German car companies: No christmas vacation for workers

[Thanas]

....due to the heavy demand.

Link in German
- Opel is going to slash vacation time by one week
- VW is going to do the same in some plants, one plant even works throughout the holidays
- Audi is doing extra shifts
- BMW has completely cancelled all christmas vacations in Leipzig and the largest plant of all, the one in Dingolfing.

More promising signs for the German economy.

[Jaevric]

Wait.

Some German companies give employees more than a WEEK off for Christmas?

Americans get like...one day off. Maybe two. And we're supposed to be the Christian fundy nation. I'd like to file a complaint with the appropriate authority.

[Thanas]

Wait.

Some German companies give employees more than a WEEK off for Christmas?

Americans get like...one day off. Maybe two. And we're supposed to be the Christian fundy nation. I'd like to file a complaint with the appropriate authority.

Germans get nearly four times as much vacation time than Americans do in general. Amazingly, it does not impact productivity in any way if you let people relax and recover.

[wautd]

Wait.

Americans get like...one day off. Maybe two. And we're supposed to be the Christian fundy nation. I'd like to file a complaint with the appropriate authority.

Yeah, you guys are screwed.

I got half a month of vacation coming up

[Serafina]

Wait.

Some German companies give employees more than a WEEK off for Christmas?

Americans get like...one day off. Maybe two. And we're supposed to be the Christian fundy nation. I'd like to file a complaint with the appropriate authority.

I think Europe in general has more work-free religious holidays - at least Germany does.
It differs from state to state, i will just list those that apply in general (bolded) and in Bavaria. You get a free day on the following occasions:
- 01.01: New Years Eve not religious
- 06.01: Epiphany religious
- varies: Good Friday religious
-varies: Easter Monday religious
- 01.05: May Day/Workers day not religious
- varies: Ascension of Jesus religious (duh)
- varies: Pentecost religious
- varies: Corpus Christi religious
- 15.08: Assumption of Mary religious
- 03.10: German Unity Day not religious
- 01.11: All Saints religous
- 25+26.12 Christmas religious

Those are the guaranteed, work-free days. You get at least 9 days (three non-religious, 6 religious) and up to four more (all religous) depending on your state.
The vacation mentined above got nothing to do with that, but many companies plan accordingly and reduce production near christmas, since many people take vacation time then.

Note that while many of the holidays are religious, many people don't even attend church on these days etc. - it's just a free day.

[Lonestar]

Germans get nearly four times as much vacation time than Americans do in general. Amazingly, it does not impact productivity in any way if you let people relax and recover.

*I* get nearly 4 times paid vacation than Americans do in general, but since I'm single and with no dependents I just work work work so I can have extra monies.

[Thanas]

^Why not invest it in culture instead? You know, travel the world, go see some truly old cities etc. It does people good.

[Lonestar]

^Why not invest it in culture instead? You know, travel the world, go see some truly old cities etc. It does people good.

'Cause I'm also a student, and in any event I travel enough on Uncle Sam's dime. Big plan is to do a few long trails. Well, the Long Trail, but I need to get in better shape.

[Thanas]

You haven't lived till you've been in Rome, Paris and the Rhine cities.

[The Kernel]

It's not that Americans don't get enough vacation days, it's that we voluntarily don't take any of them.

I've got three weeks of vacation saved up and I don't plan on using any of it in the foreseeable future. I should be hitting the vacation day cap of one month early next year and I don't plan on doing anything about it. Sure vacation is a wonderful thing, but getting to VP before I'm 30 is more important.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The American attitude on vacations is utterly retarded due to the productivity losses that result from it. It would save money if we had productivity per hour closer to that of Norway--27.6% higher than we currently do--and correspondingly cut working hours by 27.6% per year. Yes, that's right, with the right working culture, and sufficient worker productivity, the United States could have a 30-hour work week, with salaries 25% per hour, so that everyone made the same amount of money... And productivity would be the same. Except that corporate profits would actually increase, because electricity, cleaning, and other plant operational costs would decline for any business which does not have to be open 24/7 to start with.

[Lonestar]

You haven't lived till you've been in Rome, Paris and the Rhine cities.

I've been to two of those three, and Naples in lieu of Rome. I could throw in Stockholm, Oslo, uhhh....some Finnish islands(I was like 6, bite me), Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Mons, and London. Outside of Europe I've been to Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Seychelles, Various Garden Spots of Central Asia,various Canadian/Mexican locations, and Japan(well, Okinawa). I've been to more states than I care to sit down and figure out(and I am speaking terms of visiting them, not "passing through"). At the risk of tooting my own horn, I'm pretty goddamn well traveled for a 28 year old American, and I mean in sights I've seen not mileage I've traveled.

As it is I am halfway a fulltime college student, a fulltime employee, my company sends me to technical training early and often(get paid for that too), I am in a quasi-relationship, and my idea of outdoor recreation is to drive 2-3 hours west into the mountains and wander around old forestry roads, with government travel at least once a quarter. Once my "rollover" vacation/company holiday/sick leave hours extend past a certain point(and they inevitably do) I get them banked at the end of the year, so it isn't as if they are disappearing into the aether. My boss knows that I am extremely reliable and I have persistently gotten payraises in the 10% range annually, in a small company of under 100(I'm employee #50) this is no mean feat. Unlike most American males(without a college degree) my age I am approaching the 6 digit mark in my savings account(although a large chunk of that is cash dating from my time in the navy), not counting my 401k. While everyone else in this country is worried about social security and retiring around 70, I'm going to have been futzing around doing pretty much what I please for years and years before then.

I guess if I were to boil it down: I do not feel that I am "wasting" the vacation, and I do not feel that I "haven't lived".

EDIT: *Feel, even

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It's not that Americans don't get enough vacation days, it's that we voluntarily don't take any of them.

I've got three weeks of vacation saved up and I don't plan on using any of it in the foreseeable future. I should be hitting the vacation day cap of one month early next year and I don't plan on doing anything about it. Sure vacation is a wonderful thing, but getting to VP before I'm 30 is more important.

I honestly can't imagine anything more important than getting plenty of vacation time to spend with friends, family, and doing interesting things--I'd accept a salary 1/3rd lower if it meant I got 2 months of paid vacation a year as is quite common in many European countries. Your attitude just seems utterly foreign, and more than a bit terrifying that I'd be held to your standards in the workplace, which is one of the reasons I remain interested in moving to Europe on completion of my degrees.

[Zaune]

Is that actually legal in Germany? I assume they're still getting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, but I'd have thought that telling people they have to come in on days they'd booked as vacation time is a big no-no.

[Lonestar]

I honestly can't imagine anything more important than getting plenty of vacation time to spend with friends, family, and doing interesting things--I'd accept a salary 1/3rd lower if it meant I got 2 months of paid vacation a year as is quite common in many European countries. Your attitude just seems utterly foreign, and more than a bit terrifying that I'd be held to your standards in the workplace, which is one of the reasons I remain interested in moving to Europe on completion of my degrees.

Kernel has the appropriate attitude. In the American economy you absolutely *must* establish a strong foundation early on. I lucked out in that I ate a shit sandwich for 4 years(Hyperbole, deployments were fun and fulfilling) and because I can answer "Do you feel guilty masturbating?" without tripping up a polygraph reading. I do not plan on working until 65(or 70, 75...).

[Thanas]

Is that actually legal in Germany? I assume they're still getting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, but I'd have thought that telling people they have to come in on days they'd booked as vacation time is a big no-no.

It is legal, they get boni and days off when the situation allows it.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I honestly can't imagine anything more important than getting plenty of vacation time to spend with friends, family, and doing interesting things--I'd accept a salary 1/3rd lower if it meant I got 2 months of paid vacation a year as is quite common in many European countries. Your attitude just seems utterly foreign, and more than a bit terrifying that I'd be held to your standards in the workplace, which is one of the reasons I remain interested in moving to Europe on completion of my degrees.

Kernel has the appropriate attitude. In the American economy you absolutely *must* establish a strong foundation early on. I lucked out in that I ate a shit sandwich for 4 years(Hyperbole, deployments were fun and fulfilling) and because I can answer "Do you feel guilty masturbating?" without tripping up a polygraph reading. I do not plan on working until 65(or 70, 75...).

Well, I am content with working until I die like my father, and in that context I suppose that vacation time becomes much more important. Certainly increases my motivaton to look for work elsewhere, though. I am rather lucky that I'm smart enough to get a degree which actually lets me do that, for that matter. To me the Kernel's attitude just sounds of self-inflicted psychological torture.

[Zaune]

Fair enough, though I daresay that anyone who'd booked a week in the Med will be royally pissed off.

[Junghalli]

To me the Kernel's attitude just sounds of self-inflicted psychological torture.

I suppose it may depend on how much you like your work too. If you love your work spending a lot of time on it may not seem like hardship. I suspect few people are fortunate enough to have a job that lines up nicely with what they'd actually want to spend their time doing if they had a choice though.

[ShadowDragon8685]

To me the Kernel's attitude just sounds of self-inflicted psychological torture.

I suppose it may depend on how much you like your work too. If you love your work spending a lot of time on it may not seem like hardship. I suspect few people are fortunate enough to have a job that lines up nicely with what they'd actually want to spend their time doing if they had a choice though.

That's about how I felt about my first job, the one with the Census. I spent all damn day behind the wheel of my Durango, looking at maps and addresses in a big folder, finding out where I needed to go and punching it into my GPS unit, driving there, getting out and walking up to the door to ask questions for a few minutes.

I would love a job like that: providing a challenge in that you're not going to the same place twice, driving on the road with the music up (I wonder how many other government employees were rolling out to the tune of DragonForce? ), compensated mileage. It was the best, IMO.

But for many Americans, I think it's just a result of our national culture. As I understand it, real wages (that is, adjusted for the actual inflation in the cost of living) have not gone up since the 1950s or so, and the cost of the things we want - that is, the things we have monies left over for after we've assured our continued survival - have gone up. So to get what they want, Americans work more hours, and more hours, and more hours.

The corporate culture supports it, too. I think the big difference is the lack of nationalized healthcare enshrined as a right. With that, your employer is basically holding your health and your family's health hostage, so they can treat you like a dog and what're you gonna do, leave?

[Starglider]

Sure vacation is a wonderful thing, but getting to VP before I'm 30 is more important.

If being in the office 4% more days of the year is a significant factor in that, you are working for a shitty company that I wouldn't want to be a VP of. Good job performance in senior roles relies on quality over quantity even moreso than programming.

[J]

More promising signs for the German economy.

See what happens when a country is actually run properly instead of the hokey-pokey banking bailout money printing monkey business that nearly every other country insists on doing?

Of course I still say you guys should renounce the Euro, go back to the Deutsche Mark and tell the countries leeching off your economy to go die in a fire.

[Phantasee]

Then who will they sell those fine German automobiles to?

[Stark]

She's a profiteer she doesn't care.

[D.Turtle]

Bah, the Euro is really good for the German export economy. If we still had the Deutsch Mark, the exchange rate would be extremely high (in comparison). Thats the dirty little secret about the Euro. We profit a whole fucking lot by the various other countries pulling down its worth.

Its a nice little balancing act.