Is it sad that I'm envious of my brother's carpal tunnel surgery?

[fake]

I'd work for myself.

I live in the US and work for myself. I don’t get much consecutive time off. If I’m not taking jobs the clients can just move onto the next guy. And repeat clients are what makes or breaks a small business. I don’t think you fully realize the destructive work ethics in the US, particularly in the metro areas. There’s a stereotype that people from Boston are assholes. When people ask me why I tell them we’re all overworked and pitted against one another. That and angst from sports.

 

[StevenK]

I live in the US and work for myself. I don’t get much consecutive time off. If I’m not taking jobs the clients can just move onto the next guy. And repeat clients are what makes or breaks a small business. I don’t think you fully realize the destructive work ethics in the US, particularly in the metro areas. There’s a stereotype that people from Boston are assholes. When people ask me why I tell them we’re all overworked and pitted against one another. That and angst from sports.

Do you give your staff time off?

 

[titchgamer]

If your boss is to much of a asshole to give you time off you either demand the time off or tell him to get fucked and get another job that will give you basic entitlements.

The only way companies like that survive is because people allow themselves to be abused through some crazy notion of loyalty or whatever.

I have only ever had to quit a job there and then once due to my boss trying to take advantage but I would not hesitate to do it again if it was required.

Dont be a slave dude, That shits supposed to be illegal these days.

 

[norton9478]

Also, never check your email and/or phone when when you are out of the off the clock. Don't give them your personal cell number.

 

[neo_mao]

people from Boston are assholes.

 

[LoneSage]

Also, never check your email and/or phone when when you are out of the off the clock. Don't give them your personal cell number.

Fish I have no idea what your career is but that really doesn't fly anymore in 2019.

 

[OMFG]

I get 30 days a year plus holidays, I thought that was normal? Also extra money for the main vacation and christmas (maybe not too common?).

At my last telecom job, you had to work 15 years to get 5 weeks off. They have since changed that policy for you to work 25 years before you get 5 weeks off now.

The usual corporate standard is 2 weeks vacation to start and then acquiring a 3rd week after a few years.

We get holidays off as well, but people even work on holidays here. I once worked New Years day and found out that a majority of people working during the holidays at The EBU were completely trashed at work.

 

[Dr Shroom]

People can work at holidays at my job too. I just smile at them when they ask me, I think they get the idea by now. No reason to sacrifice even more of my time there.

 

[norton9478]

Fish I have no idea what your career is but that really doesn't fly anymore in 2019.

I used to check my email and stuff. Really ruined my days and put a damper on my vacation. Screw that. I don't answer emails. If I'm out of the office, it can wait. When I go on vacation, I set up an auto-reply with relevant secondary contact info (not that it does much good). I also started taking my summer vacation during the absolute busiest week of the year. Ohh well.

If I'm home and checking my email, it is during my "work from home" hours. Even then......

 

[smokehouse]

There are two threads you make about every 6 months. One of them is this thread, "I've never had any time off ever since for ever". The other is "It's time to chop my almost brand new truck in for an absolutely brand brand new truck, you won't believe the deal I got on it!"

I don't care how good the deal you get on your truck is, it's nowhere near as cheap as buying a $4k ten year old truck and driving it into the ground over another 10 years. If you did that you wouldn't have to live in fear of your job running away from you to the extent that you haven't dared to ask for time off in over a decade. You wouldn't need to work the extra weekend job that I seem to remember you mentioning.

You wouldn't have, presumably, never have been on vacation with your daughter, who I seem to remember is younger than the 16 years ago you last had a week off.

Do you know what I would do if I lived in a country where the work ethic was so fucking stupid that people have never been for a week away with their kids? I'd work for myself.

You're making some rather large assumptions here...that are mostly incorrect.

First off, while I get that you're exaggerating about my vehicles, not only are they not a financial anchor, I'm averaging a new vehicle every 4 years, nowhere near your claim. I traded my then 4 year old truck on a new one because it doubled my gas mileage. I did that in Jan of 2018. I don't consider our vehicles to be excessive. While I do love your claim of owning a cheap used vehicle, what you glossed over is the the never ending maintenance of having an older vehicle. You act as if older vehicles are this super secret value diamond in the rough when they're not. You get a choice, spend your time working on a car, or spend the money on one with a warranty.

Second, I do take a week off a year, one week off. I currently get paid holidays, but that's about to change once again (and is another story for a different day). I take a vacation yearly...but once again, it's one and I get 5 days off.

You act as if taking long stretches of time off is just some thing people choose not to do...and that just isn't the case. Can I afford to take a month off? Sure. Can I afford to lose my insurance for two months because I did that? Not really. Can I afford losing 1/12th of my retirement yearly because of that? No, not really. Could I stay employed attempting to take a month off a year? Not really. The major part of that is health insurance, even tradesmen that used to take of 2-3 months a year have had to completely change their lives because they cannot afford to do it simply based on the cost of insurance. My cost of insurance rivals the cost of my home per month. If I miss 4 weeks in a given year, I lose my insurance for 30 days.

In my group of friends, I'm right smack in the middle success wise, some have far more successful careers than I do. There isn't one of us that gets 5-6 weeks off a year, not by a long shot. Even my fiend that does have 6 weeks off a year doesn't get to use it because he cannot always get it "approved".

Things are twisted in the US when it comes to time off, they just are.

In the end, it would be amazing have six weeks off, without a massive financial punch in the face to go with it. That was the entire point of this thread.

 

[smokehouse]

At my last telecom job, you had to work 15 years to get 5 weeks off. They have since changed that policy for you to work 25 years before you get 5 weeks off now.

The usual corporate standard is 2 weeks vacation to start and then acquiring a 3rd week after a few years.

I don't work for a good company, but then again I'm still a Union Electrician and that's even worse.

Company wise...most people get two weeks off paid a year, most. Some get 1 week. Years of service is irrelevant.

Easily the worst part of our Union is that we get nothing, and I mean nothing. No paid holidays, no paid vacation...not even paid sick days. Ironic as it is, we don't even get fucking Labor Day paid.

I "negotiated" what I get when I came in the office. This is my 20th year here...I get 5 days of vacation a year, paid holidays, and that's it. It's the price I pay holding on to my Union card.

I used to check my email and stuff. Really ruined my days and put a damper on my vacation. Screw that. I don't answer emails. If I'm out of the office, it can wait.

This is something I need to learn to do...I'm never really fully off of work.

 

[LoneSage]

When I lived in America, I will say I always chose to have my paid time off (money you'd get paid for while taking a vacation) turn into actual money for my paycheck instead of taking a vacation.

One of the reasons Americans don't go on holiday like...uh, the rest of the world...is because the infrastructure isn't there (i.e. gonna cost money to take a plane and then rent a car wherever you arrive because FUCK taking the bus in America) and because wages have been stagnant for 30 years. The house my parents first bought in 1986 cost $30,000, now it's worth around $200,000 yet wages are about the same. No one can afford to take a vacation in America unless you're making $100,000+ a year. And if you're in a trade like smokes then you're pretty much on call 24/7.

 

[norton9478]

My dad got his extra week of vacation by telling his boss/Proprietor "My wife says I have to quit my job if I don't get an extra week of Vacation".

Me personally, I'm 3.5 years away from getting my 5th week of vacation (6 weeks if you count the paid days between xmas and new years + xmas eve). I wouldn't take another job unless it was 2 weeks to start, and 3-4 weeks within 5 years.

Vacation days are more valuable than money.

 

[NeoSneth]

Where does your brother live that he gets 6 weeks off? Short term disability or actual PTO?
The company/Union probably can't afford PTO because of the overhead you intrinsically get with a Union. That's very surprising for 20 years in.

At our ages, you really need to negotiate vacation days with your employer. We made it a hard stop when my partner was looking for a new job. Several companies offered her positions, but they were unwilling to give more than 2 weeks vacation. "It's our standard policy until you are here X years". PTO shouldn't completely reset with a new job. I understand it's a company perk and not a government mandate. It just doesnt work for us where I have weeks and weeks for time off, and she doesnt.

I will say, this is one area my academic counterparts really leverage. i work in the private section of the science industry, and I get 5 weeks. But I had to bust my ass to get it. The company has also been very successful. Academic positions usually get 4-6 weeks standard. This is typically to offset their lower salaries.

 

[smokehouse]

Where does your brother live that he gets 6 weeks off? Short term disability or actual PTO?
The company/Union probably can't afford PTO because of the overhead you intrinsically get with a Union. That's very surprising for 20 years in.

At our ages, you really need to negotiate vacation days with your employer. We made it a hard stop when my partner was looking for a new job. Several companies offered her positions, but they were unwilling to give more than 2 weeks vacation. "It's our standard policy until you are here X years". PTO shouldn't completely reset with a new job. I understand it's a company perk and not a government mandate. It just doesnt work for us where I have weeks and weeks for time off, and she doesnt.

I will say, this is one area my academic counterparts really leverage. i work in the private section of the science industry, and I get 5 weeks. But I had to bust my ass to get it. The company has also been very successful. Academic positions usually get 4-6 weeks standard. This is typically to offset their lower salaries.

I really don't want to say where he works...so let's just say it's a large company that handles job injuries well. He's been there since 2001 and the damage to his hands was definitely a result of his job (they verified this through tests and exams). They're covering the surgery, they're covering all of his time off paid in full. I won't say I always feel his company is the best, but they do take care of their employees with injuries.

Again...I feel this is a massive failure in my trade. A mass time lost injury can and will financially ruin some tradesmen. Yeah, you can get disability...eventually...but it is far from 100% wage/package coverage.

A union brother had to have his hip replaced (prior injury from his 20's, not work related) and it nearly bankrupted him. He was off for 6 months and like I said before, after 30 days it's goodbye health insurance and hello COBRA...which is insane expensive (way over $1K/mo for us). No job + no wages + no insurance + no way to pay for COBRA = one BAD situation.

I keep saying it, but in our trade, if you miss 4 weeks of work in a 12 month period, you lose your insurance for 30 days after that...

 

[LoneSage]

smoke the shit you post adds to why I am hesitant to come back to America. Admittedly China is a fucking garbagefire in regards to human rights but with a VPN it helps a bit.

 

[smokehouse]

smoke the shit you post adds to why I am hesitant to come back to America. Admittedly China is a fucking garbagefire in regards to human rights but with a VPN it helps a bit.

I feel it's one of the massive ways that America has failed its workers. We are quickly becoming a country where soon, you'll need to work until you die and you'd better hope your body doesn't' fall apart before that happens.

 

[fake]

I feel it's one of the massive ways that America has failed its workers. We are quickly becoming a country where soon, you'll need to work until you die and you'd better hope your body doesn't' fall apart before that happens.

I have some literature for you to peruse.

 

[ggallegos1]

I feel it's one of the massive ways that America has failed its workers. We are quickly becoming a country where soon, you'll need to work until you die and you'd better hope your body doesn't' fall apart before that happens.

I can see this, at the same time the vacation you accrue is to be used. I tell this to people all the time in both of my careers, there will always be work. You'll never get in front of it, and if you choose to not use your time off that you earned, you're only hurting yourself.

Do you know what would happen if you does right now? Your job would probably have a meeting for about 30 minutes where they would have some respects for you, leadership will offer some sort of open door policy, and then your position will be put on Indeed.

We're all replaceable, so take the time off that you earned.

 

[NeoSneth]

I'm really surprised Union is not more focused on worker health. Isn't that the whole point of sacrificing your competitive position in the workplace?

 

[StevenK]

We could initiate a microcosm workshop right here.

smokes, explain to fakeX why you don't dare ask him for any time off.

fakeX, explain to smokes why if he did ask for a reasonable work/life balance you would fuck him over.

Let's start something beautiful.

 

[StevenK]

smoke the shit you post adds to why I am hesitant to come back to America. Admittedly China is a fucking garbagefire in regards to human rights but with a VPN it helps a bit.

Europe beckons.

When I was 22 and 6 months into a new job in a junior position I got blind drunk, fell down a ravine and broke my leg. Work paid me in full for three months while I sat at home playing online poker waiting for it to heal enough for me to walk again with crutches (I smoked heavily at the time which apparently slows the healing process massively). After that they paid for a taxi to take me to and from work for a further couple of months until I had the smaller cast off my leg.

This was working for an american company.

Oh, and every supermarket has a minimum of 30 different beers.

 

[fake]

Do you give your staff time off?

I don't have staff. I hire contractors who are self-employed themselves and are in the same boat as me. (They also hire me in exchange.)

 

[StevenK]

(They also hire me in exchange.)

Can you not say no to a job? Would they kick you out of the loop if you turned down one job and put your feet up for two weeks? It seems like a conversation could be had between the group of you to make this happen for each of you every now and again?

You're both right though - I don't know anything about the US labour market. But from what I'm hearing it sounds like I should be watching documentaries about avoiding american goods because of their inhumane production techniques, rag clad murcans with their heads hung low and flies walking across their eyeballs.

 

[smokehouse]

Can you not say no to a job? Would they kick you out of the loop if you turned down one job and put your feet up for two weeks? It seems like a conversation could be had between the group of you to make this happen for each of you every now and again?

You're both right though - I don't know anything about the US labour market. But from what I'm hearing it sounds like I should be watching documentaries about avoiding american goods because of their inhumane production techniques, rag clad murcans with their heads hung low and flies walking across their eyeballs.

You want to see some shit working conditions, look up testimonials of people working in Amazon shipping centers...