> It is useful background knowledge here that American professionals culturally expect less vacation total than European professionals do (the norm is ~2 weeks) and expect it to be largely non-contiguous with the exception of the end-of-the-year holiday season.

The exception would be big tech companies where it's not unusual to see employees at all levels take 3 to 4 weeks vacations in the summer* , especially foreigners since they want to spend time to visit their families, and depending on their country of origin, were used to 7-8 weeks.

(* not every summer)