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Comment by lawn | Hacker News Reader

Is that supposed to be a lot? Here in Sweden people usually take ~4 weeks or more consecutively during the summer vacation.

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In the US, taking 4 consecutive weeks off is literally unheard of, a lot of people don't even have 4 weeks to take off in a non-consecutive way.

Even taking 2 weeks off consecutively, it would not be unusual to require "special" permission for.

Yes, it's terrible.

I don't know about that. Many people I currently work with take a month vacation to visit India.

True, but not every year, usually. And they don't take any other vacation to save up for that trip.

OK, very few people I know get 4 weeks vacation at all, including myself, and of those even fewer could take it all at once without pre-negotiating that with their boss, it would be considered unusual.

But we know different people! I don't know a lot of people with six figure engineering jobs.

Apparently here's what the US Bureau of Labor Statistics last said about it:

> One reason for this is that American companies offer fewer vacation days. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 76 percent of private industry workers (who make up 84.7 percent of all workers) receive paid vacation days. After one year of employment, these workers were granted 10 days of paid vacation, on average.

> This number grows modestly as years of tenure with an employer increase. In 2017, the average worker with five years of experience at a company was given 15 days of paid vacation and the average worker with 20 years of experience was given 20 paid vacation days.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/05/heres-how-many-paid-vacation...

Just in case it's not clear: when Swedes talk about 4 weeks of vacation, they also count the weekend that they have off anyway, so 15 days = 3 weeks and 20 days = 4 weeks

yep, same here. Apparently it's typical here in USA, for those who get paid vacation at all (ie not restaurant staff and other low-wage hourly workers), to get 4 weeks after... 20 years of tenure at the same employer!

BLS says half of employees get 10 days off, meaning half get less...

That's not what "literally" means.

Parental leave is commonly 6-12weeks, especially among the HN audience.

I will note that here in Romania for example, maternal leave is commonly 6 months-1 year (legally you can request up to 2 years), and paternal leave is at least 4-6 weeks, at least for middle class jobs.

You might want to update your understanding of the usage and meaning of that word. [1] It's literally incorrect. ;-)

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-lite...

More vacation is of course better, but you also have the opposite "problem" in Sweden, if you don't want to take 4 consecutive weeks, but prefer to spread it out, it also usually has to be negotiated and will be treated as an exception and possible denied.

Just curious, is it possible to take unpaid vacation in the US or is that also unheard of?

It's certainly possible at some companies. There generally aren't any laws about it. Usually it's left up to managers to approve or deny.

Usually possible, with stipulations such as, you are out of regular vacation, many mgmt approvals, and probably some kind of “risk assessment” saying the project you’re on will be fine without you… its rare and not usually part of the “culture” to do so, but ive seen it happen.

The only time I've ever seen that first-hand was a guy who was involved in a non-profit that did disaster relief in Haiti and was gone for a month and a half.

In most companies in the USA, 2 consecutive weeks off is longer than normal. Not unusual to have a total of 2-4 weeks vacation to use each year.

Sounds great to me, as a Swede I hate being forced to take 4 weeks consecutive vacation. Would love to instead have 2-4 weeks spread out through the year. It's a stressful burden for me as a single person who's life naturally revolves mostly around their job, to suddenly invent a new life for myself for 5 weeks. I just end up bored and restless, wasting time, even if I travel 4 weeks is just too long. 1 week at a time is perfect really

Edit: And you have to take those weeks in the summer as well, you can't take 4 consecutive weeks in fall, winter or spring. So it's really inflexible. If you want to go hunting in fall, and skiing in March, tough luck, in Sweden everyone "needs" to take all their vacation in the summer for some unknown reason.

It really depends on the place you work, I don't need to take my vacation during the summer for instance.

Yes but like the comment says, it's the norm so you'd be lucky if you don't have to do it and most likely it will not be possible.

It's like you have to retire every year and go through that difficult transition to a jobless person. Many people just end up drinking too much.

It’s the same in Finland. I’d hazard a guess that the reason behind it is that without it being forced people would be subtly pressed not to have the vacation.

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