Take Back Your Time

Did you read that last sentence?  The United States remains the ONLY industrial country without a law guaranteeing paid vacation.  That means Japan has one, and we know how strong the work ethic is in that country. After spending years not being able to take a vacation, I know how bad it is for a person's health. There are also studies that show that taking a vacation improves productivity when you get back on the job. 
This quote below is from    Happy Go Legal

"Who doesn’t want time of respite, period of suspended activity, time spent away from home in travel or recreation?  And all this being granted to you as an employee?  I’m in!

Not everyone seems to agree, since it turns out a lot of people do not take all of their vacation time.  A recent study by Expedia found that approximately 226 million vacation days went unused by American employees in 2011.  Our counterparts in Germany, France, Brazil, and Denmark are given 30 days a year, and are taking all 30 days.  What gives with Americans?  Lack of funds for travel, poor planning, having too much to do at work, and a culture of feeling like bosses don’t support the taking of vacation are cited as reasons for not taking advantage of all paid vacation time." 

What gets me is that those unused vacation days are unused by people whose employers actually paid them vacation.  And these people are probably getting no where near 30 days leave time like they do in Europe.  So why wouldn't the U.S. government at least mandate a one week's paid vacation for full time employees. That's a fourth of what many Europeans get. A week is not going to turn us into a nation of slackers. And in the long run it would save employers costs in time lost and would increase productivity. But most employers can only look at the short term effects of what it does to their bottom line and if you do get a week's paid vacation, they really think they are being overly generous to the point of babying their employees. 

This makes for a population of people whose self worth comes from how busy they are and I have to say that some of them add in work responsibility over and above what their job description is, just to keep this illusion of worth. I say bullshit. Should you destroy your physical and mental health for a paycheck?  I say no, but I was right there with everyone else, working two jobs, trying to make ends meet and literally screwing my health up royally. Yep, I was a paycheck whore, a wage slave. And I worked for some truly despicable people. But doesn't that make a government who allows that kind of treatment of employees just as despicable as the employers who take full advantage of the law which in my state of Idaho grants very few government mandated employee benefits as law.  Most of the extra hours and duties people add on is added on because of fear. Fear that they will lose their life sucking job.  I urge all you fellow whores and wage slaves to join the movement. Visit Take Back Your Time and join the movement toward healthier and happier lives. 

 I just needed to get on the soap box about this, because I was thinking how very few vacations I've taken over my lifetime. It makes me sick and I wouldn't want that for anyone else.