ALT-2 Should us Workers be Guaranteed more Vacation Time – No
Most coporations in the United States offer very attractive benefit packages, which include paid vacations. Most, if not all have a graduated scale in which an employee earns additional vacation time the longer he or she remains with the company. Seems fair to me, although I might make one change. In most organizations, the scale is in five-year increments. For example, 2 weeks for 1-4 years service, 3 weeks for 5-10 years service and so on.With the mobility of the American worker in the 21st Century, statistics show that most workers do not stay with a company for more than 6 years, on average. I might like to see companies restructure their scales to 1-3 years, 3-6 years, etc. This might give workers more incentive to remain in place with their employers.However, the amount of time employers offer as "vacation time" is irrelevant. If an applicant does not like the vacation package offered, there is no one forcing them to accept the position. As a person who used to do the hiring for several companies as part of my position, one of the items that always irritated me during an interview was when an applicant asked, "How much vacation time do I get?" This made me think that the applicant was not interested as much in how much they would have to work, but in how much "off-time" the company would have to pay for.I have had prospective employees turn down employment offers because the vacation provided was not to their liking. Again, this led me to believe that the candidate was less interested in what was expected of them, and more interested in their "paid time off".Companies should offer a fair amount of vacation, but a company also has the right to expect the employees on their payroll to actually EARN their wages. European companies often offer what to Americans seem huge amounts of vacation time, in some instances in excess of two months per year. One look at the number of strikes by the European workforce as opposed to their American counterparts clearly indicates that the amount of vacation time the employees receive cannot and will not solve any employee-retention difficulties.No, US companies offer a fair amount of vacation time. They could restructure it a bit differently, but when all is said and done, it is more than fair. Most workers work 2080 hours per year, and most get 80 hours vacation during their first 1-5 years. That equates to one entire pay period out of the 26 pay periods during the year. For one entire pay period, employers are paying their employees for ZERO production.More than fair.
