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Comment by v21 | Hacker News Reader

I understand it's pretty normal for America, but 15 days paid holiday seems so small to me. 22.5 here in the UK + bank holidays, and I don't feel it's particularly generous. Hmm...

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10-15 vacation days in the USA is typical, especially with less than a decade of experience [0][1]. I do wish I had more vacation (I get 15 days), but if I use it all each year and avoid working nights and weekends, I never feel symptoms of burnout. If I add my hobby projects, 60 hours a week feels sustainable, especially if I watch for feelings that might lead to burnout and take immediate corrective action.

Even worse: sometimes your responsibilities increase faster than your vacation days. My Dad was unable to take half of his vacation at his old job because of the amount of the company he managed.

[0] http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0922052.html#axzz0x9O67WhF

[1] http://media.expedia.com/media/content/expus/graphics/promos...

Man, I want more than not burning out.

Heh. My manager emailed me today, reminding me I have 10 days of holiday left in the year and that I should remember to take them. I'm planning walking along Offa's Dyke with my brother, and also taking off some days to work on side projects. And maybe a skiing trip...

(and my dad had the same problems - I think it was one of the factors in my parents breaking up. Now he's remarried and he takes far more time off, despite being in an yet-higher position. I think he's a fair bit happier, too.)

What's even more concerning for me is that it is "15 Days of Paid Time Off." Not sure about Dropbox, but at a previous employer of mine that meant "15 Days of Vacation/Sick Time."

I don't know the details, but when I worked for a company based in SF (like Dropbox), they claimed there was a law that compelled them to count sick time and vacation in one bucket.

CA has some really weird rules. In addition to that, there's also a cash-out rule that vacation can't be expired without compensation.

So, managers have to be persnickety about having you track the time you spend out of the office going to the dentist, etc. because otherwise the company can get shafted with a bill for the "untaken" paid time off at the end of the year / when the employee leaves.

Cash-out can be abused, but on the other hand, if you don't exert pressure on your employees to continually work overtime, or take as little sequential leave as possible, that's less of a problem.

Though I know it's somewhat common practice here in New Zealand to start not taking leave if you're about to quit, so you can get one or two extra paychecks when you quit, and time it so you have two weeks to a month before your new job starts.

Same benefit, plus a nice cash bonus.

Not saying it's the best thing to do for employers that treat you right, but if you're not being paid overtime, and being asked to work it and weekends a lot, it's not like you don't deserve getting that back if you leave.

Yeah that's the trend now, PTO is either a sick day or vacation day. It's best to clarify upfront what they mean. My last job had 15 PTO days (to be used for vacation or sick time), but my current job is 15 PTO days plus 6 paid sick days. Plus we get 13 holidays vs my last job's 8 (adding Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, Columbus Day, MLK Day, and the employee's birthday).

Ugh, I had heard that too. Sick days are completely separate over here. I don't understand doing it otherwise - do you want sick people to come in? Go home, recover, and don't infect the office.

As mentioned by others, 10 is typical for a new employee. 15 is common after some number of years of employment.

I have been with my current employer for 8 years and I have 20 days of vacation, 8 sick days and 2 personal days in addition to the standard holidays.

The US standard (if you get paid holidays at all) is 10 days in most workplaces. 15 is relatively generous.

I did work at a University that gave some employees 24 days plus holidays, which was fantastic, and institutionally tolerable because the work load of the University was so much lower in the summer months. But while the benefits were good, the wages were about 60% of the market rate.

I think it's a common denominator around Europe. I Italy I was getting 23 days and here in the Netherlands I get 25 days per year. But I agree that I don't feel like they are being so generous.

Yep, I believe 20 working days is the european legal minimum, official holidays excluded. Countries can go above (Finland and France mandate a minimum of 5 weeks).

It's standard. Actually pretty good here. It's meant to grow too, in most cases. Does UK PTO get bigger the more you work?

Don't know about UK, but in Iceland it's generally 22.5 days as well as a minimum, but with each year you work for an employer it increases.

But it also depends on which union you're a part of etc.

Including bank/public holidays the legal minimum for a full-time employee in the UK is 5.6 weeks, or 28 days. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7740249.stm)

I have 29.5 days in total, with some of those being compulsory because the office is closed. Some are confusingly called 'compulsory discretionary' holidays due to the hilarious management I have.

My employer adds an extra half a day each year you stay with the company, plus another half a day if you meet sickness attendance targets.

Yeah, I think I get an extra half day a year. I forget, though, because I haven't been here a year, and we just got bought out and had all this stuff reshuffled.

There's no legal requirement for your holiday entitlement to increase each year - it just needs to be at least the minimum number of days.

In my experience, different companies handle it in different ways - one company I was with increased it by five days, but on your fifth anniversary with the company. I've also heard of companies giving one-off extra holidays for long service or other achievements.

If you're employed directly by a large company, your holiday situation is usually pretty good in the UK. If you're employed through an agency or you're a temporary worker, then it's usually pretty dire (compared to the UK norm - probably still quite good compared to the US).

In Canada, it's common to start with 10 days.

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