I drive to Milwaukee or Chicago or the Twin Cities. Corporate America has made it very easy (though perhaps prohibitively expensive for many) to take a vacation that is briefly viscerally stimulating (e.g., Disney World), but it's becoming harder and harder to find really interesting things to experience without, well, doing a lot of work beforehand. When I travel, I want to experience what other places are like -- more and more, they're just like where I live.

#1: Too broke to go anywhere.

#2: The boss can always find someone who never takes a vacation to replace you on a permanent basis.

A minimum of two weeks' paid leave should be a right under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

I've been saying since about 1997 that time issues in the workplace are a natural Democratic issue. Ten days' paid leave and five days' paid sick leave should be a legal minimum, with no workplace repercussions for taking those days.

Mandatory time and a half for overtime for everybody earning

Where do you go for vacation if you live a mile from Del Mar?

> Where do you go for vacation if you live
> a mile from Del Mar?

Well, as I recall he goes to Cerro Gordo, Illinois. GoogleMap it for fun. And he didn't even go to the Montecello Railway Museum!

Cranky

It would be almost impossible to go on two weeks vacation for two reasons: not enough vacation time and not enough money. Vacations are expensive and most people do not accumulate 80 hours of vacation time beause of using it for shorter times off. Most employers frown on employees taking more than one week off these days, also.

The last time I took a full week off was spent in S. California, it took six months to pay that bill. Vacations are for rich people, who can afford the transportation and lodging costs. Most people in the US cannot afford to spend more daily than they earn on leisure.

"What's up with the rest of us?"

#2: Speaking only for myself, "vacation" only means I have to make up the missed days when I return. The statistical "increase in productivity" just means fewer people doing more work with no one to cover for them when they're away.

Hey Aaaron, why not go visit a National Park or something. Or do a driving tour of the Cascades or New England or the Southwest. There's a lot of very things to see in the US, but most aren't in cities.

Or even better, put on a backpack and leave the pavement behind.

Right. See the wide-open spaces. That is what really makes America unique in the world. The West especially--west of the 100th Meridian.

That one week vacation I took was ruined after the first day back at work and there was five extra days work to catch up on. The stress of the first week back negated the leisure of the week off, as a matter of fact, the net was more stress. I think many people make that calculation and forgo long traveling vacations.

Perhaps people don't have the disposable income to take the middle class vacation.

Kevin: Not much excuse for leaving out the idea that employers are working us harder and don't want to let us take as much time off. It's part of that war on the middle class. Please let your critical judgment come back from its vacation.

What's up with the rest of us?

Better ask simply "What's up?"

1. More employees with no paid vacation time (e.g., part-time/hourly or contractor).
2. Lower consumer confidence in lower income brackets (such as 1).
3. Higher prices for gasoline, which is especially hard on those in lower income brackets (such as 1).
4. Management's continuing hesitantancy to add new encumbered positions, thus demanding more from existing employees to meet targets.
5. The willingness of employees to put up with additional demands, for fear of job loss or loss of career advancement.
6. < rant> The decline of good management</rant> , which seems to be exacerbated by (4) and (5).

Maybe people make their vacation plans in a shorter time frame than in the past. If more people are taking more spontaneous trips to take advantage of airfare specials, then this could account for this result. They might not have plans for a vacation in the next 6 months, but they might take one anyway when the opportunity presents itself.

A timely thread. Just got back from two weeks of vacation at the beach, mostly unsullied by work. Suh-weet.

Took the cell phone and laptop (combined the drive to the beach with work for multi-tasking) but let the cell phone battery die and didn't bring the charger, and didn't check email until Tuesday of second week. Afterwards, I was sorry I did. Oh, and I drank a *lot* of alcohol. Drinking at the beach isn't drinking, it's hydrating.

Way too expensive.

This is mainly because of "value pricing" in which everyone in the business understands exactly how much your trip to Disneyland costs, and prices their vacation alternative to match on the theory that Disneyland demonstrates you will spend $2000 on your 3 day trip, therefore they must be worth $2000 as well.

Last year in the sh*thole I was forced by bigotted laws against father to move to, the Waterworld season pass was $59, which meant you needed to go 4 times to make it worth your trouble. This year that season pass is worth $139, meaning that you need to visit 8 weeks out of your summer.

Presumably there will be almost no one buying the season tickets, but those that do are now locked out by price to visiting anywhere else.

I used to be able to get safe, but crappy motel rooms for $40 per night. I took my kids to Flagstaff two weeks ago, and there was nothing under $70 per night, and that was for a Howard Johnson's with no pool but a 24x7 train whistle.

These days the cost per day of a trip precludes a 14 day trip, unless that is a trip to the poorhouse.

Many of the workers that share my building dont go anywhere on their vacations. They stay at home and relax. The environment where I work is not as stressful or busy as most American offices, but the relentless stimulation of 21st century life makes all of us shell shocked. There is probably a money issue as well, but the people Im thinking of are not too stretched.

There is also the time devoted to family obligations. One worker devotes two of his vacation weeks to taking care of his retired mom out of state. In an earlier generation he might not have a living parent at his age. When my parents were my age, three of my four grandparents were deceased. All four grandparents of my kids are with us.

Jerry brings up an important point: the disappearance of the cheap hotel room. Somehow, despite all the publicity about our low inflation rate, the simple Econolodge room has lost the Econo. $70/night would be a big bargain in the NorthEAST!

Sure, there are many reasons why Americans don't take proper vacations, but I wonder about the proportion of union members who take full vacation time versus non-union workforce. I can't believe that the reluctance to take vacations doesn't reflect real concerns about job security. Europe tends to have much higher rates of union membership and laws that actually protect workers against arbitrary dismissal. Could that possibly explain why they take vacations and we don't?

Is it really true that workers can't get away from their jobs these days?

Speaking as someone who was once let go from a job for going to her grandmother's funeral -- with prior permission, mind you -- uh, yeah, it's hard to get away from your job knowing you can be replaced.

I was able to take three weeks off from my current job, but that was to recover from surgery after a job-related accident, so legally they couldn't let me go. They sure made my life hell for a few weeks after I got back, though.

1. More service jobs => no vacation accrual; lost time is lost income
2. For others, flying is a hassle and driving is cost prohibitive

I work for a Big 4 accounting firm, and the vacation policies are great on paper, but not in practice. We get 23 days of personal time off, which is used for vacations, sick days, bereavement, etc. It's all in one big pool. The probles are:
1) It encourages people to come into work when they're sick, so they don't use a PTO day, which makes everyone else sick;
2) Because one of our performance metrics is chargeable hours, it's difficult to take a lot of time off. You have to make it up somewhere down the line; and
3) They don't pay out. I earned 23 days in 2005 that I have to use by the end of this year. If I don't, I lose it. It doesn't carry over. In December, there's inevitably a number of people who practically have to take the whole month off.

The big one is 2). It's just tough to be out of the office that long, especially when you know you're going to have to work twice as hard when you get back.

They just gave us four free holidays to use for whatever we want, but they have to be used between July 4th and Labor Day. So far I've used one, and that's probably the only one I'll use. I take a couple weeks around the holidays each year to visit my family in California, but if my family was here, I'd rarely take an actual vacation.

It sounds like globalization and/or bottom-line worship is making work slaves of us. Europeans have more vacation, but with that is more unemployment which seems to be balanced by better safety nets.

How many folks feel obligated to work far past the 'ideal' 8-hour day?

At the moment I am working as an independent contractor - every day is money. It isn't the avocation I chose and I haven;t yet figured out the game.

It chose me so that vacation seems like a luxury.

When I did have paid vacation 2 weeks were riduclously little time to do anything of real interest - sure go to some vacation place which is fine . But not enough time to have an adventure.

So I guess it comes down to what do we want vacation to be for? Just "not work" or something else?

I think Mnemosyne hits it pretty close: Modern "management" at many (perhaps most) companies has degenerated to feudal levels, and employees are constantly reminded that they will be replaced IMMEDIATELY for failing to give the company 120%. Taking vacation time is viewed as an act of disloyalty ("you're abandoning your co-workers!!!"). It also means you are not there to crank out whatever widgets your company produces.

In my 30 years in the workforce, I have seen vacations go from something that was encouraged to something that has become a firing offense. I know four people who, like Mnemosyne, were terminated for taking their earned vacation time.

The economics play a role, but not as great as some might think. Yeah, Joe Average is up to his neck in debt, but he's buying all that crap in lieu of taking the vacation. Can't go to Grand Bahama for a week? May as well watch Jacque Cousteau on a Hi-Def set instead.

Even before almost the entire workforce of the small company I work for was laid off in April, I had 2 MONTHS of vacation accrued. Now, I have no hope of ever taking it.

Working for a small company has its benefits. However, like a lot of people here who work for them, you are required to wear a lot of hats. I was never able to take more than a week off at a time. When I did take a week, it usually involved finagalling (sp?) a paid holiday.

I'm still accruing more vacation time each pay period than I can ever hope to take.

Poor Kevin, something ELSE to feel embarassed about when he talks to Europeans.

Will the humiliation of Liberal American Men never end??

I agree money plays an increasingly larger role.

Then, too, is what people define as vacation. Is staying at home, taking two weeks off to relax and be with your family a vacation? I suspect most people would say no, it isn't. Yet joining the crowds from the freeways and airports to the tourist spots has never seemed like much of a vacation to me. YMMV

With; both adults or parents working more and more out of necessity, SocSec being threatened, pensions evaporating, college costs skyrocketing, no reliable health care insurance system, is it any wonder that people in general feel pressured to keep their nose to the grindstone? Especially when the consumer consumes the vacation like everything else marketed to them.

It's exhausting work being an American citizen. Being President, not so much.

I get plenty of vacation days but don't end up taking them because -- as with Raff -- there's no one to fill in, and the work just piles up. Incidentally, I work for The Conference Board, which had more people to fill in before a 9/11-caused downturn forced two rounds of layoffs. Now there's no redundancy anywhere in the organization. Sigh.

Speaking as someone who was once let go from a job for going to her grandmother's funeral -- with prior permission, mind you -- uh, yeah, it's hard to get away from your job knowing you can be replaced.

I got terminated 14 or so years ago because I had to take time-off for my daughter, who kept getting sent home from day care because she was having asthma attacks.

In my experience working in the private sector, you are company property until it's time to plan a vacation. Then suddenly you are responsible for getting other people to cover your work, and if you can't do it, you can't leave.

When I worked in the private sector, pretty much all of my vacation was spent on doctor and dentist visits, days when one of the kids was sick, taking the car to the shop, etc.

I work in the public sector now, where I make significantly less money ($15,000 less per year), and I don't qualify for overtime, but at least I'm allowed to take all the vacation I accrue.

I was going to write something but I saw Frequency Kenneth's utterly stupid post.

What's with the Repub men? What the hell is their problem? You have all the power in world. Why do you have so much hatred against others who do not think like you?

I will never bitch about my teaching job again. Ever.

At my company you get 3 weeks of vacation a year, but you CANNOT take more than 1 week at a time. Corporate America has squeezed the workforce so much that even though we are treated like crap, they can't spare us to really even take our vacation days. When we you do put in for a vacation, we're treated like unloyal empolyees. And Republicans don't understand why we think the economy sucks! Raises only matching (or falling behind)inflation since 1980 and we can't take our vacations without fearing for our jobs.

I've worked as a legal secretary at a big firm in DC for 11 years, and get 20 days of vacation, 8 days of sick leave, 2 personal days, and 13 firm holidays. I end up not using a fair amount of this largesse because I work for a partner, a counsel, a senior associate and a mid-level associate. They want me there when they're there so I can support them, and they want me there when they're not there, so I can let them know what's going on and handle things in their absence.

On the plus side, the firm pays me at the end of the year for up to 5 unused vacation days and 5 unused sick days, so that helps. And Mr. CatStaff and I actually prefer taking several mini-breaks throughout the year (Fridays and/or Mondays off) rather than blow our whole vacation allotment in one or two big chunks.

Haven't lived in Canada for rwenty years now- any fellow-Canucks on the situation up there? When I was a kid I remember the family vacation being sacred

Here in Taiwan everything shuts down for five-seven days over Chinese New Year, which involves a nightmare of traffic if you don't live in your home town, and most (middle-class) people squeeze in an extra four or five days.

My sister lives in England- guaranteed five weeks....sigh.

One puzzlement- if most people don't take vacations, why is the travel industry expanding?

My brother in law is currently on strike against his employer, an oil refinery. Their biggest complaint is that employees, even when on vacation, are required to be "on call" and able to show up within 2 hours. So they can never travel more than about 100 miles away from work - never go to see the Grand Canyon, never take the kids to Disneyworld or to see Washington DC. And no more than 4 days in a row off.

This of course at a time when the oil companies are posting record profits and refineries are running flat out. But allowing vacation means they would have to hire more workers and that would cut into profits. Instead, let's just have tired, cranky, stressed-up people running the refinery.

Plus they want to re-classify people as supervisors who are ineligible for overtime. Thanks Bush Department of Labor!

Strike is at 3 weeks and counting.

I absolutely loathe, despise and abominate jet travel now. The endless lines, the milling crowds, non reserved seating so you have to stand in line 45 minutes before boarding time if you don't want to get stuck with a middle seat...

Blah - I hate it. And I haven't even tried to fly since the shampoo et al. ban started, so it must be even more migraine inducing.

I save my vacation time for Christmas/New Year's. Business is slow and work doesn't pile up. And living in California is almost like a permanent vacation for me, anyway.

There was a study a while back that showed that people who took two consecutive weeks of vacation were 25% less likely to have a heart attack. Don't see that one cited much, eh? In fact, the mystery of why the French have a lower heart disease rate despite their high-fat diets may be their longer vacation time.

My guess is that the big drop this year is due to higher gas prices. Talked to my mother-in-law who lives in a very rural area. She said it was sad how nobody can afford a vacation this summer, even the folks who used to just go camping in the mountains.

I have a great union job and can certainly take all my vacation days, but even I have to get approval to take more than a week at a time.

CatStaff: On the plus side, the firm pays me at the end of the year for up to 5 unused vacation days and 5 unused sick days, so that helps.

State rules and policies vary, but in general company's must accrue the liability for vacation and sick time until it expires or is paid out (or used). That is the primary reason for caps on sick/vacation/personal time. That your company pays you for that accrued liability is nice, but it is hardly largesse; it is no more and no less than an even trade.

Having played the role of student throughout my whole life to this point, I can't really comment on finding time to get away from a job. I do know, however, that if I had 2 grand to blow on a 2 week vacation, I would probably rather spend it on a big screen TV, or new golf clubs, or on parts for my car, or baseball tickets. The appeal of just going away for two weeks isn't that great for me.

It's funny, all these people complaining about their bosses and their lack of vacation time, yet whenever Kevin posts something on unions, all these people come out of the woodwork saying that unions aren't necessary anymore...

While I teach in public school, we theoretically have the summer off but most of us work either a second job or plan for the next school year during the summer (unpaid, but you are expected to be planning). I know I spent quite a bit of the summer prepping for the AP class I will teach for the first time in 2 weeks. We also got called in for 2 all day meetings, even though we were not offically at work so we were not paid for it, and were chewed out if you could not find child care before arriving. We didn't take any vacation this summer because we are saving up for Christmas to fly to Texas and because I'm going to pay $60+ per week on gas now that I'm back at work.

Then, there is the vacation issue once school starts again. I am supposed to go to a wedding in Boston in Oct. but honestly don't know if I can afford to miss 2 work days since the majority of our subs can't manage a classroom to save their lives. It's not that I'm that important, but we only have 80ish teachable days in the class and everyone has to count. After all, we wouldn't want to leave anyone behind .

#1: Too broke to go anywhere. Remember that flat median wage you mention every so often? - Quaker in a Basement

I haven't been on a vacation since my parents took the family to Disney World. Now that is NOT to say that I do not take my vacation time but can you really call cleaning your apartment, catching up on your reading, and sitting around in your underpants a vacation? Maybe the problem is one of semantics, I take every day allotted to me off because most jobs will not pay for unused vacation anymore, but that does not mean I GO anywhere.

Hell, even if I COULD afford to fly off to New Zealand or take a flight into space I'm not sure I could justify the expense. I find pretty much everything to be a bit of a disappointment when I experience the reality of it. Except for sex - that pretty much rocks!

If people can't cut their spending enough to afford a two-week vacation, no wonder their bosses have so much leverage over them. They can't afford "fuck you" money either.

In my case, stingy vacation day allotment. I can only accrue 10 days a year, and when you need the occasional day off or a day for travelling, it doesn't allow for two-week vacations. Except maybe every third year.

that unions aren't necessary anymore...

I'm not in a union, but that's about as smart as someone saying that their home is safe so we don't need police anymore.

Only a crook or someone trying to screw their employees would make such statements.

Next they'll be telling is laws governing 12 hour days, 6 day weeks and child labor should be repealed, too.

"I will never bitch about my teaching job again. Ever."

But imagine if we - well, I've left teaching, at least temporarily - just had holidays and perhaps an extra few days, if lucky? The attrition rate would explode. Not just the people throwing up their hands and giving up, but the ones out of commission due to stress-related illnesses, etc. . . .

This summer my wife just spent a pretty substantial chunk of time on planning and working a second job. Next summer will probably be mostly grad classes.
_________

So - how long 'til we lose the weekend?
____________

Worried about American families? Push for European-level guaranteed vacation time.

What ever happened to the idea of a happy worker is a productive worker? Oh yeah, neo-liberal and supply-side economics forgot the idea anyone counted but the very rich. The American worker has screwed itself over for the past 30 years the majority of the time that they stepped inside a voting booth. Anyone who complains about their lack of vacation time and about women getting abortions or gays getting married has only themselves to blame.

What are managers supposed to think when no one, such as unions or the Democratic Party, is there to protect workers and they allow themselves to be fucked for 30 years while productivity has risen but real raises have remained stagnant? This isn't capitalism, but is instead a betrayal of the capitalist ethic. Labor and management used to be in a contract that productivity increases would lead to rising real wages. This was the capitalist social contract. Labor has allowed itself to be hallowed out by voting Republican. We are now heading down the path of Latin America. One step at a time we have abandoned real capitalism and are moving closer and closer to corporatism disguised as capitalism.

A working person voting Republican makes as much sense as the chickens voting for Colonel Saunders.

Has407 --
You're right. I just meant that, since we only have until the end of March of the following year to use up any unused leave time from the previous year, it's nice to have the option of getting some bucks for part of it, rather than just seeing it disappear on me.

I work in entertainment software. I get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year, and yet I don't have many opportunities to take it. There are just so many "dependencies" on whatever you're doing -- if you take time off, you're letting down the team.

Where are the usual trolls on this thread? Could be that most of them don't have vacation anxieties, given that they live in a parent's basement.

I find pretty much everything to be a bit of a disappointment when I experience the reality of it.

A large number of those enjoying vacation areas either do so on credit or are foreign.

Something like a quarter of the toy store's sales in the summer were from people visiting out of country.

Kevin.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FCKING KIDDING ME!

Love, S9.

In reference to the person wondering if Europeans have more vacation time because of higher membership rates in unions, that's probably one reason. But it's also regulated by the state.

Here in Germany it's federal law that every worker with a 5-day workweek gets at least 20 vacation days. (For other length workweeks the number of vacation days are adjusted proportionally.) For many jobs 25 - 30 vacation days are commonly offered. And don't forget that these vacation days are in addition to the public holidays (9-12 depending upon which state), which unlike in the USA, really are truly free days for the vast majority of workers.

To follow up on Noumenon's point, you'll find that financing a vacation is a lot harder if you're playing the "keeping up with the Joneses" consumption game. I don't want to pick on Richard P, but if you're still a student, why not ditch the big screen TV and the monthly cable bill (to say nothing of the golf clubs)? You'll have an extra $1200 or so, and a lot more time to devote to your school work.

The time thing is more of a problem, and it seems that the decline of unionism is part of it, but only part. My Mom waitressed at a resort on the Jersey Shore in the 1950s, and served a lot of people on bankers holidays who were there for the better part of the summer -- and pretty much none of them held union jobs.

It's also easier to plan a vacation (and not use up all your personal days) if you don't have kids, but people used to take extended vacations with their kids, too. Frankly, you can still afford this if you want to explore the great outdoors, but then you have to make your own fun. This isn't what contemporary popular culture has accustomed us to, but give it a try: turn off the TV, put the X-box in the closet, avoid the theme parks, and head out to the countryside.

As Doug-E-Fresh and Mimikatz pointed out, there's plenty to see on a driving tour or while camping/ hiking/ backpacking. It's it's not all out west, either! The best vacation I took in high school was two summer weeks on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine (a.k.a. the wild, wild east).

You can discipline your finances, and you can save up vacation days and make arrangements for others to cover some of your work while you're away (e.g. by offering to do the same for them), but it seems to take a lot more work than it used to...

Hiking costs money. Parking fees, use fees, picnic table fees, camping fees...

...Costs as much as anything else. Free parks are a thing of the past.

And if I didn't pay my cable bill, I wouldn't have six HD channels not showing HD or this insightful conversation.

I never realized how less stressful life can be until I moved to Norway and got loads of holidays, sick days and 5 weeks of vacation per year. It really does make for a less stressful life knowing that you can leave work for weeks at a time (my father in law took all five weeks at once for the first time in forever this year. Imagine being away from work, and not having to worry about a mess to deal with when you get back, for more than a month. Talk about recharging the batteries) and not stress about coming back and dealing with all the work. It truly is wonderful, and I bet it has added years to my life.

the family owned company i used to work for offered 4-weeks vacation as a benefit earned by those who stayed with the company for more than 20-years.

the company was recently bought by a larger firm where you can -never- earn more than 3-weeks.

raff: Speaking for myself, I can't take any prolonged time off (say more than 4 consecutive days) because there's no-one to really fill in for me.

i had a neighbor who was recently laid off from his job of 16-years....

the company then called him back asking if he would work vacation fill-in..

seems they didnt have enough people to cover vacations for the remaining full-timers..

Talk about a nation that has traded it's birthright for a mess of potash! When I was a kid my parents drove us across the country a few times. There is certainly no shortage of places to see in America.

But in a small town I visit regularly, once known for a stalwart Norwegian heritage, many people think a vacation is a trip to Vegas. They even take their children, as though gambling is something you would like to encourage in a child.

Most of them drive fancy cars. One nurse's aide has a Lincoln, another has a BMW...the days when Dad drove a 'work car' and didn't worry about dents or mileage are apparently gone.

It is truely a sad thing to visit this little town, on a bay, one of the grandest spots in the world for sailing, rowing, or swimming, and see none of these activities happening while the people there talk about going to Disneyworld, but not about sending their kids to college.

I went to the SW USA a couple of years ago - Yosemite, Zion, Grand Cnyon, etc. Half the tourists were Europeans, Japanese, Indians (Asian), and Anaadians/Aissies and Kiwis. The Americans there were entirely white, non Hispanic middle class. Go to Europe, India, Africa, Latin America, China, there are massive numbers of tourists from all those countries, but precious few Americans. Why? Is the American Dream a dream of unending toil? What is the point of striving to be the richest most powerful nation on eaarth if it means unending servitude at desk or assembly line? You Americans work like insects and have no fun - what's the point? You're all mad. Get out more, see the world, enjoy yourselves, get away from this strange puritan protestant work ethic.

One of the things that gets left out of the vacation discussion is kids extracurricular activities. Throughout spring and summer, we had baseball four nights a week, along with boy scouts, and The Praise Puppet Team. Baseball ends in July, Then football and soccor begin within a few weeks, thrusting us back into a situation where we have something to do every hour that I'm not at work. On top of all of it, school starts in a couple of weeks. When I was a youngster, we didn't have our calendar "scheduled up" like this, and we always had a family vacation along with at least another road trip to visit distant relatives. Today, we just don't have the time

Wow. Looks like Kevin got his answer in compact, statistically reliable form in short order.

Has anyone done an article series on business schools to see where these managers are taught to be petty tyrants and feudal lords? It would give the rest of us a named enemy to focus on. Why should just the right wing complain about academic brainwashing?

In modern corporate America, it's easy to play the middle-class for suckers because 1. they simply have no power to speak of in the workplace, especially with the systematic destruction of unions, and 2. they're abysmally ignorant about their own history and how work is apportioned elsewhere. And the disparities are really getting ludicrous. The average American works something like 350 hours more per year than the average European. Do the math, that's almost 9 extra weeks. The average German worker starts with a minimum of 4 weeks vacation, and they're expected to take it. The myth here is that the upper classes are putting in 80-hour weeks to be successful, so don't you fret about your lost vacation time. Don't believe it. (I could offer personal anecdotes about millionaire Wall Streeters who not only enjoy lengthy vacations, but whose average workday would be someone else's vacation. They're white-collar drones who support them are naturally a different story.)

But as long as American workers are indoctrinated to believe that their jobs are fragile, almost unnecessary tasks that millions of Third-Worlders are waiting to do for pennies a day, they'll all be good little feudal serfs and keep ramping up productivity in return for wage and benefit cuts. Vacations are NOT for the little people.

"But I will say this: back when I worked closely with Europeans, this was probably the most common area of incomprehension. Almost unanimously, they though we were flatly insane to take only two weeks of vacation a year. Even the workaholics thought so."

But if you are implying it's money.. Americans make way more than Europeans. American workers are also much healthier than Euros. I seem to remember Euro workers call out sick 20% of the time.

"It's one of many emerging realities of post-labor America. When you perceive your job security as subject entirely to the boss man's whim, and you are easily replaced, then you are not going to do anything the bossman might not approve of, such as asserting your right to a balanced life."

The realities of America is that you can choose to work for whomever you want, including yourself. Please stop the whining if you simply can't compete or are just too lazy.

"Speaking as someone who was once let go from a job for going to her grandmother's funeral -- with prior permission, mind you -- uh, yeah, it's hard to get away from your job knowing you can be replaced."

Wow, sounds like they were looking to get rid of you and found their excuse. I take it you weren't a very valuable employee.

"Hiking costs money. Parking fees, use fees, picnic table fees, camping fees...

...Costs as much as anything else. Free parks are a thing of the past.

And if I didn't pay my cable bill, I wouldn't have six HD channels not showing HD or this insightful conversation."

Alot of Europeans don't have cars, and the ones that do typically have a little tin box. A lot of them also don't have a nice big plasma HDTV. So quit yer whining. :D

How many people even get 2 weeks vacation in a whole year anymore? And how many of them are going to blow the whole wad on one trip?

Many of my better off friends are "consultants", employees who get all the time off they want, with no pay or insurance. So they send the wife and kids off on vacation and they work.

I'm with your European friends. Americans are just stupid sheep. They get this glassy look of incomprehension any time they are confronted with actual better working and living conditions anywhere else in the world. Then someone states that those countries are tottering on the brink of fiscal ruin, and the USA is the free-est country in the world, blah blah blah. End of discussion, end of thinking process.

People spend their vacations bits at a time, taking care of sick kids when there's no child care or whiling away mornings getting their car fixed.

Why not turn the Republican meme on its head:

Freedom Fighter, why do you hate Americans so much?

So lessee, 57% of the respondents *did* have summer vacation plans. So I guess people *do* still take vacations, and presumably have jobs that allow that.

The whining on this thread is just unbelieveable. If your job doesn't offer usable vacation benefits and you want to take a vacation, how about finding a new job? There are tons of jobs in the world.

Even when I was contracting, I got paid vacation. My wife works as a cashier in a motorcycle dealer, hardly a high-paying job, and she gets two weeks paid a year.

Don't blame society, or the Republicans, or greedy businessmen, or the lack of unions, or anybody but yourself if you can't manage to make this common and simple thing work in your life.

I noticed that Sam's is going to be open for business on Labor Day (at least the one near where I live). To me, that’s pitiful. I actually thought about going up there Labor Day to protest. But then, people are so broke in this Bush economy that the workers actually need the money, so I don’t know about that.

Ah, nice to see someone fighting freedom with so many insightful comments of how to not have free time, which can be seen as the only true measure of freedom.

And I notice another American in Germany already managed to score a point, so my turn.

Just trying to get my head around your statistic 'I seem to remember Euro workers call out sick 20% of the time' - do you mean 1/5 of the European workforce doesn't appear on any given day? Which is absurd, of course, speaking as someone who works in Germany and deals with people working in France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, England, and so on.

Or do you mean that only 20% of Europeans call in sick during a year? Which would seem to imply that Europe's aging work force is doing much better medically than anyone would expect, seeing how America has the finest health care system in the world (except for all the other industrialized nations).

Luckily, living in Europe, I don't have to worry so much about people who keep fighting freedom, such as yourself. And my 'tiny' car carries nine people, has space to load two pallets, is rated to carry over a ton, and only gets up to about 100mph on the autobahn, with fuel consumption around 22 mpg after having been driven 115,000 miles.

But you got one fact right - my family doesn't own a TV. Instead, we spent 3 weeks in the U.S. watching how people such as yourself fight freedom. It was a fascinating experience. Somehow, I doubt you will have three weeks free to visit Europe - especially since it would be such a hopeless mission in trying to fight against freedoms Europeans consider basic human rights, not merely luxuries granted at the whim of a free market.

Re. US federal workers vs. private sectors, I would like to point to a recent study that determined that the average pay (including benefits) for the former is $107K for the former vs. $74K for corporate workers.

Locally, in the UC system, if you work for 30 years and retire after the age of sixty, you get 75% of your salary indexed for inflation as pension for life with full health benefits.

It's stupid to work for a corporation unless you are an executive.

Why I haven't taken a real vacation in some time, not even to visit my parents:

* Going home isn't that fun

* Expense

* Hard to find a caretaker for my pet

* My job pays out my unused vacation time at the full salary rate. I'm trying to find a new job and this benefit will amount to a small windfall.

* Not having to go to said job anymore will be like a vacation.

My job is a contract position. In name only, that is. My employer uses an employment standards loophole to avoid paying any kind of benefits. I also get charged an "administration fee" with each paycheque.

Still, the pay is pretty good, the atmosphere is otherwise friendly, and we're given lots of leeway with our time off. If I could convince the boss that I needed three weeks off twice a year, he'd give it to me. Of course, I can't afford that much down time.

I did take two weeks off last spring, though. My girlfriend and I went to Costa Rica, making up our own itinerary as we travelled. Breathtaking scenery, perfect weather, nice people and still relatively cheap. It kicked a bit of a hole in our finances but we've already recovered.

This is what I'm trying to say:

If you can possibly do it, travel! Figure out a way.

Dear nut:
Back when most of us made our decsions about who to work for it was a very different playing field. Public employees didn't always have benefits that were so out-of-proportion with the rest of society.
But, we let them whittle our benefits away in the name of competitiveness and productivity, fighting the Japanese bogeyman thru the 80's while the Japanese had lifetime employment.
We've been sold fake bags of magic beans. The company I work for had record profits last year and cutbacks this year. My brother's company just busted the union that dared to go out on strike to PRESERVE their level of benefits. All so we can 'increase productivity' and the return on 'shareholders' value.'
At one time public employee benefits were in line with the better private benefit packages. Of course, it's hard to explain that to public-employee-union cops when they're protecting the scabs busting your picket line. Now we can look forward to a future where a 65 yr. old bank guard is protecting a 50 yr. old retired cop at the ATM.

I'm surprised that the Democrats haven't made the incredible shrinking vacation a major issue just like the minimum wage. Everyone has gone into the many reasons why Americans have fewer vacation days than anybody else in the world, so I won't rehash that, but another factor not too many posters have talked about yet is that taking a vacation is stressful these days, especially if you are flying. And isn't the whole point of taking a vacation to relax???

We live in Seattle and never fly anywhere, even to visit family and friends, because of the hassle and stress. Thankfully, there is plenty of stuff to do in the area, and we are also only a 3-hour drive from both Portland and Vancouver, meaning that we have tons of vacation possibilities nearby.

The other factor, which some people have touched upon, in cost. With airfares and hotels being so expensive, the cheap vacation is going the way of the dodo. In most major cities (San Francisco, New York, chicago, DC, Las Vegas, Boston), finding a hotel room for under $150/night has become virtually impossible. If you've got kids and need two rooms, that means you're looking at $2000 a week just for lodging in these cities, never mind airfares, food, etc. That's prohibitively expensive for most people.

Luckily for us we have lots of frequent flier miles saved up and family and or friends in many great places (San Francisco, DC, London, Stockholm, Prague, Florence, Beijing, Shanghai), which means that on the rare occasions that we can get the time we can have a terrific vacation on the cheap, but the fact is that the erosion of the vacation should be just as big a political issue as the minimum wage. It's just another example of how American workers are being squeezed by employers.

If the Democrats had the guts and brains to go back to what they once were....the party of the working class, they'd start winning elections right, left, and center.

I am one of those "blackberried office workers" I took about 10 vacation days in the past 12 months. We are not allowed to take off 2 weeks at a time - so I usually take 1 week and then a few long weekends. I have 36 people that report to me. These are mid-level professionals making an avg. of $45k. I noticed a significant change in their vacation habits this year over past years - while they all still took their full allotment of days off - very few actually went anywhere. In the past there were a lot of trips to the beach or Disney World but this year nobody could afford it.

I gained my third week of paid time off, not counting holidays, etc., 18 months ago when I hit 5 years at my current newspaper.

I've used all of it I can. I have taken two 12-day vacations, leaving 1 paid business day, which I've used elsewhere.

I've also turned down two job offers in that top because the publishers or managing editors said their vacation policy was non-negotiable. I politely made clear that I'm over 40 and wasn't starting at ground zero.

The fact that they wouldn't negotiate, I took as a bad sign in general.

jane @2:15PM:

36 people report to you? I'm sorry but no one person can ever manage that many people. I call bullshit.

And the funny thing is that Congress spends more days on vacation than they do actually working...by my estimate they are only in session about 120 days a year....three days a week for about 40 weeks.

I would have more time for vacation if I stopped wasting time on the internet.

I complain a lot but I have more vacation than my Dad or Grandfather ever had.

"Congress spends more days on vacation than they do actually working...by my estimate they are only in session about 120 days a year....three days a week for about 40 weeks."

We should be grateful for small favors.

This is obviously a bit late to respond now, but...

I've done the National Park backpacking thing -- that's part of what I meant by "America is boring." The awesome beauty of nature does not appeal to me, nor does getting away from urban life. I've lived all my life in small towns and small-to-medium cities -- virgin forest is nothing new for me. Like I said, I want to find the things that make other places unique, and those things are becoming fewer and farther between.

three days a week for about 40 weeks.

Imagine how much damage they could do if they worked more? In fact, how much "work" does it actually take to just sit there and vote as they're told to by Rove et Co.?

My last job was a 14 hour 7 day a week deal. I was always maxed out on vacation time (300 hours use it or lose it at that), it was almost impossible to take sick time there. I took a pay cut to go over to a 5 day a week 7-8 hour job. Took a hit on the number of vacation hours on paper but I take more vacation time. But even within a better company taking more than 1-2 days off is a hopeless luxury and getting time off in advance (i.e. not being able to antipate the regularly scheduled crisis) is incredibly hard.

I think this is the causative factor for people not planning or saving up for vacations they can't take. Faced with ridiculous hours and no vacations people are going to spend their money on creature comforts that they can appreciate in their short leisure time.

Finally vacations are stressful these days, between flight annoyances and the logistics of scheduling rooms and the like, one usually needs a vacation after one's vacation. My present dream vacation involves getting a room in the hotel across the street and holing up for 2 days on room service.

How many of you bitching about this subject ever voted for one of these bloodsuckers—Democrat and Republican alike—that humble themselves when seeking your vote and then turn into the plutocrats they really are once safely in office? How many of you voted for George Bush, he who never met a corporate CEO he didn't love? How many voted for Reagan? Bottom line is that with few exceptions, your vote is a vote for corporate America. Period.

Jefferson was right. So was Tocqueville. Through cowardice, self-interest and lassitude, we've ended up with the government we deserve.

Me, I can afford to go on vacation whenever I like. Sorry about the rest of you. I vote for your interests. Every time. But you don't. You vote from bigotry and fear. How many of you are out there making 50K and thinking you're rich because you can keep up with credit card payments and buy a new car on time? You've fallen for the big lie hook, line and sinker.

that unions aren't necessary anymore...

Only a crook or someone trying to screw their employees would make such statements.

That argument appears on the first page of my employee handbook.

How many of you are out there making 50K and thinking you're rich

Now THAT's a whole lot of truth. 20% of Republican voters think they're in the top 1% of of wage earners (which starts at around $350,000 per year). And that includes some people making only $35,000. So they think things like Estate Tax are so important to them - even though their "estate" consists of Mom's engagement ring and a Grand Baroque silverplated service for 8 that's probably worth $100 on eBay.

Gee, and wasn't David Brooks just telling us a few weeks ago that the middle class was the new leisure class and that we're all a bunch of lazy slackers compared with our hard-working and industrious betters?

I am a 40 years old frenchman.

I already took 40 days of paid leave this year ( 6 weeks )

I'll probably take another week or two before the end of the year

I have more than a hundred days in a time saving account

As long as I am not sick for more than 30 days in 2 years I don't lose any salary

No other comment

Hey, let's go on vacation!

Maybe they have different stores at their malls! Maybe the food zoos have different international chains! Maybe the people there buy their clothes from different international distributors.

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