this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Work Reform

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Watching from Europe, it’s astonishing.

We have adopted many parts of US business culture, luckily not this one.

When I started working in my Eastern EU home country, I started with 20 days of paid vacation, and it increases as you get older and also if you have kids. Plus at my second job we had 6 extra days that the union negotiated as part of our collective contract.

Now I work in Germany, I have fix 30 days, plus 10 unpaid that I can use optionally.

Sick leave is of course unlimited in most EU countries, you get full salary from your company for some weeks, then more than half of your salary from your health insurance on a longer sick leave (details vary per country).

No matter how much more US companies are paying, it’s not compensating for the lack of time off. “You can always earn an extra dollar/euro, but you cannot earn an extra minute”

I honestly wonder, how people can live like this - I’m of course talking about higher paid white collar workers, not those on poverty wages who wouldn’t have a choice in any country

[–] phoenixarise@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

We’re also wondering how we can live like this. Not well, I can tell you that.