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Comment by tw04 | Hacker News Reader

For all the talk of "lazy Europeans", I hope this has opened some Americans eyes. It's insane to me we don't have the equivalent of their summer "holiday". We work hard enough the rest of the year, taking a break should be a badge of honor, not shame.

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You have it all backwards. Not working if you can avoid it isn't lazy but completely sensical. Holiday and leisure time shouldn't even be considered a break from work - instead working should be considered a break from living ...

Having said that I believe work and life can go hand in hand very healthily. The reality though is different. Work is for most people just financially compensated abuse.

That's exactly it. If you don't have to work, you shouldn't. The idea that hard work and endless toil is some sort of virtue that gives life meaning and is necessary for a strong, moral character... is just puritanical garbage.

The long-term goal of humanity should be an end to scarcity, and automation of everything possible. No one should have to work to live comfortably, though people should be able to choose to work if they enjoy it.

Could you please elaborate what do you mean by 'their summer "holiday"'? Are you referring Ferragosto in Italy or what?

Some/many Europeans pretty much take the month of August off to go on holiday. That's in addition to other holidays/time off throughout the year. People in many jobs here in the U.S. are lucky to get 2 weeks off total per year.

This was the most surprising thing to me when I started working with Europe. I had a meeting with a company in Germany at the end of July a few years ago and all involved said they would be unavailable until September.

Most Europeans take 3 weeks off in the summer (sometimes 4), typically July or August. Companies run very slow for a couple of months, or even close down in August.

As a European I am not keen on the European model. Everything just stops. You can't get anything done. We should have SLA's for critical and/or important services. For example one time I wanted to change the use of a commercial premises and was told to come back in 6 months because the person who takes care of that was on extended leave. IMO this is inexcusable and reflects poorly on Europeans and their values. This attitude problem extends way beyond holidays too. It's a miracle if you find a customer service rep that wants to help you solve your problem. The amount of times I've been fobbed off to go talk to someone else when calling customer support is worrying. As labour protections are so strong no one loses their job over non-performance. We're only hurting ourselves in the long run. This decay is hard to turn around. You need to holiday from something but based on my experience many people are not taking their jobs and role in society seriously enough to earn/need a break at all. I think there is a middle ground we should strive for.

I absolutely agree with the examples you mention, but I have to believe there's a middle ground! The American system of work-till-you-can't-anymore is just as (if not more) awful, only in different ways.

If someone wants to take 6 months off, someone else needs to be trained to handle their responsibilities during that period. Companies should be incentivized (somehow!) to provide good customer service; providing bad service should be more expensive for them than providing good service.

I'd pick Europe over US to live in every day of the week but there is no denying most of the comforts I have in life originated in the US. I even renounced my US citizenship so it's not hypothetical for me.

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