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Comment by henrikschroder | Hacker News Reader

> Giving employees 1 week of free time? That's nothing, and nothing will change too as a result. Give them a whole month of free time? I bet they will make some small, short term projects, even doing hobbies like gaming, fishing, cooking or golfing where it wasn't available before.

*confused in European, again*

Hey, if only there was an entire continent of hundreds of millions of people who typically have 5 weeks of paid vacation per year or more so that we could check this and see what happens?

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You have confused 5 weeks (across a year) for 5 weeks (contiguous), this isn't speciality european confusion it's the regular garden variety.

5 weeks, even contiguous is not enough to unwind from decades of job induced stress. I took some time off between jobs, and it was a solid 3 months before I noticed major improvements.

There's tons of people over here taking 3 or 4 weeks contiguous, especially if they have children. That is in addition to other vacations around christmas etc. It's definitely not 5 separate weeks.

I don't think there's a lot of things that one could do in 5 weeks, but where 4 weeks would be too short.

Tons? Hyperbole? Are they teachers or something? That amount of leave in one go is basically unheard of, with the exception of maternity leave I don't know anyone who's been on leave for more than 3 weeks as a single block.

This is also taking from that same 5 week leave bucket people have available per annum, if they're taking 4 weeks then they have 5 days to last the remainder of the year. Not that crazy, but I have literally never even met a single person who does this let alone knowing tons.

I don't know if this is a Norway exclusive thing or if some other countries have similar laws aswell, but we have the right to take three continuous weeks of vacation during summer. You don't have to take the continuous weeks, but in my experience most people do

All the time in Germany.

No, it's not hyperbole. 5 weeks vacation is the legal minimum, this also includes the right to take 4 contiguous weeks in the summer.

At my last employer, I had 6 weeks paid vacation per year, that's 4 in the summer, 1-2 weeks around the Christmas holidays, and a couple of extra days here and there if needed. Most people spent their vacations like that.

There's also something called the "industrial vacation", where related manufacturing industries coordinate the 4-week legal right, which typically results in everyone in that sector taking July off.

In Southern Europe, the same thing happens in August, it's very common that people simply take the entire month off.

> I don't know anyone who's been on leave for more than 3 weeks as a single block.

I am so sorry for you.

Multiple countries take the entirety of August off. This is most common in France, but also Italy and Spain. 5, 6 weeks of contiguous holiday is commonplace in France. This is a big enough trend for there to be data.

yes, the exact point I've mentioned, feels like an organized effort to reduce the importance of free time. "Look at those European with astonishing 5 weeks of paid vacation and they aren't productive at all!" argument without getting the point:

* no source to back them up, and equalize everyone without considering some will be productive

* equating all non-money making or enterpreneur activities as non-productive and equal to doomscrolling

* ignoring other limitations like living space size, funds availability, opportunity, license or regulation

I'm not sure about other countries in europe but in Germany your employer can and will try to prevent you from starting a company. Some are more lenient and don't care if it's another industry, but same? Usually that is not going to happen.

So the cheapest and safest way to open a company is closed to a lot of employees, even with UBI.

5 weeks is nothing over a year.

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