Those working blue collar jobs, however, aren't always so lucky. They might not have any vacation days or even holidays.
Those working blue collar jobs, however, aren't always so lucky. They might not have any vacation days or even holidays.
<generalisations follow>
In reality most IT companies give ~25 days and give the 8 public holidays off too. Longer service often gets you more days. I'm up to 27 days/year (plus the 8 public holidays).
Any reasonable IT company will also require you to take all of your holiday during the year, it's a manager's responsibility to ensure that his team are using their holiday. There's certainly no pressure to not use all of the days! I can carry over the odd day or two across years but generally not allowed to accrue large amounts of unused paid leave.
We don't have a concept of an allocation of "sick days" either, if you're unwell for a day or a few days you can self certify yourself off work sick. If you're ill for longer than a week the expectation is that you'll provide a letter from a Doctor explaining the absence. If you're ill frequently then the company will discuss it with you (and if you're pulling frequent sickies then that'll be dealt with as a disciplinary). I've had 3 days off sick in the last 5 years.
20 days is until you have 10 years of work experience, but graduating counts as 8 years of experience so most people just have to work 2 years to jump to 26 days.