Hacker News Reader

Comment by diggan | Hacker News Reader

I find it surprising that this is a news story. Most things around here (Spain) are closed around Christmas and everything moves very slow overall as lots of people are on holiday. Is it not common for companies to have a break around Christmas in the US?

View on HN

It's not common for companies to have many breaks at all in the US — paid time off is a rare luxury for many workers here. The country's culture is riddled with Protestant views on work and its virtue, which when combined with our rampant individualism and disdain for public works leads to The Hustle being an idolized state.

It has its upsides and downsides. Upsides include the country generally being pretty darn industrious and a hotbed for entrepreneurship, and having good socioeconomic mobility prospects for those who (A) don't start out genuinely poor, and (B) are willing to be obsessive about work. Downsides include burnout, dispassionate employees, and an icky tendency to associate poverty with immorality and wealth with morality. I personally believe we could definitely stand to move a little further in the European direction when it comes to labor culture and laws here in the USA.

A perspective from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean: a company I used to work for moved from n days paid leave, freely distributable, to n - m days freely distributable plus m days fixed in that Christmas/NYE week with its horrible weather, thankyouverymuch.

I mean, US consumer culture also supports it. I have to admit that my brain went there yesterday. I got my kid Gift A for Christmas, and I should have also remembered to get Accessory B to go with it. But obviously most stores were closed. I briefly thought to myself "Hmm, I bet I could get it overnighted from Amazon--we know Bezos doesn't give his minions even a microsecond of time off!" But then I calmed down and acknowledged it's not urgent and the kid can wait until we get around to it. First World Problem but it kind of illustrates the US mindset. I was almost ready to get disappointed that STORES were not open and available to me on a widely-recognized holiday. Good grief!

I had a minor conniption when I slowly realized that all stores would be closed between 4PM on the 24th through 6AM on the 26th. OH MY GOD what if I ran out of milk, or something I stupidly forgot. Then I got a hold of myself and looked in the fridge and pantry - whatever it was, it could wait, there are plenty of substitutes. I feel that we Americans are over-acclimated and conditioned to want and get the specific thing and quickly, we're eroding our ability to adapt, be inventive, think different. It's very convenient here, then I spend time in Europe and I was always surprised to rediscover that most shops close after 6, you can show up in the middle of the day to a shop and there will be a sign saying they're closed for 2 weeks, or back in 2 hours. It was perplexing to try and find a Paris restaurant opened Sunday evening, because why wouldn't you be opened for diners on the weekend? That's when people go out, is it not? Not sure if I would make the trade, there's something to be said for the convenience of being able to shop outside a very strict window of retail hours.

Let's just say that my initial reaction was: they must be dealing with staffing shortages. While it is fairly common for people to have time off around the holidays in Canada (which this decision also affects), the privilege rarely extends to retail employees. If anything, they are expected to work longer and harder between Christmas and New Years because it is still considered part of the peak retail season.

It’s uncommon in low paying retail jobs, yes. It is the busiest time of year.

It’s much more common in corporate jobs. So many people take vacation at that time that you can easily be unable to accomplish much at work otherwise. So either taking some of your vacation then or just having the whole place shut down is really typical.

Same in France. The company where I work is closed, at least offices. It is mandatory holiday, except if you have a specific job (customer support, some accounting-stuff maybe - not sure), etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com