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Will America Ever Catch Up On Vacation?

LewisBraham
edited October 2015 in Off-Topic
Worth a read: benefitspro.com/2015/10/21/will-america-ever-catch-up-on-vacation?eNL=562814fb160ba061112e8a99&utm_source=BPro_Daily&utm_medium=EMC-Email_editorial&utm_campaign=10222015&_LID=175653930&page_all=1
This of course pertains to the board's recent discussion about the vanishing middle class and overcapacity. If Americans worked fewer hours and took more time off, there would be more jobs to go around as the labor could be more evenly distributed. There would also be less overproduction and less carbon emissions from overproduction if this were true worldwide. The funny thing is this article highlights this activist group's fight to reduce the work week here below 40 hours. That ignores the basic fact that many Americans are now salaried employees who work well beyond the traditional 40-hour work week. In fact, thanks to the cell phone and the Internet, there is precious little division between work and private life so that I know in certain cases there are people who are essentially working all of the time.

Comments

  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    Don't get me started. I cannot carry over my vacation so I end up losing every year. If I was working for same company in CA I would be able to carryover or cash my vacation. Neither option available in TX.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Exercise your option to move to CA!
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Lewis: Not in my lifetime probably, but in the future greatly shortened work weeks may be one tool to deal with the lack of jobs.
  • Dex
    LewisBraham said:

    That ignores the basic fact that many Americans are now salaried employees who work well beyond the traditional 40-hour work week. In fact, thanks to the cell phone and the Internet, there is precious little division between work and private life so that I know in certain cases there are people who are essentially working all of the time.

    All true.

    If the USA is going the way of reducing hours and increasing vaco; it should be original e.g. split up the year - 2 people work 1 job - 6 months on and 6 months off or similar. There would have to be some rule that if while off if the person gets another job; they are heavily taxed.

    I think that would work. Other things could be shared on that basis e.g. apartments neared work.



  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    @Dex- I am continually impressed by the depth and subtlety of your insight on these matters, and the originality of your thought processes. You should seriously consider a career in commercial network television news.
  • davidrmorandavidrmoran
    lolz --- you are HRC to Jim Jordan yesterday.
  • InformalEconomist
    Wait -- You folks have vacation?
    The gig economy is in full swing. I can't see any future change in direction.

    (The concept of weekend merits its own thread.)
  • beebee
    Old_Joe said:

    Lewis: Not in my lifetime probably, but in the future greatly shortened work weeks may be one tool to deal with the lack of jobs.

    Sounds like a campaign promise,

    "I will shorten the work week until we reach full unemployment".
  • AKAFlack
    Dex

    “If the USA is going the way of reducing hours and increasing vaco;
    it should be original e.g. split up the year - 2 people work 1 job - 6 months on and
    6 months off or similar.”

    You’re joking, right?
    Have you ever owned or operated a business?
    You work six months and are off on vacation for 6 months.
    Are you paid for 6 months of work or for the full year?
    And what about the person who works the other 6 months?

    Have you any concept of work or staff continuity?

    It’s difficult enough to find a qualified employee, let alone
    two equally qualified employees.
    One of the employees is bound to be better than the other.
    Why would I want my best employee gone for 6 months every year?

    There are more business reasons why your “original” idea stinks
    but surely you jest.
  • Dex
    Old_Joe said:

    @Dex- I am continually impressed by the depth and subtlety of your insight on these matters, and the originality of your thought processes. You should seriously consider a career in commercial network television news.

    It's a gift.
  • Sven
    @Lewis,
    many Americans are now salaried employees who work well beyond the traditional 40-hour work week.
    These exempt employees are also exempt from over-time as well. Like you pointed out cell phones change the working scene. That is one reason when I take vacation I don't answer work-related phone calls, even though I have a company-paid phone with me. Doctors also work way beyond the 40-hour week.
  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    Old_Joe said:

    Exercise your option to move to CA!

    Nah! Too expensive. Which is why I job with this company because no one wants to come to TX on first priniciples and lower salary.

    I think people in CA might prefer to emigrate to Zimbabwe before TX. At least that's how they react when they learn I'm in TX.

  • tlmtlm59tlmtlm59
    Vintage Freak - Why not just use your vacation?
  • Dex
    AKAFlack said:

    Dex

    “If the USA is going the way of reducing hours and increasing vaco;
    it should be original e.g. split up the year - 2 people work 1 job - 6 months on and
    6 months off or similar.”

    You’re joking, right?
    Have you ever owned or operated a business?
    You work six months and are off on vacation for 6 months.
    Are you paid for 6 months of work or for the full year?
    And what about the person who works the other 6 months?

    Have you any concept of work or staff continuity?

    It’s difficult enough to find a qualified employee, let alone
    two equally qualified employees.
    One of the employees is bound to be better than the other.
    Why would I want my best employee gone for 6 months every year?

    There are more business reasons why your “original” idea stinks
    but surely you jest.

    It's not about the employer's needs. It is about what the gov't sees as the needs of the economy and employee.

    Don't forget "You didn't build that, you didn't earn it." or something like that.

  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    tlmtlm59 said:

    Vintage Freak - Why not just use your vacation?

    Good question. The answer lies somewhere between I a tethered too my job and afraid to lose my job
  • Sven
    @VintageFreak, sometime I feel the same as I age. That is one reason I invest in myself in learning new skills and ready to move on elsewhere.
    ..afraid to lose my job
  • VintageFreakVintageFreak
    edited November 2015
    Sven said:

    @VintageFreak, sometime I feel the same as I age. That is one reason I invest in myself in learning new skills and ready to move on elsewhere.

    ..afraid to lose my job
    As you grow older, it becomes difficult. That's why it is important to make as much money as you can while you are younger. Made a big mistake telling my self "your time will come". Being in the IT sector, I could have made a lot of money while I was younger, but I was trying to have a "career". If I had done what everyone else around me was doing, I would have been happy right now to just to have any job which paid at least something and covered my insurance.

    Lesson for those who still have hair. Figure out your "Earning Years" vs "Accumulation Years". I never had the former which is why I have an extended stay in the latter with hope I will enter "Retirement Years" phase and not live too long.
  • Edmond
    "Catch up?" "Catch up" to whom? Thanks to a) trade liberalization, b)open borders, and c) HB1 visas, employees are competing less against other OECD countries, and more against the grinding employment standards of poorer countries.

    Employers really have more of an upper hand in setting wage & benefit standards thanks to the policy "successes" championed by the free-traders and open-borders advocates.

    Congrats to them. they've "won". We live in the world they created.

    Now get back to work!
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