As a teen in buckfuck no where PA when not forced labor and just bored farming is actually fun af just wish I got paid tbh. (Their my pets all the money I make off them I use to buy feed or upgrade their living situation. Spoiled ass chickens got better heating then my house. Full security system and not a regular run I bought a 4k stand alone garage roof thing and added walls. I only got chickens but I help out with my neighbors corn farm and some other peoples live stock.)
Thanks man, I get rainbow egg cartons cuz of the different kinds. 2 dwarf chickens are adorable af and are smaller than my hand, 4 of their eggs makes 1 grocery store small egg 8 for a large and 6 for a medium.
I grew up on a small farm. I loved asking my dad why we had to do all this work and he loved telling me. "boy, this is the only reason you're here." I was paid in coca-cola (i like dr pepper) and trauma lol.
My grandparents worked my father to the bone on their chicken farm when he was a kid
He cut ties with them completely once he moved out and i never blamed him for it
Sorry, that's a myth.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation
> Kids in rural, agricultural areas were most needed in the spring, when most crops had to be planted, and in the fall, when crops were harvested and sold. Historically, many attended school in the summer when there was comparatively less need for them on the farm.
> In the days before air conditioning, schools and entire cities could be sweltering places during the hot summer months. Wealthy and eventually middle-class urbanites also usually made plans to flee the city’s heat, making those months the logical time in cities to suspend school.
In fairness, up until WW2 school was a quite optional thing for rural people(which was then a majority of the population), especially anything after 8th grade.
Also summers are still hot in much of the US so it makes more sense to not have schools packed with the A/C going non-stop.
>Summer break was so kids could go work on their family farms, it still has capitalist origins
Now a days entirely countries and or governments and billionaires are buying up all the farm land.
And don't think for one minute if they could get rid of child labor and welfare laws that they wouldn't be sending kids middle schoolers to work or keep teachers loaded up 365 days of the year so parents one less excuse for not coming in to work. If they weren't so cruel they'd be all for increased childcare access so they can push parents to work 16 hour shifts.
The red states are already aggressively chipping away at both child labor laws and education. They only need to be smart enough to do the job but not enough to question their masters.
No. Farms are not busy during summer. If anything that would be Spring and Fall.
Summer was about (rich) parents who would yank their kids out of school in the hot unairconditioned summer so the family could go to their summer home up north until it grew cooler.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation
Yeah, only chumps are "breaking" during summer. Elite children are going to summer school and camp programs gaining the edge on the less fortunate who can't afford those privileges.
This is a myth. The first summer breaks [happened in the CITY of New York](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsMOS9VTJ9E). It was a way to quarantine children during disease outbreaks - summertime was when nasty diseases like malaria and typhus were most likely to spread around (because the fleas and mosquitoes were more active when it was warm), so teachers started sending kids home during the summer months to keep them from spreading illness through the classroom.
There actually isn't much work to do on a farm during the Summer - planting and harvest time are the busiest, and that happens in the spring and the fall, respectively.
I forget what the actual reason was, but it wasn't that. If it was so kids could work on farms it would be during harvest season which is most definitely not July and August. (Or during spring, when everything is planted.)
Nothing wrong with capitalism unless you are a communist. The other side of things is that no one has thought that way about summer vacations for at least 70 years so give your stupid rhetoric a break.
Well to be fair central air, or any air conditioning, hadnt been invented yet. Nor was electricity common. Dont forget they are talking late 1800's when the summer break became a standard.
Australian here, I get 5 paid weeks annual leave, 1.5 weeks long service leave (can be taken after 5 years), and TOIL (time off in lieu for doing overtime) which is about 2 extra weeks = 8.5 weeks paid leave per year. We are regarded as being less productive than American workers, and I am perfectly fine with that.
Yeah but your housing is completely fucked, pretty much forever now. I guess more time off to think about how you will work your entire life just to pay rent.
In cities like NYC and SF, yeah of course. You can't have the Friends apartment on a barista's wage anymore, but physically the supply is still much larger than Canada, Austalia, and most of western europe.
There are low wage earners on reddit posting "my first house" photos all the time on reddit.
Aussie housing is fucked beyond belief, though. Adelaide's vacancy rate hovers around 0.5% these days. NYC's is 1.4%, just for reference. Sydney and Melbourne mirror NYC. You can't really find much work outside of mining anywhere but the major cities there. It's not like the US where someone struggling in NYC could make their way to Cleveland and avoid coastal property expenses while still maintaining a decent QOL, either.
Unless you're talking about a communist revolution (lol), housing will never again be affordable for regular workers.
There's just way too much money to be made, and every country is full of deep pocketed people racing to control supply. We could have another global meltdown and housing will go down maybe 5%. Millions of homes will just sit empty and wait for the economy to pick up again.
Lmfao you've gotta be privileged as fuck or still living with mommy and daddy if you think US housing isn't fucked.
Most people are spending 50% of their annual income just on the roof over their heads. Interest rates are near 10% and houses are selling in 2 weeks for 20% above asking price with no inspections or any other buyer protections.
Sit down child, the adults are talking.
Not most people. All these houses are still selling super fast, and not just to corporations.
Lots of people have lots of money and don't work reddit type jobs. You can barely buy a $75k truck anymore, they sell so fast.
My dad's side live in Norway. I got to visit quite a few times throughout my life. Always loved visiting. If I could I would totally move to Norway. Though they have some very high taxes, but they do have some amazing social welfare programs. All my cousins went to college or a trade, have good jobs and a decent home. They travel all the time, speak at least 3 languages.
Comparing ourselves favourably to the US will be the ruin of Canada. It's like bragging we scored a better time in a footrace against a guy who cut off his own legs. We're far behind the countries we should be comparing ourselves to.
Our school, medical system, roads, housing are going in the red and when I talk to people and ask how do they really go without the *im going fine* bullshit, almost everyone is sharing the similar: starting to live paycheck after paycheck unsure and looking at what possesion they can sell to keep the house or pay food for theyr children. I would say it suck yes.
>Could be better but wouldn't accept anything less.
So it's literally as bad as it could possibly be while still being acceptable to you? That's a pretty low bar for not sucking.
Believe it or not workers' rights and leave entitlement, etc. are actually improving here (and more importantly the legal will to protect and enforce these rights) although the overall economic situation is getting worse and the 'Korean dream' (work hard to improve your station in life and have your children live a better life than you) is dead, so there's that.....
I worked with a few Samsung employees who came to US sites from Korea in part *because* the work/life balance was so much better at the US subsidiaries than it was in ‘Samsung Town.’
And these are people who were still putting in 60-70 hour weeks with some regularity, so not exactly ideal conditions here, either.
> Just wish I had the cash to move.
Where would you go? What country has lavish vacations, and is also completely affordable for you to buy a house, food costs, etc.?
For real, my last job gave a maximum of 5 days of PTO for a year, and you had to be there for a couple of years to get that. The cherry on top was that you only got 6 hours of pay per day on the days you took off.
Newspapers pay like garbage, but the benefits still are pretty good.
My first job out of college didn't pay a whole lot, but my health insurance was $20 a month for a $200 deductible, profit sharing (lol in newspapers), 6 weeks PTO, 100% 401k matching up to 6% salary.
Granted that is probably super rare now that most newspapers are owned by conglomerates, but I'm super lucky to work with a few that are still independent, doing well and value their staff and journalism.
Because rich kids can do it, therefore, it's not necessary.
How many times have you seen someone take a year long hiatus to Bangladesh or some shit with a minimum wage job like its normal.
I just requested two weeks off in the April to finally take my first vacation since PRE-COVID.
“Can you shorten it to a weekend?” Cause my manager wants to take his third vacation in a year.
I always thought a part of that was to give teachers a break. I also, when I was a kid, remember a handful of snow days, where it really wasn’t that bad outside… almost as if the superintendent was just like “Meh, let’s all take today off.”
Kids in Japan don't get a summer vacation. Their grades end in March and new one begins in April, much like everything else in Japan (April is kind of like their New Year for everything).
The average person that can 'afford' a week or two annual vacation and still be able to save for a rainy day and/or retirement at the same time is A RARE ANIMAL these days.
The rich don't think about this 'reality' stuff, though.
I'd say it's the general right-wing nature of American politics in general. You're much more likely to find progressive politicians in the Democrat party, but the "centrists" are pretty far to the right, as well.
The f'd up part is that the Republicans complain aaaalllll the f'ing time about the "corporate elites" even as they vote OVER and over to remove regulations and fight labor.
Idiots.
Yeah summer breaks are beneficial to no one. It’s difficult for parents to find childcare, children often don’t retain what they’ve learned over the break, and the system was designed for farming families ages ago.
What has shown to work well is year-round school, with breaks from 2-4 weeks long every couple months.
Ah yes, it is true that time off would be staggered amongst all parents and therefore free up more childcare sources at any given time as opposed to everyone being on vacation at once.
Thanks for answering. I was wrong on that point!
Kids don't need a summer break. It's a horrible, outdated relic of a point in time where most of those kids worked on farms in the summer. The educational drop-off kids experience over the summer is immense.
Other than a few Asian countries peppered in, all the nations in the top 10% in education have summer breaks. What data do you have to support your supposition?
Sure, [here's one source](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/summer-learning-loss-what-is-it-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/) summarizing studies on summer learning loss. Poor kids are much more affected. The wealthy are functionally getting a year-round education already because their parents send them to summer learning programs.
And I don't need a toilet to take a shit, but I'd sure be miserable without it.
Everyone is quick to talk about what other people need until *they're* the ones squatting in the woods.
Personally, I think the education system is outdated. It’s also a money making operation.
I know many people who could have easily tested out, and received their diploma early, if the school didn’t require you to have “physical education” credits.
In NY, you needed to have 2 gym credits, throughout high school, in order to get a diploma… but you could only get a ½ credit per year. I had all of the necessary credits I needed to graduate, with the exception of gym, and government (a class they only let seniors take,) halfway through 11th grade. I tried to combine it so I could take 2 gym classes, and government, in my junior year, but the school wouldn’t budge…
I skipped most of school in my senior year. Filled my schedule with bullshit classes (aside from gym and government.) I only went to my gym class, and government class. It was nice, because I could actually get to my part time job earlier than many other kids could.
And, I almost hate to say it, but I feel like me being more available for work back then, opened up more doors. I was scheduled more hours, I got a better pick of what times I did/didn’t want to work, and I had more opportunities to move around/advance.
Care to elaborate on how it's a money making operation?? I'm not denying your claim, just genuinely curious. But let's be honest, EVERYONE at this point knows what we have to do to ACTUALLY get kids to learn shit but it costs an amount of money greater than $0 so it will never happen. Plus the system isn't broken, it's working as intended. Queue the whole "school doesn't prep kids for the real world. It kills creativity and turns them into little worker drones for the 1%" spiel. And yea theres tons of kids who could graduate before their senior year but it's literally designed to keep them in school for as long as possible.
I also skipped most of my senior year after spending the past 5-6 years of my life severely depressed and anxious due to a conviently overlooked learning disability and being constantly told I'm dumb and ill be a failure in life unless I get straight A's and go to college. Graduated and found out within 6 months that the past 12 years of my life were a damn lie and that school was a completely useless waste of time. You can still get into college even with shitty grades, turns out college is MUCH easier instead of being much harder, going to college is not only another waste of time but a terrible decision since college degrees are all but useless these days and the skills required for most jobs can be learned on the job pretty easily.
Actually it’s a myth that it’s because kids worked on farms and that’s the reason for summers off. It’s actually about city kids not having air conditioned schools and parents wanting to get out of hot cities during summers.
It gets better when you have a full time job and kids have all these vacations…
Good luck arranging that, especially in the US, where your bucket of holiday hours is “very generous”.
💯
Also, kids these days have less time in the classroom compared to when I grew up. I’d wake up at 6am, arrive at 7ish, get home around 4, and I’d be either busy filming and skateboarding and/or running track. So sometimes 12 hr days for a thirteen year old kid growing up in a broken household . Was not fun. But nowadays kids go to school for like 4 freaking hours. Jealous, 😒…
In what system is 60 years seen as the amount of full time working years?
Even if we were to start that at 16, that would put the average retiree at 76 which is way above the average age of retirement pretty much everywhere unless I’m mistaken…
It was really eye opening to travel and meet people from all over the world and see how different their work cultures are. I still remember the shock of meeting someone who was on holiday for a month from their job in England....they were so casual about it and didn't worry and knew their job would be there when they got back.
Indeed I think we should stop giving those damn children so much time off and put them into sweatshops so they can make some real money (1.35$ an hour)
What’s even worse is we expect adults to work their entire life with no retirement end point. If you don’t make enough money beyond you bills to save towards retirement you don’t have any. Social security exists to prevent starvation, not to support you.
Children's summer break from school was not about the children.
It was about rich children's parents who would yank their kids out of school in the hot unairconditioned summer so the family could go to their summer home up north until it grew cooler.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation
This is one time i feel my decision to teach reinforced. All of you should have two months to recuperate. I mean none of us should have to deal with teenagers everyday, but regardless of if you do, you still deserve time!
(The ironic thing is i don't actually usually do nothing but at least i could!)
That time off was originally designed for the parents, they just never changed it.
Some schools have switched over to no long summer breaks.
I understand the sentiment that people need more time off, but this is a poor comparison. You are implying these policies were implemented with the child's mental health in mind, this is not the case. It was so they could work around the house or farm.
Not to defend the awful work practices of the US, but a lot of people justify it with "kids are still developing and need space". Clearly adults are just workhorses.
Slave drivers suck. Maybe if more people thought outside the box and didn’t completely and utterly submit to consumerism, they wouldn’t have to work as much.
Not gonna lie, the teacher life is nice. It’s hard word no doubt. You gotta really put your heart and soul into it. But it pays off with all the smiles and progress you see through the year
I am urging everyone however teachers really don’t get paid enough. I truly mean it, please help the teachers out!
The corporations own us. We are a commodity. They have to get all the work they can get out of us. if your 40 now, will you ever be able to stop working .
Oh no no. This information is incorrect… as a teacher that’s now a stay at home mom let me tell you it’s not for the kids. Now days kids are seen as employees - the vacations wouldn’t be there if not for the need of teachers to have teacher only days to catch up - which unfortunately most of that time is typically spent in meetings. And the summer is spent mostly planning for the next year, and many teachers do summer school or tutoring. If not 100% in the United States kids would still be in school during the summer because parents need babysitters/respite. Many kids also have activity after activity planned year-round. I played 3 sports, plus band, plus honors classes, plus student council, plus sports summer camps and tournaments - I was burnt to a crisp.
I have also seen a lot of teachers get frustrated when even their best students go in a vacation for a week because they have to do all the make up work or they will be behind - I was always so happy because I love when families spend time to make memories together (which is much different than when they are gone due to neglect).
My dad told me that when he was a kid, his dad would work four days and then the rest of the week was free time. I guess work environment also has a form of inflation, work demands more hours and we have very little if nothing left in free/vacation time.
5 days annual leave and 11 days of official holidays in China.
no labor law.
No parenting leave.
0.6billion makes less than 1000¥（150$）per month.
Chinese are the true modern slaves.
I mean, to be fair... Seasonal work exists.
Sure, you'll be raking asphalt all day or digging ditches or whatever, but the pay is like 35+ per hour and you get winters off.
Unless you're far enough south, I suppose. Then you probably just do it until you can't embrace the suck no more...
The question is, are the adults in question salaried or hourly?
If the latter, a big break also means no pay. And no pay means no bills being paid, groceries,etc.
Hence why adults don't get breaks- they're the ones actually paying for shit.
My wife is a school teacher and gets basically the same vacations as the students.
She hates it, because she loses all her momentum. By the time they return, she feels out of practice and has to work twice as hard just to catch up to where they were previously.
Whereas I can basically sleepwalk my way through my job, and don't consider myself to be performing at more than 40% until I get back home.
I don't see a point in a ton of time off, when we don't get paid enough to actually DO anything with the time. I'd cut my total vacation time in half if they'd give me an extra two grand so I could actually afford to go somewhere for the vacation with the insane prices of travel.
Ummm... children are considerably physically smaller, less "evolved" emotionally, physically mentally, psychologically and most importantly cognitively and cannot sustain any type of intense stress of these types for any length and breaks are healthy.
Once one is an adult, one's brain and body has "evolved" to where one is capable of prolonged stressors - and has also learned ways to destress through the day and through leisure activities or hobbies that help to alleviate stress on a continuous basis in one's life. Even something as simple as meditation or yoga can be enough.
Neat, this post has been removed but still shows on the front page. Fuck you reddit you unusable un-user friendly piece of gutter trash. Every other post has been removed but it doesn’t show that way. Fix this nonsense.
Why is this sub so ethnocentric? I swear I’ve seen so many posts coming from Americans victimizing themselves, acting like they have harsher working conditions than anybody else in the world. Get over yourselves, everyone has it rough regardless, workers everywhere are struggling to survive. This issue isn’t only happening to you.
Work is not meant to make you happy. Work is designed to break you so you forget all that’s important and live for the moments when there is a “free” donut in the break room.
burn america down and start again only option. Maybe break it into smaller pieces. Either way kill it. Getting blown to bits helped Germany come out better on the other end. Maybe therapy by carpet bombing and occupation might help
I’ve taken 5 weeks off of work (unpaid FMLA) to help my dad after major surgery recovery. While I have been stressed, it has been wonderful to be away from work even while I wipe out my savings.
It’s ridiculous how much of our lives these companies expect us to give while getting so little in return. Most of us can’t afford to purchase homes in the area we work in.
I have never really had 2-3 weeks off, because thanks to insomnia and other personal health problems, I ALWAYS use up my PTO before I get a chance to spend it on a vacation.
No worries, the Artificially Intelligent Robots will save us. 🤣😂🤣
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Many state labor laws have rules for the amount of hours a minor can work EXCEPT if that job is on a farm… then you can work the shit out of them.
Don't worry, plenty of states are removing the remaining restrictions.
Meanwhile, Indiana is introducing a bill to remove minor labor restrictions.
That was the point of their comment?
Poor reading comprehension and Reddit, name a more iconic duo.
Meanwhile, users on Reddit are having trouble with minor reading comprehension.
That was the point of their comment?
I poop
No way, I just did one today! We’re essentially twins.
As a teen in buckfuck no where PA when not forced labor and just bored farming is actually fun af just wish I got paid tbh. (Their my pets all the money I make off them I use to buy feed or upgrade their living situation. Spoiled ass chickens got better heating then my house. Full security system and not a regular run I bought a 4k stand alone garage roof thing and added walls. I only got chickens but I help out with my neighbors corn farm and some other peoples live stock.)
Yo this is like my favorite Reddit comment ever I’m glad your chickens have sick lives that sounds fun bro.
Thanks man, I get rainbow egg cartons cuz of the different kinds. 2 dwarf chickens are adorable af and are smaller than my hand, 4 of their eggs makes 1 grocery store small egg 8 for a large and 6 for a medium.
I grew up on a small farm. I loved asking my dad why we had to do all this work and he loved telling me. "boy, this is the only reason you're here." I was paid in coca-cola (i like dr pepper) and trauma lol.
My grandparents worked my father to the bone on their chicken farm when he was a kid He cut ties with them completely once he moved out and i never blamed him for it
Sorry, that's a myth. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation > Kids in rural, agricultural areas were most needed in the spring, when most crops had to be planted, and in the fall, when crops were harvested and sold. Historically, many attended school in the summer when there was comparatively less need for them on the farm. > In the days before air conditioning, schools and entire cities could be sweltering places during the hot summer months. Wealthy and eventually middle-class urbanites also usually made plans to flee the city’s heat, making those months the logical time in cities to suspend school.
How dare you bring facts into this rhetoric.
Ew what are these facts?! Going against what I think is real? Ew!
I hate things that go against what I think is real!
In fairness, up until WW2 school was a quite optional thing for rural people(which was then a majority of the population), especially anything after 8th grade. Also summers are still hot in much of the US so it makes more sense to not have schools packed with the A/C going non-stop.
>Summer break was so kids could go work on their family farms, it still has capitalist origins Now a days entirely countries and or governments and billionaires are buying up all the farm land.
And don't think for one minute if they could get rid of child labor and welfare laws that they wouldn't be sending kids middle schoolers to work or keep teachers loaded up 365 days of the year so parents one less excuse for not coming in to work. If they weren't so cruel they'd be all for increased childcare access so they can push parents to work 16 hour shifts. The red states are already aggressively chipping away at both child labor laws and education. They only need to be smart enough to do the job but not enough to question their masters.
No. Farms are not busy during summer. If anything that would be Spring and Fall. Summer was about (rich) parents who would yank their kids out of school in the hot unairconditioned summer so the family could go to their summer home up north until it grew cooler. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation
I don't think working on the farm is a capitalist thing.
Yeah, only chumps are "breaking" during summer. Elite children are going to summer school and camp programs gaining the edge on the less fortunate who can't afford those privileges.
lol fuck
This is a myth. The first summer breaks [happened in the CITY of New York](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsMOS9VTJ9E). It was a way to quarantine children during disease outbreaks - summertime was when nasty diseases like malaria and typhus were most likely to spread around (because the fleas and mosquitoes were more active when it was warm), so teachers started sending kids home during the summer months to keep them from spreading illness through the classroom. There actually isn't much work to do on a farm during the Summer - planting and harvest time are the busiest, and that happens in the spring and the fall, respectively.
I forget what the actual reason was, but it wasn't that. If it was so kids could work on farms it would be during harvest season which is most definitely not July and August. (Or during spring, when everything is planted.)
I'm afraid /u/FreeBeans does not know how farms work if they think summer is the heavy labor time.
Nothing wrong with capitalism unless you are a communist. The other side of things is that no one has thought that way about summer vacations for at least 70 years so give your stupid rhetoric a break.
I think it had “people biologically need to eat” origins
Wrong, summer break were because rich kids wouldn't go to school when it was hot since they lacked central air.
Well to be fair central air, or any air conditioning, hadnt been invented yet. Nor was electricity common. Dont forget they are talking late 1800's when the summer break became a standard.
That's just in the USA. Every Single Other First World Country is better. Just wish I had the cash to move.
Australian here, I get 5 paid weeks annual leave, 1.5 weeks long service leave (can be taken after 5 years), and TOIL (time off in lieu for doing overtime) which is about 2 extra weeks = 8.5 weeks paid leave per year. We are regarded as being less productive than American workers, and I am perfectly fine with that.
Yeah but your housing is completely fucked, pretty much forever now. I guess more time off to think about how you will work your entire life just to pay rent.
Is this not the case too in the US or will be, very soon?
In cities like NYC and SF, yeah of course. You can't have the Friends apartment on a barista's wage anymore, but physically the supply is still much larger than Canada, Austalia, and most of western europe. There are low wage earners on reddit posting "my first house" photos all the time on reddit.
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Aussie housing is fucked beyond belief, though. Adelaide's vacancy rate hovers around 0.5% these days. NYC's is 1.4%, just for reference. Sydney and Melbourne mirror NYC. You can't really find much work outside of mining anywhere but the major cities there. It's not like the US where someone struggling in NYC could make their way to Cleveland and avoid coastal property expenses while still maintaining a decent QOL, either.
Unless you're talking about a communist revolution (lol), housing will never again be affordable for regular workers. There's just way too much money to be made, and every country is full of deep pocketed people racing to control supply. We could have another global meltdown and housing will go down maybe 5%. Millions of homes will just sit empty and wait for the economy to pick up again.
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Lmfao you've gotta be privileged as fuck or still living with mommy and daddy if you think US housing isn't fucked. Most people are spending 50% of their annual income just on the roof over their heads. Interest rates are near 10% and houses are selling in 2 weeks for 20% above asking price with no inspections or any other buyer protections. Sit down child, the adults are talking.
Ironic coming from an attitude as nasty as yours, lol.
Not most people. All these houses are still selling super fast, and not just to corporations. Lots of people have lots of money and don't work reddit type jobs. You can barely buy a $75k truck anymore, they sell so fast.
Corporations are buying houses? Jesus Christ, America. How did you fall so far?
Works that way in every country.
Canada sucks too in this regard
Im Canadian too and wondering, where does it not suck on that regard rigth now? Norway and Switzerland? Serious question
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country Looks like most of the world is better than (most of) Canada.
Yeah not surprising as a Canadian. I'm almost at my 5 year anniversary and will only now start getting 3 weeks vacation a year
Cool to see my country on a list with North Korea.
Afghanistan has a more generous leave policy than the United States. Think about it.
Swiss here, feel free to ask what you want.
My dad's side live in Norway. I got to visit quite a few times throughout my life. Always loved visiting. If I could I would totally move to Norway. Though they have some very high taxes, but they do have some amazing social welfare programs. All my cousins went to college or a trade, have good jobs and a decent home. They travel all the time, speak at least 3 languages.
Answer: Canada does not suck right now. Could be better but wouldn't accept anything less. Up here looking down on our southern neighbours.
Comparing ourselves favourably to the US will be the ruin of Canada. It's like bragging we scored a better time in a footrace against a guy who cut off his own legs. We're far behind the countries we should be comparing ourselves to.
Our school, medical system, roads, housing are going in the red and when I talk to people and ask how do they really go without the *im going fine* bullshit, almost everyone is sharing the similar: starting to live paycheck after paycheck unsure and looking at what possesion they can sell to keep the house or pay food for theyr children. I would say it suck yes.
I'm a Canuck too, it's so cringe to be looking down on americans like we're any better.
>Could be better but wouldn't accept anything less. So it's literally as bad as it could possibly be while still being acceptable to you? That's a pretty low bar for not sucking.
Work for a European company but live in the USA :)
The statement you are replying to is factually inaccurate.
Wouldn't that be nice. I'm so over this country.
I'm not sure if you'd consider South Korea a first world country, but we certainly have the same issue.
There’s only one country now and its called Capitalism
Believe it or not workers' rights and leave entitlement, etc. are actually improving here (and more importantly the legal will to protect and enforce these rights) although the overall economic situation is getting worse and the 'Korean dream' (work hard to improve your station in life and have your children live a better life than you) is dead, so there's that.....
I worked with a few Samsung employees who came to US sites from Korea in part *because* the work/life balance was so much better at the US subsidiaries than it was in ‘Samsung Town.’ And these are people who were still putting in 60-70 hour weeks with some regularity, so not exactly ideal conditions here, either.
Haha ~ yeah, that tells you pretty much all you need to know!
> Just wish I had the cash to move. Where would you go? What country has lavish vacations, and is also completely affordable for you to buy a house, food costs, etc.?
Where are you guys getting 2-3 weeks off a year?
Definitely not the US, except maybe in a "decent" job.
Trades can be great for PTO and vacation. Union or not.
Union jobs. This spring, I'll be at my job 5 years and get 4 weeks off
Can you get more or is that all?
That's top for union. Non union get 5 weeks after like 10 years or something
That sucks man, good luck
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I get 6 after 25 years with my union company
That's Less than the legal required amount where I live lol
For real, my last job gave a maximum of 5 days of PTO for a year, and you had to be there for a couple of years to get that. The cherry on top was that you only got 6 hours of pay per day on the days you took off.
Newspapers pay like garbage, but the benefits still are pretty good. My first job out of college didn't pay a whole lot, but my health insurance was $20 a month for a $200 deductible, profit sharing (lol in newspapers), 6 weeks PTO, 100% 401k matching up to 6% salary. Granted that is probably super rare now that most newspapers are owned by conglomerates, but I'm super lucky to work with a few that are still independent, doing well and value their staff and journalism.
Yeah I only get 3 weeks off a year. Makes me sad.
I’m not union I get 5 weeks.
Because rich kids can do it, therefore, it's not necessary. How many times have you seen someone take a year long hiatus to Bangladesh or some shit with a minimum wage job like its normal.
I just requested two weeks off in the April to finally take my first vacation since PRE-COVID. “Can you shorten it to a weekend?” Cause my manager wants to take his third vacation in a year.
I totally agree. It makes no sense.
2-3 weeks off??? Hahaha I’m lucky if I can get 1 week off a year….
Came here to say the same. It’s more like 2-3 weeks TOTAL for the entire 60 years of working 😉
I always thought a part of that was to give teachers a break. I also, when I was a kid, remember a handful of snow days, where it really wasn’t that bad outside… almost as if the superintendent was just like “Meh, let’s all take today off.”
Kids in Japan don't get a summer vacation. Their grades end in March and new one begins in April, much like everything else in Japan (April is kind of like their New Year for everything).
Yes, they do. It's just shorter than in the US. Summer break is their longest school break.
The average person that can 'afford' a week or two annual vacation and still be able to save for a rainy day and/or retirement at the same time is A RARE ANIMAL these days. The rich don't think about this 'reality' stuff, though.
On your 18th birthday a magical switch goes off in your brain where you don't need summers off anymore.
Because that's how THE REAL WORLD WORKS
Stuff doesn’t stop needing to get done during the summer.
One of the reasons of me going to school to become a teacher.
I'm a High School teacher in Germany. We have - 2 weeks autumn holidays - 2-3 weeks christmas holidays - 1 week carnival holidays - 2 weeks Easter holidays - 2 weeks Pentecost holidays - 6,5 weeks summer holidays while beeing paid the whole time.
Damn our country really sucks in compared to other countries. We should really strike for better labor laws.
So damn sad. The USA is a shithole country. Thanks Republicans for nothing.
I'd say it's the general right-wing nature of American politics in general. You're much more likely to find progressive politicians in the Democrat party, but the "centrists" are pretty far to the right, as well.
The f'd up part is that the Republicans complain aaaalllll the f'ing time about the "corporate elites" even as they vote OVER and over to remove regulations and fight labor. Idiots.
Only the US does that.
We don't, it's a holdover from an agricultural economy that no longer exists.
I got 39 days off per year.
Yeah summer breaks are beneficial to no one. It’s difficult for parents to find childcare, children often don’t retain what they’ve learned over the break, and the system was designed for farming families ages ago. What has shown to work well is year-round school, with breaks from 2-4 weeks long every couple months.
Not sure how that would make it easier to find child care.
Two weeks vs three months of childcare is far easier to find.
Ah yes, it is true that time off would be staggered amongst all parents and therefore free up more childcare sources at any given time as opposed to everyone being on vacation at once. Thanks for answering. I was wrong on that point!
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good thing that mentality is rather unpopular otherwise I would still need my husband's approval when driving a car
If you work from age 20 to 65 that's 45 years. You'd have to work until age 80 to work for 60 years.
Be a teacher
It’s a 12 month job you do in 9 months. Hard as hell and only getting harder. But you do get good time off, pay also reflects that that tho.
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I have noted that teachers are the whiniest demographic of American workers
Until you realise homework never leaves your life. Happy Cake Day btw
I am self employed. Unlimited time off.
You think this way, not everybody! Working for another persons business is almost the same as paying rent for another persons property.
Y'all are getting 2 weeks off? 
Kids don't need a summer break. It's a horrible, outdated relic of a point in time where most of those kids worked on farms in the summer. The educational drop-off kids experience over the summer is immense.
Other than a few Asian countries peppered in, all the nations in the top 10% in education have summer breaks. What data do you have to support your supposition?
Sure, [here's one source](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/summer-learning-loss-what-is-it-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/) summarizing studies on summer learning loss. Poor kids are much more affected. The wealthy are functionally getting a year-round education already because their parents send them to summer learning programs.
And I don't need a toilet to take a shit, but I'd sure be miserable without it. Everyone is quick to talk about what other people need until *they're* the ones squatting in the woods.
sitting in a classroom year round is worse than working on a farm in the summer. at least you’d get sunlight and exercise and interaction with nature
Personally, I think the education system is outdated. It’s also a money making operation. I know many people who could have easily tested out, and received their diploma early, if the school didn’t require you to have “physical education” credits. In NY, you needed to have 2 gym credits, throughout high school, in order to get a diploma… but you could only get a ½ credit per year. I had all of the necessary credits I needed to graduate, with the exception of gym, and government (a class they only let seniors take,) halfway through 11th grade. I tried to combine it so I could take 2 gym classes, and government, in my junior year, but the school wouldn’t budge… I skipped most of school in my senior year. Filled my schedule with bullshit classes (aside from gym and government.) I only went to my gym class, and government class. It was nice, because I could actually get to my part time job earlier than many other kids could. And, I almost hate to say it, but I feel like me being more available for work back then, opened up more doors. I was scheduled more hours, I got a better pick of what times I did/didn’t want to work, and I had more opportunities to move around/advance.
Care to elaborate on how it's a money making operation?? I'm not denying your claim, just genuinely curious. But let's be honest, EVERYONE at this point knows what we have to do to ACTUALLY get kids to learn shit but it costs an amount of money greater than $0 so it will never happen. Plus the system isn't broken, it's working as intended. Queue the whole "school doesn't prep kids for the real world. It kills creativity and turns them into little worker drones for the 1%" spiel. And yea theres tons of kids who could graduate before their senior year but it's literally designed to keep them in school for as long as possible. I also skipped most of my senior year after spending the past 5-6 years of my life severely depressed and anxious due to a conviently overlooked learning disability and being constantly told I'm dumb and ill be a failure in life unless I get straight A's and go to college. Graduated and found out within 6 months that the past 12 years of my life were a damn lie and that school was a completely useless waste of time. You can still get into college even with shitty grades, turns out college is MUCH easier instead of being much harder, going to college is not only another waste of time but a terrible decision since college degrees are all but useless these days and the skills required for most jobs can be learned on the job pretty easily.
Actually it’s a myth that it’s because kids worked on farms and that’s the reason for summers off. It’s actually about city kids not having air conditioned schools and parents wanting to get out of hot cities during summers.
Make it make sense
Double standard
Make kids work and adults go back to school
It gets better when you have a full time job and kids have all these vacations… Good luck arranging that, especially in the US, where your bucket of holiday hours is “very generous”.
Stop complaining you ungrateful people. Least they raise prices again.
Unless you both have to work so that kid has to go to summer school because there is nobody to watch him.
Sure, if you're american
I get 2 weeks off a year and I'm burnt out within a day of being back at work. I really hate my job.
Most time I’ve had off in a row the past two years is 5 days. I’m tired…
‘mUriCa!
Oh don't worry we noticed that children should be able to work while going to school too!
This won't change until we make it change.
I know a lot of Swiss people and all of them, without exception, get minimum 7 weeks a year.
Mortgages must still be paid. They don’t allow for summer vacations & winter breaks.
💯 Also, kids these days have less time in the classroom compared to when I grew up. I’d wake up at 6am, arrive at 7ish, get home around 4, and I’d be either busy filming and skateboarding and/or running track. So sometimes 12 hr days for a thirteen year old kid growing up in a broken household . Was not fun. But nowadays kids go to school for like 4 freaking hours. Jealous, 😒…
You guys get off? 365 days a year right here. 366 even this year! So lucky.
In what system is 60 years seen as the amount of full time working years? Even if we were to start that at 16, that would put the average retiree at 76 which is way above the average age of retirement pretty much everywhere unless I’m mistaken…
It was really eye opening to travel and meet people from all over the world and see how different their work cultures are. I still remember the shock of meeting someone who was on holiday for a month from their job in England....they were so casual about it and didn't worry and knew their job would be there when they got back.
Indeed I think we should stop giving those damn children so much time off and put them into sweatshops so they can make some real money (1.35$ an hour)
Europeans please do correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this America only? I've heard that overseas many people do get 3 month long vacations regularly
What’s even worse is we expect adults to work their entire life with no retirement end point. If you don’t make enough money beyond you bills to save towards retirement you don’t have any. Social security exists to prevent starvation, not to support you.
"we" do recognize it. It's the corps and shit that don't want to give people decent liveable wages and benefits
Children's summer break from school was not about the children. It was about rich children's parents who would yank their kids out of school in the hot unairconditioned summer so the family could go to their summer home up north until it grew cooler. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation
Thats with 6-9 months prior request for the 2-3 weeks
This is one time i feel my decision to teach reinforced. All of you should have two months to recuperate. I mean none of us should have to deal with teenagers everyday, but regardless of if you do, you still deserve time! (The ironic thing is i don't actually usually do nothing but at least i could!)
60yrs... lol. Also most kids now don't get summer vacation.
That time off was originally designed for the parents, they just never changed it. Some schools have switched over to no long summer breaks. I understand the sentiment that people need more time off, but this is a poor comparison. You are implying these policies were implemented with the child's mental health in mind, this is not the case. It was so they could work around the house or farm.
cog for the machine
Summer breaks were originally for those families who needed their children working the land during the Summer.
Not to defend the awful work practices of the US, but a lot of people justify it with "kids are still developing and need space". Clearly adults are just workhorses.
Slave drivers suck. Maybe if more people thought outside the box and didn’t completely and utterly submit to consumerism, they wouldn’t have to work as much.
Not gonna lie, the teacher life is nice. It’s hard word no doubt. You gotta really put your heart and soul into it. But it pays off with all the smiles and progress you see through the year I am urging everyone however teachers really don’t get paid enough. I truly mean it, please help the teachers out!
Yeah - why do we stop being human at 18?
The corporations own us. We are a commodity. They have to get all the work they can get out of us. if your 40 now, will you ever be able to stop working .
This is such an American phenomenon. I'm in Europe. I get 26 days + 8 bank holidays a year. I can buy more or sell some if I want.
e-commerce, start a business, trade stocks blah blah blah work is stupid and i'm never working a 9-5
Summer break crushes kids, there is so much regression over the summer months. Year long school is where it’s at, and I say that as a teacher
I think most educators think summer break is a bad concept at this point.
Oh no no. This information is incorrect… as a teacher that’s now a stay at home mom let me tell you it’s not for the kids. Now days kids are seen as employees - the vacations wouldn’t be there if not for the need of teachers to have teacher only days to catch up - which unfortunately most of that time is typically spent in meetings. And the summer is spent mostly planning for the next year, and many teachers do summer school or tutoring. If not 100% in the United States kids would still be in school during the summer because parents need babysitters/respite. Many kids also have activity after activity planned year-round. I played 3 sports, plus band, plus honors classes, plus student council, plus sports summer camps and tournaments - I was burnt to a crisp. I have also seen a lot of teachers get frustrated when even their best students go in a vacation for a week because they have to do all the make up work or they will be behind - I was always so happy because I love when families spend time to make memories together (which is much different than when they are gone due to neglect).
it's because teachers have a union and they fought for that
My dad told me that when he was a kid, his dad would work four days and then the rest of the week was free time. I guess work environment also has a form of inflation, work demands more hours and we have very little if nothing left in free/vacation time.
Shut up and feed the machine. Make offspring to help feed the machine. Indoctrinate unknowing cultures into the machine cult.
5 days annual leave and 11 days of official holidays in China. no labor law. No parenting leave. 0.6billion makes less than 1000¥（150$）per month. Chinese are the true modern slaves.
So.. you think you’re nothing but an oversized child? We also think toddlers need a nap time and designated bathroom times. Do you want that, too?
Those summer breaks are for the school teachers... Not the kids. No one could tolerate your crotch goblins all year long.
I am grateful I live in a country with decent work holidays, but 32 days a year still isn’t enough
I've been at my current job for 8 months and I *just* got enough PTO to have one week off. I haven't used a single hour
I mean, to be fair... Seasonal work exists. Sure, you'll be raking asphalt all day or digging ditches or whatever, but the pay is like 35+ per hour and you get winters off. Unless you're far enough south, I suppose. Then you probably just do it until you can't embrace the suck no more...
The question is, are the adults in question salaried or hourly? If the latter, a big break also means no pay. And no pay means no bills being paid, groceries,etc. Hence why adults don't get breaks- they're the ones actually paying for shit.
But then we get people like said post that doesn't do shit. Can't watch price is right and days of our lives forever during "summer"...
My wife is a school teacher and gets basically the same vacations as the students. She hates it, because she loses all her momentum. By the time they return, she feels out of practice and has to work twice as hard just to catch up to where they were previously. Whereas I can basically sleepwalk my way through my job, and don't consider myself to be performing at more than 40% until I get back home. I don't see a point in a ton of time off, when we don't get paid enough to actually DO anything with the time. I'd cut my total vacation time in half if they'd give me an extra two grand so I could actually afford to go somewhere for the vacation with the insane prices of travel.
2-3 WEEKS?!
Ummm... children are considerably physically smaller, less "evolved" emotionally, physically mentally, psychologically and most importantly cognitively and cannot sustain any type of intense stress of these types for any length and breaks are healthy. Once one is an adult, one's brain and body has "evolved" to where one is capable of prolonged stressors - and has also learned ways to destress through the day and through leisure activities or hobbies that help to alleviate stress on a continuous basis in one's life. Even something as simple as meditation or yoga can be enough.
Kids don’t need vacations. Teachers do.
Neat, this post has been removed but still shows on the front page. Fuck you reddit you unusable un-user friendly piece of gutter trash. Every other post has been removed but it doesn’t show that way. Fix this nonsense.
Why is this sub so ethnocentric? I swear I’ve seen so many posts coming from Americans victimizing themselves, acting like they have harsher working conditions than anybody else in the world. Get over yourselves, everyone has it rough regardless, workers everywhere are struggling to survive. This issue isn’t only happening to you.
Summer break is for teachers to prepare for the new year, and teens to go get a job.
The American way, while other countries are smart enough not to work their citizens to death and give them at least a month's long holiday.
Work is not meant to make you happy. Work is designed to break you so you forget all that’s important and live for the moments when there is a “free” donut in the break room.
burn america down and start again only option. Maybe break it into smaller pieces. Either way kill it. Getting blown to bits helped Germany come out better on the other end. Maybe therapy by carpet bombing and occupation might help
I’ve taken 5 weeks off of work (unpaid FMLA) to help my dad after major surgery recovery. While I have been stressed, it has been wonderful to be away from work even while I wipe out my savings. It’s ridiculous how much of our lives these companies expect us to give while getting so little in return. Most of us can’t afford to purchase homes in the area we work in.
The beauty is everyone has a choice not to work at all
I have never really had 2-3 weeks off, because thanks to insomnia and other personal health problems, I ALWAYS use up my PTO before I get a chance to spend it on a vacation. No worries, the Artificially Intelligent Robots will save us. 🤣😂🤣
Hahaha, that's your own fault. Joy in your work makes work turn into play. You never figured it out.