Susie

After twenty years of teaching I took the year off and read "A Woman's Passion for Travel". Have the travel bug now and am leaving next week for Prague.

Sue

I started teaching when my children were in high school. Until then I was a stay-at-home mom. We have always sacrificed to live on one pay so I could raise my own kids. When I started teaching 11 years ago, we continued to live on his pay using mine for college tuition and extras...travel was at the top of the list. Before I worked our travel consisted mostly of long weekends of camping or touring baseball stadiums in other towns. Now we are making up for lost time! We go to Europe for free each summer b/c I take students and parents on an educational tour. I spend 10 days in each country and get a fairly good feel for the places I'd like to return to and the places I could live w/out ever seeing again. We take some of our own kids w/ us and it's been a great opportunity for them to travel Europe throughout their teens. My husband (he owns his business hense can get time off) and I take a spring break vacation some place warm, in the past we cruised but now have found a second home on St. Maartin.

Sue

Oops, hit send b4 I meant to! We also take a few long weekend trips a yr. This June we leave for Spain w/ students. Then in July leave for a wk in Paris and another in Brugge and Amsterdam. I'm so surprised to see so many attorneys post to this thread. When I decided to go back to work, I chose teaching in part b/c educators were the most-traveled people I knew!

lia

I'm a project coordinator. I live in Australia and I take between 3 - 6 weeks paid holidays per year. I can accrue up to 3 months leave at a time. <BR> <BR>Last year I took 6 weeks leave - 4 weeks paid and 2 weeks unpaid. In Australia - there is a lot more flexibility then in the US..

Rene

I am a veterinarian (employee, not owner) After 12 years, I still do not recieve much paid vacation. Two years at present job, and get 1 week paid vacation and 7 paid holidays. BUT, I only work mon-thurs. and so do 3 day trips quite often (living in California, obviously these trips are not international!) My husband works for state of california, and gets ALL holidays, or even semi-holidays off. He can also use sick leave for vacation. I do have the freedom to take unpaid leave, only 3 sick days. However, spent 2 weeks Hawaii december 2000, 12 days England March 2001, and will be almost 3 weeks in Australia in September. Im a pretty happy camper!

lynn

Ditto. <BR> <BR>Like many of above, we are self-employed. We own and operate (with two employees) two sign and banner shops in So. Cal. <BR> <BR>We can certainly leave when we want, and do take advantage of last minute deals once in awhile, but if we're not here, we don't make much money. The employees keep the place open, but they can't sell and do like we can. <BR> <BR>Our next big trip is Asia in November. We're trying to get a deal to Toronto next weekend for my birthday and may go somewhere during 4th of July if a cheap airfare pops up. We'll see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. <BR> <BR>Lynn <BR> <BR

wombat

Occupation: graphic artist <BR> <BR>21 days of vacation per year -- can carry over a certain percentage of unused (currently have 33 banked). Also receive 12 days of sick leave per year (currently have 56 banked). Have 10 paid holidays each year. <BR>

janet

i have just found this web site and have so far found it very helpful as i'm planning a 9 week trip around europe starting in 3 weeks time. i'm a very hard working chef(!!!) and work for a very good company that allows me to take as much time off as i want, alas all unpaid, but nothing in life is perfect!!!!

Erin

I am a Manager at a major pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. I get a total of 22 days off. That's 2 weeks vacation (3 weeks after 5 years of service), 7 personal days and 5 sick days. We get only 6 Federal holidays (New Years, Memorial, July 4th, Labor, Thanksgiving and Christmas)...we don't even get off the day after Thanksgiving! Looking forward to next year when I get 5 weeks vacation!

Lori

Hi all, <BR>I'm in Investment Banking in NYC. I get 23 days off and 4 personal days, plus the 10 bank holidays. My husband gets 4 weeks off and the bank holidays, but managed to carry over days from last year. We try to take 2 vacations a year. We're leaving for France for 10 days next week, and maybe Disney World in September. <BR>Message to Steph - I used to be in the 401K recordkeeping business as well, but got out 3 years ago!

frank

Engineer (UK) 38 days leave. <BR>Some of my USA colleagues tell me that although they get half the days off (& 3 times the pay) some still opt to WORK part of their vacations.Is this generally true or is it just engineers?

Bill I

I work in Computer Operations for a ounty government just outside Chicago. Having worked here for 2 years, I get 2 weeks of vacation, 5 sick days, & 13 holidays. But I have to be on-call for work 1 weekend each month & various holidays throughout the year - to respond to work problems, but I can bank those extra hours into comp time & get about 10 extra days of because of that, but have to give up 13 weekends & 4 holidays a year to get that. My wife works in the airline industries, so we get to travel abit more because of that. Usually take 2, 1 week vacations per year in U.S., or combination of Europe/U.S. My 2 sons are in travel hockey, & the resto of the time off is used in attending hockey tournamnets. <BR> <BR>The job I left 2 years ago, in Chicago, after 11 years, I had 4 weeks of vacation (1 week of which was negotiated instead of a raise one year)plus 2 weeks of sick/personal days, & 11 holidays. But they never wanted you to take the time off, & the stress of the job called for more time off than the company supplied.

Joe

I am a greasy cog in a corporate machine. <BR> <BR>15 Vacation Days <BR>6 Personal/Sick Days <BR>9 Holidays <BR>1 Diversity Day <BR>1 Floating Holiday <BR>104 Weekend Days <BR> <BR>62.74% of the days in a year require me to get out of bed and go to work. <BR> <BR>37.26% of the days I can do something else.

GOL

Occupation: Media / Message Coordination Firm. We coordinate callers (viewers / listeners) to call in to major TV & radio call in shows (C-SPAN, EIB Network (a.k.a. Rush), NY, LA, etc major drive-time syndicated radio shows). Interest and Partisian (mostly) groups use my firm to gain access to live talk shows/programs to 'float' questions, messages and topics. Heavy use of Instant Messaging once a caller is in queue. <BR> <BR>Thus, as small business owner, my vacation time is determined by my clients desires and other factors. However, I always give myself at least 3 weeks vacation. Plus, my field affords me the ability to work anywhere as long as I have reliable access to a favorable ISP. [Thus, I encourage my family to sleep in Sunday morning, as that is a busy day.]

lisa

I'm a lawyer in Washington DC. I get 20 vacation days each year, plus 10 holidays (used to get 25 vacation days plus holidays, but recently got a new boss who asked "How could anyone actually use five weeks of vacation each year?" & proceeded to reduce vacation time). This does not include personal or sick days as needed. We can only carry over 8 vacation days per year, so there is an incentive to use vacation time -- and I always do. This is still pretty good by U.S. standards.

Dennis

I'm an editor at a software company. I get 17 vacation days, 10 sick days, and 8 paid holidays per year. Have been with the company just over one year. I can carry over up to 15 unused vacation days from one year to the next. If I can cut back on my days off this year, I'll be able to take a month-long vacation next year.

Tracy

I am a legal assistant - 4 weeks vacation plus 8 summer fridays off between June 1 and labor day. This amounts to more than 5 weeks vacation!!! <BR> <BR>I have been here for 3 years - I am very good at what I do.

Greg Gallagher

With the exception of Steve and a few others we should all be lawyers and travel the world. I have never seen so many people with so much free time. Man did I pick the wrong profession (engineering).

TW

I'm a travel writer and I travel and research destinations for pay. It is ideal for me, as I have wanderlust --and an outside income from rentals. So I travel several months a year and consider myself blessed. (My husband comes with me sometimes but usually not--my kids are grown, I have no dog. Not even live plants!) And I have sacrificed big bucks and a real career path for a freelance life. It's always a tradeoff in life.

Robbie

Dear Danny <BR> <BR> I am a retired Registered Nurse and my husband is a retired Architect. We are now calling our time our own finally and we are enjoying every minute of it. We are heading to Germany next week. I think the companies here in the USA should be a little more generous to their employees with vacation time.