Vacation time once again!

PTO (Paid Time Off) in the USA

First of all the US is the only developed country where there is no legal obligation for any company to pay vacation leave to their employees. Therefore each company sets up their own system and policy of what is often called PTO  Paid time off. Not all jobs include PTO, such as many part jobs.

A paid time off (PTO) policy combines vacation, sick time, and personal time off from work.  A PTO policy creates a pool of days that an employee may use at his or her discretion. We must remember as well that if you are sick in the US and absent from work, you are not paid. Therefore most people will use their personal days to be paid.

On average US employees get 11 vacation and 8 Personal days per year. Of course this varies from company to company.

In France

We have 30 paid days of vacation and in many cases RTT days or recuperation days for those of us who work more than 35 hours a week. Depending on the number of hours worked, RTT could easily add another 8-10 days per year for many employees. In addition with the French Social Security system employees are paid a decent percentage of their salary when we are off work for illness.

Already the differences in the 2 systems are enormous and reflect a part of each country’s culture.

Attitudes, customs

In France it is very frequent that employees and managers take at least 3 weeks in the summer between July and the end of August.

In the US most employees only take one week off between June and end of July. Primary and secondary school vacation ends beginning of August in the US. It is still rare to ask for 2 consecutive weeks. In many companies it is discouraged.

Oddly 46% of Americans in 2022 did not take all of their full vacation allocation. In a survey by the famous Pew Research Center some reasons given by employees were:

• They don’t feel they need to take more time off (52 percent).

• They worry about falling behind at work (49 percent).

• They feel bad about having co-workers take on additional work (43 percent).

• Taking more time off might hurt their chances for career advancement (19 percent).

• They think they might risk losing their job (16 percent).

• Their manager discourages taking time off (12 percent).

American employees seem to value having paid time off available. In the Pew survey, 89 percent of all workers said it was “extremely” or “very” important that their job provide paid time off. At the same time, the most popular reason cited for not taking all the available paid time off is that workers don’t feel they need to.

Once on a Paris –New York flight a few years ago I was seated next to a French computer engineer who had been working in the US for an American company for 4 years. When I questioned him about his adjustment to his new PTO deal, he told me that his work days were shorter and his afternoons away from the office longer and most of the time he finished work at 13:00 on Friday. He also said lunch breaks are literally 15-20mins, meetings were shorter decisions made faster and in his company and deadlines were more flexible. He clearly felt there was less stress in his US position than in a similar position in France

Like everyone in a position of responsibility he did work a little in the evening and a little on the weekend. In general he felt he needed less vacation than in France in order to disconnect and recharge.

I find the French very hard working and committed professionals. The French hourly productivity is one of the highest in the world.  Among “cadre” and managers days are longer than in the US and are punctuated by coffee breaks and at least 30-45 mins for lunch. Generally speaking meetings are longer and decisions take more time. I feel that given 2 companies of the same size in the same sector American and French, the level of stress is usually much higher in the French company. Of course I have not done any formal research into this subject and this is more of a feeling on my part. So my humble un-researched conclusion is that 5 weeks of vacation might be needed more in France than the US.

In any case in France 5 weeks of vacation is written into the laws of the land. It is a huge social advantage and advancement for the French workforce since 1936.  Vacation is sacred for most French people. If Politicians tried to change this law, believe me there would be blood in the streets and heads on pikes. It would cause a social upheaval that would dwarf the other French revolutions of 1789, 1871 and 1968.

It didn’t take me long to come to love my long paid summer vacations in France. 2 or 3 weeks allows you to have multiple experiences i.e. countryside, seaside, mountains, travelling in Europe… any combination of these in the same break. You are also able to spend extended quality time with your spouse and children. In 3 weeks you can do all of this at a leisurely pace. You come back to work feeling fresh and re-energized.

In the US the one week break doesn’t allow you to have the same depth of experiences or to fully disconnect from work. What does amaze me is how much Americans can cram into a 10 day break. I am often exhausted after hearing my American friends tell me about “Tour de force” vacations and all they did and see in one week!

There is one last thing about our vacation differences that I would like to share. In the US, people often live to work or in many cases have to work to “survive”. In France people tend to work to live. Despite their long days at work,  their productivity and their professionalism there is, In my opinion, a healthy contempt for work at all levels in a company.  For the French there are things and activities nobler and more important than work. This is a concept that Americans can’t really buy into because of the lack of legislation around PTO and the almost nonexistent social safety net.

So Americans eat your heart out and long live the French vacation attitude!