No Wonder We're Stressed!

Did you see this today?

We are the only advanced, civilized nation to not guarantee vacation for our hardworking employees - which means all of us!! No wonder we are all stressed out. According to Reuters, we are truly alone in this honor:

*the French get 30 days of paid leave
*most other Europeans receive at least 20
*Canadians are guaranteed 20 days of leave
*Japanese workers are only guaranteed 10 - but that's 10 more than us!

"The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation days and paid holidays," said economist John Schmitt.

When we are given paid leave, how do we measure up to our overseas friends:

"The sum of the average paid vacation and paid holidays provided to U.S. workers in the private sector -- 15 in total -- would not meet even the minimum required by law in 19 other rich countries," Schmitt said.

I've blogged about this before and have to wonder how many more reports need to come out before we realize we are working ourselves to the bone. You know, I've actually walked away from potential jobs because the potential employer did not value vacation - and that is in the medical world, and pediatrics no less. Believe it or not that was over 10 years ago and it is infuriating that things have not improved - in fact, I'd argue as a society we've become even more work focused.

When we travel, I'm always struck by how young our country's history is. Times like this really drives that point home. Compared to other nations, we are barely tweens in development and our policies for caring for ourselves and our families reflect that. We may have an edge on some slices of life compared to other nations but we have to admit that we can't replace the history and longevity that those nations have.

I feel like our country just got caught playing dress up with it's older country friends. Perhaps the time has come to act our age and learn from our elders - there is a great deal our country can learn from other countries on the social and family fronts. If we are as civilized and advanced as we want the world to believe, then it's about time we step up and admit we need help - and start looking seriously at what other countries are doing right and figuring out how we can make those systems work in our society. We're becoming a nation of cranky, overworked people. Life is way to short for that. I for one plan on taking vacation each and every year - a few weeks a year in fact and I won't be apologizing to anyone ever for that. I never have - and never will.

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