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Comment by goodJobWalrus | Hacker News Reader

> One-Month Sabbatical Every Three Years: Every three years, employees are eligible to take a one-month-long sabbatical.

For some reason, I keep being surprised how a month long vacation is called "sabbatical" in American terms while in Europe everyone gets 4-6 week vacation every year, and it's not that rare to take it all at once.

4 days summer work week is nice.

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It's madness. I take a month off every year. I only get paid for two weeks vacation, but I take a month because, come on. Two free weeks a year? Who the hell ever thought that was reasonable?

> everyone

I lived in Italy for most of the past 15 years, and no not everyone gets that kind of vacation time. A lot of people don't:

* The unemployed. There are a lot of them - with youth rates approaching 40% at one point.

* People who do not have a "Permanent Job", which includes a lot of younger (under 40 is 'young' in Italy) people.

* Even people with permanent jobs are starting to take smaller vacations - 2 weeks, for instance - because the model of "hey, let's shut down the entire country during August" isn't really sustainable when you're competing against people who stay open and stay productive by taking turns taking time off.

People taking time of simultaneously has nothing to do with how much holiday you get.

Europes golden month does sound more likely to cause problems than Japan's golden week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Week_(Japan)

> "hey, let's shut down the entire country during August"

Puerto Rico does this with all schools & daycare. From the middle of July to the middle of August almost everywhere is closed. If you don't have family on the island and have younger children, you're screwed. Daycare is expensive (relative to cost of living) in Puerto Rico, and independent childcare is even more so. Sitters are also difficult to find due to cultural reasons.

Out of curiosity: What cultural reasons?

Don't the unemployed get vacation? Like, as much as they want?

I'm currently unemployed, and it feels very much like a vacation.

Its a vacation when you don't have to worry where your next paycheck will come from.

The solution is they should worry less.

It's on top of their basic vacation (which, at 3 weeks, isn't stellar, but is better than many US jobs), and the implication is that you take it all at once -- so not to be sniffed at, I'd say. It's not really equivalent to traditional academic sabbaticals, but it is potentially enough to study something new or get a little side-project off the ground.

Edit: the 4-day-summer-weeks thing should typically work out as an extra 17 days off per year, which makes the total -- before counting sabbatical -- higher than the great majority of UK employers, albeit (maybe) with less flexibility.

Or, you know, actually spend the time (and all the money) and get away from a screen. No amount of money could convince not to travel for at least a month or two each year

(+ about 12 weeks in Barcelona/London/Florence, but with a notebook)

the flexibility is pretty important though... I'd rather just take the 17 days off all at once and go travel somewhere.

In the United States of "why aren't you working right now?" it's certainly an unusual benefit. I also work for a company that provides a sabbatical after X years. They also pay for you to travel during it if you wish. But I don't know how many people make it to it/take it.

Hehe, yes this is what I find rather strange.

In Germany, companies feel much more conservative (you have to be in office from 9 to 18), but you get 4-6 weeks a year off.

In the US, companies feel much more modern and liberal (you can work remote etc.), but you only get 2-3 weeks off.

I had to start freelancing, to get both benefits.

I used to work for a company which did this, though it was 4 weeks each 4 years. It was actually mandatory: to check that that the company could function without you.

Mandatory vacations are also a good way to detect fraud. Most fraud schemes require ongoing work to avoid detection, and having someone else do your job for a while can lead to the scheme being discovered or unraveling in your absence.

For those who have not entirely automated their fraud ;)

I work in the US and get 4 weeks of vacation a year, but I wouldn't take it all at once in the summer. My kids are in school and schools close for 3 weeks during the normal school year - one between Christmas and New Years, one in February and one in April. The Christmas to New Years week coincides with 4 of the days my office is closed (Christmas eve and day, New years eve and day), so I can take 2 to 3 days off and be home for that stretch. That leaves about a week and a half in the summer for a summer vacation. If you're taking 4 weeks in the summer, do you not take time at all the rest of the year? Do schools in your country not have vacations?

But the school is also closed during the summer? Where I live there is free daycare for kids up to 12 (?) or so during holidays, but many people take some vacation days during the year and maybe 3-4 weeks during the summer.

Yes, school is also closed during the summer, but kids have special summer arrangements, either "camps" or daycare, or staying home with a relative.

Kids in the US typically go to school 180 days a year, and so they're off about 80 week days every year.

They offer vacations too (3 weeks per year - towards the end of the list). I think Sabbatical is on top of that. I think their benefits are quite good even compared to the typical benefits of nice-to-work European countries (i.e. Germany).

The money is quite good ($100 for fitness, etc.), but 15 days holiday is very bad. The statutary minimum is 20 days in most of Europe, and 25 is common in the UK (plus 8 bank holidays; I think you get 11?). I get 27 days. My g/f gets 25 with the option to buy 5 more.

http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/story_med...

With the four-day-weeks in the summer, it's really ~32 days (albeit with some restrictions on when you take them). They also mention "a few personal days" -- so call it 35 total? I've seen few places offer more than that...

That's true.

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