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Comment by edent | Hacker News Reader

This is just crazy. In the UK, the minimum holiday entitlement is 28 days (Full details at https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights). That usually does not include Bank Holidays - unless you're working somewhere a bit sketchy - so that's another 7 days (although you can't decided when to take them).

In some companies I've worked for, HR can force you to take holiday if it looks like you've not been using it.

I'm not claiming the UK is a Socialist paradise, but I shudder when I look at the terms of employment with US companies.

Do you want a happy, healthy, dedicated, and motivated workforce? Or do you just want to burn people out as quickly as possible and then replace them?

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The latter, almost uniformly. Over here employers cry about having a shortage of skilled workers to hire one day and the next either lament at how ungrateful and spoiled the ones they already employ seem to be when they balk at working another 60 hour week or negatively compare the ones who are efficient and have families to the 20-something single guy who happily toils away until midnight every day.

It's a ridiculous class system we have in this country, no doubt.

As a programmer who feels I should spend at least some of my life in silicon valley, this is the primary reason I don't. American employment law is frankly barbarian.

If they're replaceable, the later. That's why technical people get a lot of time off and "soft skill" people get less time off. Not saying it is right, but that's how companies look at it.

Also, business owners don't like government telling them how to run their business. If a company mismanages their talent and burn them out, that's the company's problem, not the government's problem.

I'm not heartless but I also wouldn't like the government telling me how to run my business. That many mandatory days off can crippling for smaller companies.

Exactly my thoughts when reading these comments. I'm in my first year in employment after graduating from University, and I get 27.5 days holiday a year...if you don't take it you get in trouble with HR (although I can carry 5 days over to next year with prior agreement).

I can also buy more days if I wanted to, my manager does for example so he can spend more time on his sailing hobby.

Same in Australia - we also have a maximum 38 hour work week for full time employees (the employee can choose to work reasonable overtime but if an employer was found to be forcing them to, there are penalties).

That, and the lack of an affordable healthcare system (I pay less than $1000 a year for private health insurance but if I couldn't afford that I could get healthcare free of charge - the main difference is longer waits for elective surgery) mean that working in the US really isn't that appealing despite the startup scene being more exciting.

That is 28 days including bank holidays if the employer wishes. It is up to them to force their employees to take those as holiday time.

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