Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Do Vacations Work?

The other main theme of the first class today was how different societies value “vacation,” which could be defined as time not spent working at your main money-earning endeavor when you normally would be.  The US is the only “industrialized” country that does not legally require companies to give people vacation.  The average amount of vacation taken by Americans is 10.5 days per year.  Germans are granted 24 by law and usually take 30.  Australians get 20 and take 25, and Japanese are guaranteed 10 and take 17.5.  My French students assured me that if that chart had been larger, they would be right near the top too.  They said that happy workers are better workers, and you need time to step away from work, recharge and enjoy life so you can work optimally when you return.

I agree.

But you don’t just need vacations from work.

You can also take vacations from your society, so you can understand that there are other ways to see.  Then again, those "vacations" involve a lot of work.

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