Now this is something our bosses should see

Speaking of Japan- it was common for some time (and sometimes still is) for employees to sleep at their desks- in fact some would PRETEND to be asleep- so their managers would see them passed out and think “wow. They worked really hard if they collapsed like that.” That culture was born in the post WW2 reconstruction- less men able to work and lots of work needing done to rebuild a decimated country. Today- many industries have the opposite problem. More workers than work to do. We have to create positions and layers of management to justify employing people. In the US- staying later than the boss, bragging about “all nighters” “perfect attendance” programs and feelings that one can’t take vacation earned without looking unimportant or weak.... we need to change our attitudes about work to care about what people produce and not how long they spend doing nothing.

Honestly the US culture around PTO is insane from an outsider's perspective. I'm from France, and I'm never signing a contract that has less than 5 weeks PTO, and you're damn sure I'm taking every one of those days. And I hear people in the US have none or like 2 weeks or something, and feel bad for taking it. It's honestly baffling.

Its somewhat baffling from the insiders perspective too! So- the “standard” used to be 2 weeks. Nowadays- not everyone gets 2 weeks. Workers in many industries considered similar to “retail” may get less- and it is more common to get something like a “time bank” where you have perhaps 10 days a year- but those count for being sick OR taking time off. In higher level salary jobs a shift has been to “non tracked” or sometimes called “unlimited” PTO. On paper- you can take as many days off as you want. But often you get LESS time off because the catch is that your manager must approve each day based on “business needs”- and of you think about it- if most people at your work take 2 weeks- and you take 8.... well- that means the company didn’t need you as much as other people. So the person with the most days off is t usually seen as the most efficient worker- but as the most overpaid or most useless worker when it comes time to cut expenses.

Another fun thing about “untracked PTO”? In the USA- if you quit a job or are fired- most non corporate jobs don’t have severance and many mid and entry corporate jobs don’t. But they DO have to pay you any vacation or sick hours you didn’t use. So if you have 80 hours of unused PTO when you leave- you get a check for that. BUT- “unlimited PTO” has no balance. It’s counted as 0 hours. So when you leave a job- even if you took no time off- you get no pay for vacation etc. it’s all pretty screwy. Americans tend to be defined by our jobs. It’s often one of the first things we ask when meeting a stranger. “What do you do?” A European friend once told me that when he asks that- he wants to know what you DO. Your hobbies- not your job. It’s living to work vs. working to live.