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Comment by ck425 | Hacker News Reader

I'd be curious to know how much time off they give their staff normally? I hear that 2 weeks is standard in the US and if so no wonder everyone's burned out. In the UK we get 6 weeks minimum and I honestly can't imagine going without that, particularly during covid.

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Tech tends to be more friendly with vacation time in the US than most other industries. It still varies a lot, but it’s not uncommon for a tech company to start you with 3-5 weeks of vacation time plus 8-12 paid holidays throughout the year. It still could be a lot better though, and I agree that it contributes greatly to burn out.

Iit is more and more common for tech companies in Bay Area to have "unlimited" PTO. For me, this translated to 5-6 weeks vacation a year at my last 3 companies.

That 6 week minimum (actually 28 days) includes bank holidays, doesn't it? I suspect the 2 week standard in the US does not include public holidays.

Yes, though some companies (finance normally) give 5+ weeks on top of bank holidays and very very few employers make you take bank holidays.

At least in Germany we have 30 days without including public holidays.

Are pubic holidays guaranteed on top of that? The UK allowance includes pubic holidays but very few employers make you take them.

They are not guaranteed if they land on a weekend, you just have a normal weekend where you cannot shop :)

They just behave like a randomly-placed Sunday. Most normal work in Germany is not allowed on Sunday (exceptions are mostly work that already operates in shifts).

Same here in France, 30 days on top of public holidays, and if you work more than 35 hours/week, you get the difference in a special type of time off that has some limitations

Yes. It’s 28 days, but employers aren’t required to give public holidays off. 25 + bank holidays is fairly common in my experience, which ends up being more than 28 days.

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