Vacation Days
In Houston, summer vacation time are almost starting to finish. In fact, today I will visit both of my daughter's schools (for the first time they will be in different schools) for start of the session orientation. August 12th is the first day of school for HISD where my kids go. Typically most office workers who does have kids in school (like me) follows the school vacation schedule. In fact, people who do not have kids or such responsibilities use the time when the kids are in fact in school, because prices are cheaper and popular places a relatively crowded. However, all that is preamble to even figure out can people take vacation or time off from work at all?
Here are some bullets I can come up with and this by no means in a comprehensive list:
Can you afford it? Typically vacation is discretionary spending.
If you can afford it, do you work place offer it? That is essentially the chart above for high income group individuals
If you do take vacation, do you travel or due to prefer to stay in town (staycation!)
Do you take family vacation? Or sometimes you take vacation for yourself? Or do you take both?
I assumed high-income individuals to cut-off the money issue, or got rid off the first bullet all together. The plot above in no surprise, even if vacation is offered and people can afford it, Americans and Japanese take 50% less vacation compared to West Europeans. This is an well established fact. I am not that familiar with Japanese society to comment intelligently about their social practices, so I am not going to discuss Japan. However, I will provide this table below!
| Country | Vacation Days Granted | Public Holidays | Days Typically Taken | Cultural Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 17.6 (avg) | 16 | 10.9 | Strong pressure not to take full leave |
| United States | 15–20 | 7–11 | ~15 | Many unused days, but more flexibility |
Why Americans takes less vacation than West Europeans?
There are many factors. It is really surprising that high income group Americans can really afford it, but they typically choose not to take vacation!
| Factor | United States | Western Europe |
|---|---|---|
| Legal Mandates | No federal vacation law; employers set policies | EU mandates 20+ days; France offers 30+ |
| Cultural Norms | Workaholic culture; long hours = dedication | Vacation is expected and valued |
| Job Security | Fear of falling behind or being replaced | Strong labor protections reduce anxiety |
| Social Safety Net | Limited benefits; time off feels risky | Generous programs support time off |
| Workplace Pressure | Pressure to stay “always on”; check emails on vacation | Managers encourage full vacation use |
| Vacation Usage | ~11 days taken; many unused | 25–30 days taken, plus holidays |
This plot above is staggering to me. Not only less vacation is offered in US, people take even less than what is offered! This is simply mind boggling (for both US and Japan). I know for a fact that in India, where I am intimately aware of the urban society, high income group office workers do take a lot of vacation these days.
I think in my workplace in Houston, I have seen all the factors I have listed. I have tried to 'buck the trend' a lot. Not only requesting people that I can influence to take more time off, but I have taken all possible vacations and then some! I have certainly taken more vacation than anyone I know, not just in my workplace, but anyone I know in Houston.
Why we need time off
Rather obvious, isn't it. American workplace is stressful. We go through frequent layoffs. We have very limited social safety net, so people are on their own as soon as they lose the job. Burnout is very real in the oil & gas industry. Taking time off from work helps with mental health and resets the burn out.
However, here is the additional twist. I have heard from many family men/women in my age group with young kids that a family vacation is often NOT enough! :) I mean don't get me wrong, I love a good family vacation, but I don't love it all the time! Do read this post from @meesterboom and you will understand what I mean in a better way!
In my family we take family vacation, but:
- My teenager goes out on her own with her friends from school on vacation (she has done that for 4 years now)
- My wife goes on solo and with friends trips, mostly hiking and backpacking, and she travels a lot for business
- I do the same, and I travel a lot for business too!
We find that helps us with our bonding and sanity!
That said, as kids go back to school. I am taking off for an weekend trip to my favorite American city, San Francisco, tomorrow. I come back, work a couple of day, and then I am heading to Switzerland! Momma can handle the kids! Didn't she take a trip to Goa last year! It's payback time! :)
The pressures not to take off paid time that you mention for Americans are pretty much the same for Japan.
One good point here vs America, is that the government realizes this situation and to help balance it out, they give tons of national holidays. There is one every month as well as three long 8-10 days vacations in spring, summer, and for new years.
Now of course the bad point to these national holidays is that all of Japan takes the same days off, meaning prices shoot up and traffic is a nightmare. But at least we do get them, I suppose.
Yeah higher numbers of national holidays are better for sure. I am aware of urban Japan mostly through books and YouTube, so my knowledge can be shallow.
Seems like the Americans are a bunch of workaholics, good thing I've never worked there!!!
Actually I'm surprised by this data. Do you know if there's a lot on of difference between industries? Eg would people from IT/ high tech be less inclined to take vacation compared to those working in 'traditional' industries?
Americans who have a office job :)
Lot of the workforce doesn't, right?
Many work from home. Many are self employed
Here in the Netherlands we even have the option to buy some extra days, which is often being used by people that want to make a large trip abroad.
Taking days off is really necessary to 'reload the battery'. I have about 26 days a year and I often use them all. And apart from that we have 11 public holidays.
I'm actually in the last day of my three week holiday 😀
Full of energy to start working again on monday!
Throughout my working life I can never remember that I haven’t used my time off. I enjoy traveling. In fact perks of being a geologist is also that I travel a lot for work and lot of that is often to remote and spectacular places.
That is one of the reasons I am staying at my job for so long...
We have (all paid):
2 personal days
12 holidays
28 vacation days right now (start at 12)
typically 2-8 executive leave days per year
12 days of sick leave.
Your manager can grant additional days of leave based on overtime that you put in which is not paid... Like the late night production deployments are not paid but we usually get those hours back as paid vacation. I can carry over 480 hours of vacation each year and unlimited sick leave so I am usually carrying over close to 480 hours of vacation and I am up to 598 hours of sick leave... I guess I never take sick leave :)
Yes. Mine is the same vacation schedule officially.
But I have been working for this same employer since school so I get certain privileges. I take time off whenever I want however long I want :)
Sort of the the Netflix model.
Yes! We need vacation. You can always buy more stuff, better stuff, more impressive stuff. But you can't buy time. Once we spend that, it's gone.
Nobody knows how much time they have been allotted.
My husband and I met at work (civil service job). When we got married he had to gift me vacation for the honeymoon because I had used all my vacation days.
When retirement time rolled around (I had changed jobs long before that) my husband calculated the earliest he could 'get out' and still receive a full pension. He retired a long time ago, and hasn't looked back. We would have a lot more money if he had stayed on the job longer--which most people do. But then all that free time would have been lost to us. I wouldn't give up a minute of it for any amount of money.
You are wise...take vacation. Enjoy life. Nobody is promised tomorrow.
Thank you for the kind words. I guess “wisdom” is just the sum of our life experiences.
I always feel time is running out. In fact my wife says I am nuts:) I think Covid did it to a lot of us.
Interesting data. I wonder what a chart of days off for sick time would look like by country. We have some people here that don't take as many vacation days but do take more sick time.
I also wonder how many salaried employees take time off but it's not counted as vacation time. That would fit in with the higher income earners.
I take as much vacation time as I'm allowed each year, as you said, taking time off from work is important for mental health and avoiding burnout.
We can plot that data
This is hard to get and will vary a lot space to space. I don't think this is reported anywhere and is in fact a big sink. This is "unproductive" time mostly.
So Japan takes less vacation time compared to the US but more sick days. Other than that, the trends seem similar or worse for US employees compared with other countries.
With both of us working in the public education system, we have unique schedules. My wife gets the summers off, but I am an administrator, so I have to work all summer. We still do what we can to take time off. We don't have kids, so that helps or actually probably hinders us from taking more vacation.
Damn! Your wife gets all summer off and you don’t! :)
Yeah :) We make it work though!
I find it fascinating how cultures and governments around the world deal with vacation time and sickness absences, we in the UK always seem to think we are hard done to 😂 but have some of the best policies for both, I'm fortunate to be in a job that pays me for 28 days vacation plus public holidays (8 a year) and if I was to need some sick leave would pay me full pay for 3 months, although I haven't taken a sick day in 20 years.
cant imagine working 50 weeks of the year without a nice holiday somewhere warm!
I hear you.
I just want the holidays in colder area :)
In Australia going on holiday more common too. It's well known that Americans don't travel as much - we always feel sorry for them. Interesting re work place culture too and no federal vacation law.
In fact no one probably travel more than the Americans :) and yet the above stats is also true. The data is for office workers. A lot of Americans who travel doesn't work at a office. I know you don't either :)
I think Aussies are pretty well travelled - we live so far away from anywhere so when we go, we go! Plus, Bali probably makes up the overseas data - everyone goes there haha. But I think your stats are going to Mexico/Canada? I think we tend to take longer leave too, like gap years and long service leave.
It is very similar here. The word gig economy originated here, right? Lots of people either do not want or can't do a desk job. Their hours are therefore very flexible.
In my circle people try to use vacation days as often as it possible. Even friends who have they own smaaall business try to rest at least on weekends or official hollidays.
Also I appreciate this time which I can spend with my family and friends coz after long work period I feel that I need this let's say detox from blue screen and work chats. For vacation time I prefer always to mute my work chats and logout from work apps. Fortunately for vacation period which can be from 28 to 35 days it is possible to make full reload I mean health and mental and renew myself.
Honestly for me sometimes enough even 15 days for it. And I don't remember when I took full vacation period at once for a long time.
In my family we always prefer to travel it can be short trip to the neighboring region, to relatives or maybe to sea.
And it is always family vacation, but I have example when my mom or dad have their own vacation as so as sometimes they can't to take vacation at the same period or when one of them can't move to foreign country to vacation.
As a conclusion I want to say that during my life I see how people spend their vacation time such way as they want and there are so many options for it that its hard to find out some typical behavior for vacation. But maybe it is just my own case, who knows...
All that you say is very positive. More and more people should do that if possible.
Here in Ecuador, people are forced to take vacation. Vacation days can't be paid, and the employer can get punished for not having the workers take their vacation (15 days a year). So, the official data shows the same as in Germany in France. But with most work being done off the record, that's not really reliable.
We don't manage a regular vacation at my business. Whenever somebody needs it, we arrange somehow and make it happen. But I'm always happier when I don't have to organize that on top of everything.
If it's unpaid holidays then it's really easy for you.
It's not, but I manage things aside the usual lines. Everything is paid, one way or another. Fairness is important to me.
Yes. That makes sense
I sometime i wonder how us workers manage it, i come back after 3 weeks of vacation and have 2 others + public holydays.
Couldn't work in america
Wow, that's really true 😤 It's bizarre to see how in the US people are practically proud of not taking vacations, while in Europe people have understood that resting is part of life. At the end of the day, if you don't take care of your head and spend time with your family, what's the point of just working?