It’s well known that people in the United States on average don’t receive as much holiday time as their European counterparts. Studies show 25% of Americans do not receive any paid leave at all (!), and those who do rank behind their European counterparts.
But what may be surprising is that US workers are also less likely to use the holiday time they do receive. This year four in 10 Americans intended to take all of their holiday time, partly in fear of losing their job or because it isn’t encouraged by their employer. ( Source: NPR 2015)
My slightly unusual perch as a dual citizen, spending ample time in both the US and the UK, allows me to attest, with first hand knowledge, that having very little time off (if any at all) does not make for greater efficiency. On the contrary, it does nothing for creative thought, clutters the mind and makes you weary and stale, relying on rules and copious written instructions (Macdonalds is notorious) to get you through the day. Initiative not welcome! The bosses, some of whom display signs of high-functioning aspergers, would no doubt prefer to employ machines, not flesh and blood people. They will in due course buy robots to serve customers. I’m sure the robots will be programmed to smile. Studies will have shown that customers spend more, faced with smiling robots, rather than exhausted humans.
Many Europeans get four to six weeks of vacation. They are more effective for it, more energetic, and are better tempered. The GNP rises, the GNP falls, all of it having little or nothing to do with making employees work inordinate hours. The wise (Epicurean) employer insists that employees get a proper break.
Jeff Bezos, the head of Amazon, yesterday issued a very upbeat letter to his staff which reeked of the style adopted by public relations consultants. It was in response to a critical article in the NewYork Times. Everything is lovely, he claims; the staff happy; conditions of work superb; can’t imagine what the grumblers are grumbling about. “I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay” he says. “I know I would leave such a company.” I’m sure he believes it. If he had offer decent holiday entitlements, for instance, it would dock thousands of dollars off his profits. Or would it?
Many on the Right criticise France for allowing its workers too much time off, and its anaemic economic performance being a direct result thereof. However, French productivity per hour is much higher than Britain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_hour_worked) – a country that has tried to distance itself from socialism for the last 36 years. A much more likely cause of French under-performance is the long term decline of traditional industries, the stagnation of the European economy as a whole, and the adverse effects of the Euro.
Moreover, as the linked statistics show, American productivity per hour is very high, meaning that workers should not have to compensate for low productivity by working long hours. I agree with your comments about good employers, but really the only solution will be the Federal Government mandating an EU-style minimum of 21 days paid leave. In addition to this, it ought to be illegal to fire someone on the basis of them taking their entitled time off- which if the fears of most Americans are to be believed, is common practice amongst American employers.