Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed. When I was an exec at Serco, I had the lowest sickness records, the highest productivity and profitability levels out of my teams, with the lowest turn over of staffing. Why? Well I gave them intellectual challenges and personalised development plans that aided their progression, but also actively promoted home working, flexible working, and tried to be very supportive of work life balance. In short, it was more successful than the guys that treated their folks like dirt. On the flip side, we would often pull all nighters, or all weekenders, but because it was a two way street, they were willing to do it (plus I always called the pizza dude). When working with our US counterparts, they were always far less flexible.
Originally Posted By Mr X "Well, then what made our economy so bad?" It's the governments' fault! And certainly NOT the fault of the corporate fat cats who played fast and loose with all the standard methods and practices because there was a pathetic lack of regulation which had previously protected regular folks like you and me since the great depression!
Originally Posted By Mr X ***actively promoted home working, flexible working, and tried to be very supportive of work life balance*** If only everyone in your position would understand this... ***On the flip side, we would often pull all nighters, or all weekenders, but because it was a two way street, they were willing to do it*** When you have a great leader at the helm (as you certainly seem to be!), it's very EASY for the workers to get behind the boss and pitch in because, when it comes right down to it, pretty much EVERYONE wants to succeed and get the job done (whatever the job may be). ***(plus I always called the pizza dude)*** Now you're just showing off.
Originally Posted By gadzuux The Wall Street rap on European labor is that they only want to work eight months a year, and get paid for fourteen. I'd sign up for that. What bugs me more is the measly number of holidays in the US - and some of them are in mortal danger. For some reason, President's Day is falling out of favor with corporate america. Nevermind that it used to be TWO holidays - Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's birthday - that were merged into one. Now many businesses are doing away with it altogether. This means that there is no holiday between January 1 and the Memorial Day at the end of May - five full months without a single holiday. Crazy. As for MLK day, except for federal, state and schools, it never got off the ground. Part of that might be timing - people don't really want a holiday in the 2nd week of January - we're just coming off the big holiday season. Veteran's Day got swept away some time ago. Yes, it's still "observed" but who gets it off, other than the aforementioned federal, state and school workers. So we're left with Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Chistmas and New Years. And people tend to use their precious and few vacation days by padding them around these long three day weekends. I want more. But then I'm a lazy and shiftless gold-bricker with no motivation.
Originally Posted By EdisYoda Try working retail! I only get 3 holidays off a year: Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I don't get paid for them since I'm paid wholly on commission.
Originally Posted By Mr X I guess the Yoda personna goes away when serious matters come up. I feel for ya, Ed. I hope you can negotiate some real vacation time post haste! ***So we're left with Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Chistmas and New Years. And people tend to use their precious and few vacation days by padding them around these long three day weekends*** Wow. I've been away for a really long time, it seems! I had no idea it had come down to this. As bad as Japan is, at least there is a myriad of national holidays to look forward to, including several weeks, or near-weeks, in which most folks in the country have some vacation time. Not that that is any sort of improvement over the European system, it definitely is NOT. But it is true that national holidays are fairly abundant in Japan (I know this as a plain fact because, as an independent worker I get cancellations from clients all the time because of all of these precious holidays! They seem to occur at least monthly if not more (some months have more than others). I would consider that a good thing, overall). But it sounds to me like America is becoming worse than either! Yikes!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Australia has a cool system - standard is 4 weeks per year after the first year, rising by an additional week for every 60 weeks of employment with a single employer. This means, in most cases, that you could expect to receive around 13 weeks of leave after 15 years of employment. Brazil start at 7.
Originally Posted By irishfan Yes the Australian system is awesome, it's called "Long Service Leave".
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo In the public sector, there is a long service leave that is capped at 35 days a year. I worked for one firm where you could "buy" leave for up to 32 days a year e.g. you got 25 days as standard, and you could have a 7 day paycut and take those days too. That was cool.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper There was a little talk here of our municipality going to a four day work week (four 10 hour days) but the City Manager shut the idea down. His reason? The staff couldn't afford to have three day weekends. Sadly, he was probably right. I likely couldn't have afforded it.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^^What I think he means is that, even as a gov't worker, he gets so little paid time off that he can't afford to "blow them" on 3 day weekends.
Originally Posted By fkurucz "or at least threatened that they are "out of the loop" for a few days and could suffer for taking off a week or two." There is great deal of fear of being laid off in Corporate America these days, which is why people also take their laptops home with them and often work late into the night. Going away for anything longer than an extended weekend? Too dangerous.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>I think it is sad and telling on the CNN story, the comments are things like: "I am glad I only have a week's vacation" "we are already so entitled, why do we deserve vacation time" And the scariest of all: "There is no where I want to go or places I want to see" How sad.....<< I've met people like that. 9 times out of ten they are redneck Protestant Fundamentalists, who see things like paid time off, decent benefits and even a living wage as being a sign of the satanic, socialist bogeyman, while at the same time cheering our war machine for doing "God's work".
Originally Posted By wahooskipper fku is right. The Manager's point was that we don't make enough money that we would be able to have three day weekends...which would lend themselves, I suppose, to more discretionary spending and whatnot.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost What makes it more of a situation here in the states can boil down to one word...FEAR. With jobs scarce, people are afraid to say that they want some time off for fear of getting more time off then they bargained for. Employees are running scared and I wish I could say that they have no reason to do so, but there are all kinds of unemployed out there that would be happy to step into their jobs. This economy will eventually turn upward and when it does it will be "judgment" day for employers that made their workers feel worthless and make them put family on the back burner in the name of power. One of the reasons that I retired was because of this attitude that I owed my whole life to the "company". I certainly did not. I owed them a days work for a days pay, nothing more. I might be willing to do more but I did not owe it to them. I did know that if I was ever placed in a position that made me chose between my job or my family. The family would have always won.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>>fku is right. The Manager's point was that we don't make enough money that we would be able to have three day weekends...which would lend themselves, I suppose, to more discretionary spending and whatnot.<<< What about BBQs, frisbee, feeding ducks, painting and decorating, games, etc.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Goofyernmost, sadly the same thing happens here. Earlier in my career I skipped funerals and Dr's appointments for that fear (for some reason, leave was ok when planned months in advance). I got tired of it. It did not seem fair to my family. the best company I ever worked for was family owned. They have family inclusive BBQs, and partners/wives/husbands were invited to christmas parties/ celebrations. When my son was born, they agreed I could rent cottages and take the family with me on the road. I was with them for 8 years and would do anything for them. And even though I was paid a little under market rates, I would still be there now if the owners did not sell the business to a publically traded company. That is when it changed, and I left to go to another firm that offered 60% more money. funny thing was, I was never happy in the corporate world. It was so shallow and heartless. I may be poorer now, but overall I think I am happier running my smaller business.
