August and Vacations

I have some free time at work today, as everyone I work with has been on vacation this past week. I'll be going on Friday, after which Honeywell will shudder to a complete halt. The American vacation is very different from the eurovacation - not in what people do, as Europeans also eat ice cream and wear inappropriate beachwear for their age and body mass. It is in the length that the difference comes out - for example, I get five weeks of vacation. This is my first job. The term to use here is 'injustice'. But I'm not alone. Check this out:

With many employees entitled to up to 11 weeks annual leave, thanks to the 35-hour-week laws introduced four years ago, the French are taking more breaks. However, they tend to be shorter and holidaymakers have less cash to spend when they are away.

11 weeks of vacation! That's 21% of the total year spent watching reruns of the french dubbing of Judge Judy! Americans average about 3 weeks, which equals a much more respectable 5% of their year. But the French are paying for their sloth:

The French now have so much free time that they cannot afford to enjoy it, tourism professionals said yesterday, blaming a sharp fall in summer hotel and restaurant revenues on the average Gallic tourist's newfound parsimony.

My dad always says he has enough money for a vacation but not enough time (as if 7 weeks weren't enough), and that the europeans have it right. But there is definitely a balance, and the French have passed it. There's a word for not having enough money, but more than enough time, to go lay on the beach. It's called 'Unemployment.' Apparently the people over at the International Herald Tribune are having trouble finding anything to write about as well. The IHT has an excellent article on the differences in American v. Euro attitudes about holidays. This figure does amaze me though:

The Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit organization in New York, conducted a survey of 1,003 wage and salaried employees in the U.S. work force last year. The survey, which had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, found that among those who had the option of paid vacation, 36 percent said they were not planning to take all of it. This, surely, is a statistic that would be met with bewilderment in Europe.

I always wondered if it's because there's more stuff to do in Europe. I mean, from Austin you can either drive 5 hours to Padre or 11 to New Orleans. Or you fly. In Europe you can take a bus for 10 dollars that drops you off in some former imperial city on some gorgeous Mediterranean beach. Which sure as hell beats South Padre Island.