Ask HN: How many vacations do you take a year?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7129649

by pmcpinto • 12 years ago

28 58 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Also do you take extended periods of time like 15-20 days, or small periods like 5-days? And also what kind of things do you usually do? Travel, visit family, work in side projects, etc

I'm curious to see if there are great differences between people located in different parts of the world, who work in startups vs in more established companies, etc

pathy3• 12 years ago

A Swedish perspective:

By law you are granted 25 days vacation per year, assuming you have worked enough to "earn them", generally you get 12.5-13.x% extra salary per day worked that goes towards your vacation.

The law also says that you have a right to 4 weeks uninterrupted vacation during the June, July and August. At least two months before the (requested) vacation you must get a definitive decision. The employers are not allowed, by law, to change their mind about granted vacation time.

I believe I saw a study that recommended shorter, more frequent, vacations as the best way to recover from mental fatigue but I assume that there is a lot of opposing opinions on that matter.

pmcpinto5• 12 years ago

That 4 week of uninterrupted vacation is mandatory or a person can take that days in different periods?

ollysb• 12 years ago

In the UK the legal minimum is 28 days. In theory you can take the days however you want. In practice though you usually have to negotiate when to take them with your boss. They have to allow you to take them all off at some point in the year though so they're usually pretty accommodating.

I've always been surprised at how little people get in the US. Given that it's a wealthy nation it seems to lag considerably behind European countries in this regard.

pathy3• 12 years ago

You have a right to take it during that summer period. You don't have to but your employer are not required to grant you four weeks of uninterrupted vacation during say November.

Many Swedes have summer houses that they go to during the summer when the kids are on summer break from school. There is also a so called "Industrial Vacation" during July, where many companies at least partially close for a month, this is especially true for manufacturing.

staticelf2• 12 years ago

It is not mandatory, you can take vacation whenever you want to (as long as it's granted of course).

Another interesting fact about Swedish law is that you are free to leave your job for further education if you want. Max 6 months and when you come back, the employers is required by law that you recieve the same sort of job tasks and the same amount of pay of course.

The employer has the right to decide when you may leave for max 6 months ahead in the future.

rapht2• 12 years ago

"I believe I saw a study that recommended shorter, more frequent, vacations as the best way to recover from mental fatigue but I assume that there is a lot of opposing opinions on that matter."

As for myself, I find that I don't manage to totally disconnect from all things work until nearly a week of vacation, so even 9 full days (which is what you get when you take an entire week off) is kind of "not enough" because you only really enjoy that for 2 or 3 days.

jasonkester3• 12 years ago

I used to take one long trip every year or so, with 6-9 months on the road, climbing, surfing, and otherwise just wandering about until it started to get old or I missed using my brain and needed to run home and land another contract.

That lasted for about 10 years, but I've slowed down a bit now.

These days I seldom take more than six weeks truly "off", with all tools down and no hours billed. Instead I tend to move around to places that have the things I want to do, set up shop, and do my "vacationing" on nights, weekends, and the odd afternoon off. There are cheap-ish rental houses/apartments with good wifi pretty much everywhere in the world now. If you can work remote, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be working remote. Like, all the time.

It actually works out pretty well this way. I get way more climbing/surfing in than I used to when I was contracting in LA to save for the next trip, and I get to have a house with an office, comfy couch, etc.

Thank you, software industry, for making us pretty much the only class of individual on the planet who can pull this off!

mcdowall3• 12 years ago

I've been doing the same for the last 3 years, albeit not on the same scale. I contract every 6 months and then take a month or so off until like you I find my brain starting to feel neglected. I try to fit in a few weekend trips to cities during those 6 months.

I'm a technical PM so I tend to have to be on site for contracts and yet to find a remote PM role. That aside though I'm getting back to more coding these days so hope to be able to work remotely in the future.

pmcpinto5• 12 years ago

That's really great, so in the past you only work during 3-6 months?

jasonkester3• 12 years ago

Yeah. It takes ~$10k to dirtbag around the world for a year if you mostly stick to the developing world. The equation then is how long need a fella work an on-site contract for a Silicon Valley or SoCal rate, while borrowing a couch or renting the cheapest room available nearby, in order to save that much?

Keep in mind, that your taxable income for the year will likely be less than $20k, so most of your paycheck while you're living cheaply will go straight towards travel expenses for the next lap.

Personally, I liked 3 month contracts. I usually ended up saving a lot more than I could possibly spend on the road.

WA• 12 years ago

Do you carry your climbing gear or do you buy/sell at every location? I just started climbing a year ago, but all the stuff weighs a lot.

Topic: I have something like a lifestyle SaaS business, but I'm mainly at home and take a week or two off whenever I want (and other people have time). For example, last week, I went snowboarding in France for a week.

In 2013, I spent about 8 weeks in total in other places (US, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey).

In 2012, I traveled for 6 months around the world with my girlfriend.

jasonkester3• 12 years ago

I use Game Theory. No sane person would go on an extended sport climbing trip without a rope and a set of quickdraws. Thus, everybody you meet at, say, Ceuse, will have those things. Therefore, if a fella were to show up there with nothing but a pair of shoes and a harness, he should have no trouble finding partners with gear.

On extended trips, when I hit Europe (and thus needed to camp at climbing areas), I'd spin the $12/day rental car past a Decathlon and pick up a $20 sleeping bag, $40 tent, and $1.99 giant inflatable pool toy mattress to serve as the envy of the entire campground. Everybody else has stoves and cookware, so that part's sorted. And when it comes time to fly home, some lucky dirtbag gets a bunch of free gear.

andyjohnson0• 12 years ago

Two week family holiday in the summer. On week solo hiking trip in the Spring or Autumn. One family week between Christmas and New Year. One week spread over the year for long weekends away and domestic obligations. I'm in the UK, working at a small but established company.

cjwebb• 12 years ago

Last year, I had about 7-8 long weekends, or short breaks (maybe 3 days max). I felt a bit depressed when I realised that I never had a whole week off though (apart from over xmas). That was in a London, UK startup.

This year, I'm going to make sure I have at least a couple of full weeks off.

mcdowall3• 12 years ago

UK, Contractor.

A 4 week long trip every 6months or so, though the last trip was 10 weeks.

3 to 4 weekend city breaks per year, most usually geared around a sporting event, festival or a friends Stag/Bachelor party.

Next big trip is a month in Brazil for the World Cup in June. Aside from that Roland Garros in May and Oktoberfest in September.

pmcpinto5• 12 years ago

Going to Brazil during the World Cup is really a great trip :). But be careful a lot of Brazilians want to boycott the World Cup

mcdowall3• 12 years ago

It should be great!. I'm not overly concerned, we had our own riots and disruptions prior to the Olympics in 2012 here but when it got to the point of the event common sense prevailed and everyone seemed to get behind it.

I was in Bangkok during the riots a few years ago and then Crete during the Greek ones, just being sensible helps you navigate around those sort of things.

pmcpinto5• 12 years ago

In Portugal we usually have 25 days (excluding holidays) and at some companies they want you to take at least a period with a minimum of 10 days of uninterrupted vacations.

wellboy• 12 years ago

No holidays for the last 2 years. 3 months ago, I started needing the weekends heavily to recover. Now that my startup is up and running, with a couple of thousand users and some trial customers, I will probably take a skiing holiday soon.

pathy3• 12 years ago

Sounds like a holiday would do you good. No use becoming burnt out from not taking holidays.

Luckily IT companies can often manage a few days without you.

Best of luck with the startup and do enjoy vacations, or at least long weekends, from time to time.

bhoomit• 12 years ago

I'm from India, working at a travel startup Mygola.

I usually take 3 vacations(2x15 Days, 1x7 days), they are divided into some travel, visiting family/friends, some spiritual activity, etc.

Mygola also has one cool perk called workation when entire team travel while also keep working(work+vacation).

aragot4• 12 years ago

Hi Bhoomit, Is it an average for most IT workers, or do you have strong discrepancies depending on people's education or situation in IT?

Kurtz79• 12 years ago

Based in Spain, medium-sized local company (few hundreds), I have about 30 days vacation every year. Usually the company locks some of these for the days close to Easter and Christmas. I usually use these to visit my family abroad.

I have left about 20, which I like to take in August (like most of the other employees) for a long vacation abroad, having one month a year when I can completely disconnect and still getting paid it's a real luxury.

Eclyps• 12 years ago

American here. I usually try to get out of the country once per year, usually for a good 14 days (10 business days). Sometimes more, sometimes less. Last year was actually the first year in many that I didn't make it out of the country, but it was more due to my own failure to plan a decent getaway and a lack of funds.

Other than my one big trip, I usually only take a Friday off here or there. Maybe only 2 or 3 of those per year.

rapht2• 12 years ago

From France :

We get 25 days by law, that's for employees who do the 35-hour workweek. Then people who do more than 35 hours (that is, people who don't follow the fixed 35-hour model) get more days depending on the sector / company.

I get a total of 38 days per year, so that's about 7 and a half weeks. (Yes that's a lot but has to be compared to my average 55-hour workweek.) I work at a large retail corporation.

I take 2 long breaks every year, 2 to 3 weeks each : - one in March/April where I like to travel far from the French winter, preferably in a sunny and warm tropical country - one in August/September, the destination depending on opportunities and remaining budget after the March break ;)

During these breaks, I do a lot of sightseeing (both scenic and cultural spots), days are generally busy but relaxed at the same time - what you don't see this time, you'll see next time. And I sleep a lot, too.

Other than these long breaks, I take a few days off around Christmas/New Year, and I use the remainder for some Mondays/Fridays off. That's when I visit family or just do the things I don't have time to do on regular week-ends.

(Edited for spelling)

aragot4• 12 years ago

French here. When employee in France, the law says 25 days/yr and you can add 11 RTT (please don't look that up in wikipedia). People don't tend to use them all. I would generally take 1-2 weeks for Christmas, and 2-weeks trips along the year to Europe or to the mountains/sea sports.

In Australia, it's only 4 weeks off, plus you kind of have to take 2 weeks to visit your family back in Europe for Christmas, so in the end I couldn't visit Australia while I was working there (reason #6 why I left). Fortunately I had taken a gap year to go farming around the continent, and i'll probably keep the idea of a 6-month break every 3 years.

I find that short holidays = unhappy employees, pressure to prevent them from taking unpaid leave, and that ends up in the sick leave being high. It's unfortunate.

adaml_623• 12 years ago

Can you quickly enumerate the other 5+ reasons you left Australia? I'm very curious about different perspectives on these things.

aragot4• 12 years ago

Most of them depend on the relationships you create with your key stakeholders:

#1 3 years in Australia = Time to open a new chapter: I want to be a product manager and I wasn't on the rails,

#2 Stress due to unhealthy working hours,

#3 Air conditioning in buses and offices,

#4 No snowboard or windsurf in Sydney (If you enjoy surf you'll be just fine),

#5 Stress due to the immigrant visa,

#6 Not enough holidays,

#7 Sydney drivers. I think Melbourne has the stereotypical friendly Australian lifestyle and Sydney is more a capital/immigrant city. But Sydney has the beaches. And Melbourne the windsurfers. #hardtochoose

#8 Cost of living (With twice my French salary, I barely saved the same amount per year)

To make it fair, I'll mix it with the upsides:

# Hypercool working culture, awesome knowledgeable colleagues,

# The Sydney IT scene is alive, knowledgeable and dynamic,

# Nice parties at work (beer on tap in the office),

# Sun all-year-round, beach culture, nice dates (ey, that's important),

# Multicultural environment,

# Agile culture, a crazy lot to learn at the workplace...

# The border police saying "I like your Angry Nerds t-shirt. Welcome to Australia."

So here's my advice: Like everyone, have your target workplace pay for your move to Australia and host you for the first month. Apply for Permanent Residency as soon as you touch base (or before if you can). Once you have PR, get a good salary and/or change company. Be excellent at work. Go there if you're not addicted to mountaineering. And remember immigrating isn't easy: During the first months you feel lonely and disoriented (as in, people have values you're not used to, and the ones you do have mean nothing to them), it may take up to 2 years to get used to the new culture. After 2 years, you learn what you're going to take away from that culture and it enriches you. Best of luck adaml!

arethuza• 12 years ago

As a family we seem to be follow the predictable UK middle class pattern of a week skiing in February and a couple of weeks in the sun in Greece/Turkey at beach club where I enjoy capsizing high performance dinghies.

Used to go in for rather more varied adventures before we had a kid. However, he is mid teens so we are starting to look at getting back to more varied stuff rather than focusing on holidays with great child care/entertainment.

I work for a UK based multinational - 33 days paid leave.

Kiro• 12 years ago

I only take one or two days at a time.

Riyadh• 12 years ago

Germany, Freelance Java/JEE Developer

Here for permanent positions you get 24+ days off but as a freelancer I obviously don't get any vacation unless I take a few days off myself.

- Usually every 1.5 years ~10-14 days: traveling in Europe - Every 3-4 years ~20 days: traveling outside of Europe - In addition to that I take a Friday off every ~2 months for a long weekend with the family, visiting places in Germany

I do my side projects at night and on the weekends, if the family allows me to. I outsource A LOT, so I think I actually get a decent amount of work done.

In Germany we have lots of official holidays so we get an extra day off here and there. The official "calculation" is ~220 working days per year (for permanent positions).

jxf• 12 years ago

US here. I prefer to take frequent, short breaks (3-day, 4-day weekends) for occasional battery-recharging, with periodic longer vacations (9-day excursions somewhere), especially to go somewhere I've never been.

I try not to work on side projects during vacations. It's mostly about travel or doing something I haven't done before.

Vacations are a strict "no Internet" policy for me, to the extent that I can manage that. I usually cave and will leave notifications on my phone on, so I'm not as pure about it as I'd like to be.

RobinUS2• 12 years ago

Located in The Netherlands, but mainly doing business with US/UK. I go on one holiday for an extend period (~ 14 days) and a couple (~ 2) of short 3-5 day trips.

michalstanko• 12 years ago

I'm from Slovakia, a little country in the Central Europe.

Regular employees here are entitled to 20 days of vacation, or 25 for those who are 33 or older. In addition to that, there are 15 days of public holidays (that includes New Year's Day, 2 days Easter, 3 days of Christmas, plus other holidays such as Constitution Day, and so on). You have to negotiate with the employer when do you take your holidays, and employer has the right to specifically tell you when to take half of those days.

As for me, I am a freelancer, and I like to travel a lot around Europe. Usually for 1 - 2 weeks, with first week off and the second week I work at the location and let my wife and little boy enjoy the warm weather for a bit longer. In the recent years we never took holidays during July/August, because we like to travel a bit more off-season, when the sun is still (or already) warm enough to still have a great time.

bnt• 12 years ago

EU here. Last year (full-time employment): 12 days in total. 5-6 workdays/week, 9-10hrs/day.

benzesandbetter• 12 years ago

My answer is either zero, or one that is 365 days long... I travel and work continuously. In 2012, I was in 20 countries. In 2011, I was in 12. I enjoy my work, and don't really wish for time apart from it. My Brazilian girlfriend is trying to convince me to take longer (off-grid) vacations. We'll see how that goes.

re1ser• 12 years ago

Serbian freelancer here

Last year I was to USA (10 days), Mallorca/Ibiza (14 days), Greece (4 days), a bit around the country for a few days, and during winter I tend to take every 3rd weekend or so to go to skiing. That sums up to around 30+ days/year.

This year, my plan is to mainly have active vacations, travelling & working, Thailand for a few months, and some mountain during winter for a few months.

bmj• 12 years ago

US here as well. My family takes a 4-6 week road trip each year (we go to points west to rock climb). I will typically work 5-8 day remotely during those trips (usually in a block at some point mid-trip), and unless I know something is brewing, I won't check my work email outside of those blocks (typically, this isn't hard, as we tend to camp in areas without great cellular coverage).

We will typically squeeze in a few four day weekend as well at other points in the year. If I've burned all my vacation time on our road trip, I'll just condense my work weeks.

andyhmltn• 12 years ago

Usually take one large period (~14 days) to go abroad then use the rest to take small 3 day breaks to make the weekend longer or for stuff like christmas

malvim• 12 years ago

Brazilian here. We get, by law, 30 days every year. We get 1+1/3 normal pay on those days.

You can choose to "sell" 10 of those 30 days and work (getting paid your normal wage plus the vacation money), but you HAVE to take the other 20 days off.

If you choose to take the 30 days, you can split them in two periods. If you split them in 12 and 18 days, you can put your vacation days between weekends and effectively get 5 weeks off.

Of course, that's for regularly employed (meaning "working for someone else") people. If you have your own business or work as a freelancer, there's no regulation.

furyg3• 12 years ago

I get 25 days in NL. I'm an expat, and have no kids.

I always take at least one 3+ week vacation, either to visit my home country (US) or to backpack. For me it's very important to completely disconnect from work for a while, it puts things in perspective, gives me more motivation, and brings me back ready to disrupt my previous work routine for the better.

The rest of the days I use 1-2 at a time to make a long weekend here and there (Nature or city trips).

saltcod• 12 years ago

In Canada, depending on the province you're in, everyone gets about 9-13 days of stat holidays. On top of that, the typical amount of actual vacation time in private industry is 2 weeks, in government about 3 weeks. That amount of time off goes up slowly over time of course.

I work at a university and get 12 stat days + 15 holidays = 27 days per year. That sounds like a lot more on paper than it is in real life =)

typicalrunt• 12 years ago

In BC, Canada, an employer is mandated to give at least 2 weeks vacation [1] according to the Employment Standards Act. That vacation is expected to rise to 3 weeks after 5 years of employment.

[1] http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/ID/freeside/00_96113_01#...

staticelf2• 12 years ago

Sweden here:

Last vacations I'd had I've taken small periods like 5-days since almost every time I've been joining a new company. I usually travel or work on side projects / learn something new.

This year, I will take a longer period I think 4 weeks in a row would suite me just perfectly.

sbfeibish• 12 years ago

I take pictures and shop where I have geolocation (i.e., city) domain names.

VLM2• 12 years ago

I wonder if you'd see more variation between countries or more variation between singles/married-with-children.

I found my vacation pattern dramatically changed when over half my days became onesie-twosie "school play" "choir concert" "awards ceremony" "school conferences" "sports event" "scouts camping" kid-type stuff.

In the BC "before children" era I used to take entire weeks and go to overseas or far away rural type stuff. Once the kids are old enough to avoid getting lost and/or eaten by a bear I have plans for a couple national parks I haven't seen yet.

pstack• 12 years ago

I'm in my late 30s in the US.

I get the maximum vacation time our company allows (after about eight years, you get something like 21 days per year). I currently have the maximum banked amount allowed (two years or 42+ days worth). My vacation accrual has been maxed-out for years, because I do not use it.

In my eighteen years of adult life, I've never taken a vacation day, have only used a sick day one time (I generally work through the illness, but there was one day when I could not get out of bed and was practically unconscious for almost two days), and I've worked almost every holiday (Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, MLK, July 4th - you name it). The only exception was about thirteen years ago, when my dad died and my boss forced me to take a week of bereavement off.

I know a lot of people look forward to using their vacation time and getting away from work. I don't like people who act like working is the worst thing and just sit around staring at the clock waiting for 5:00pm to strike, so they can bail -- but I don't judge or begrudge people who have a strong work ethic and then take advantage of their vacation time. They've earned it.

For myself . . . well, I don't care much for travel and most of the things I do for side projects and self interest can be done at my desk or in my back yard. I enjoy working, often do it off the clock for my own enjoyment, and I can fit in my own projects around the time I work, so I have no particular need to take time off of work to make time for my own stuff.

I suspect I'd feel differently if I had to commute. If I had to travel an hour or more to work every morning and then the same amount back each night, I would be exhausted. I'd probably hate it. Not the work, but the trappings of it. I could see a vacation being desperately needed. Since I've telecommuted almost my entire life, I don't have that particular stress, though. I think that counts for a LOT and I really appreciate it.

On the other hand, there are people like my mother. Someone who has spent most of her life in the food service industry. Has worked at the same company for about twenty years, now, and gets only a week or two of vacation per year . . . UNPAID. As a result, she has never traveled (she won't even come visit me in the home I bought since moving halfway across the country), she doesn't really do anything on vacation, and frankly, doesn't ever take time off if she can help it. She needs the money; can't afford two weeks of "unpaid" vacation.

I don't know if I will change as I get older. We have chosen not to have children and my fiance, though much younger (10yrs) than myself, is very much fine with doing her own thing like me. We have our passions and allow each other to indulge them. She loves traveling (having formerly served in Afghanistan, she has seen more of the world in the last five years than I've seen in my entire life). Anyway, the point is that I have few obligations to be concerned with. That allows me additional freedom to not care about my vacation time, I think. Maybe as I age, I'll want to do other things besides work. Or maybe I'll just need a day every couple weeks to nap and will burn vacation that way. Who knows?

Suitov• 12 years ago

How many what?

My employer has to nag me every year to use up my leave days. If they don't, I forget! I'm on the autistic spectrum and easily get caught up in routine.

Generally I use holiday time strictly for relaxation and enjoying being at home.

EdgarVerona• 12 years ago

I'm a 32 year old software engineer living in the U.S. Last year my company (in the most amazing extension of generosity I'd ever seen at any employer) gave everyone the last two weeks of the year off. Prior to that, I'd never had a vacation longer than a week in my professional career.

It's a funny thing - no one's twisting my arm to not take vacations, but I've always felt something akin to "I don't deserve a vacation" (for lack of a better description). I have known many co-workers in my career who have had similar anxiety about taking days off, as if we'll be perceived as not adding value if we're taking vacation.

My current employer's giving of a mandatory 2 week vacation is only now starting to make me realize that employers (at least good ones, like my current employer) don't feel that way at all, and that feeling of inadequacy is in my head.

This year? Well, perhaps I'll take a real vacation. I get 10 days allotted for vacation per year (so 2 weeks), and perhaps if I can find a good time to do so I'll take them consecutively and get a really good vacation - or at least, I won't feel guilty if I take two one-week vacations.

neverland• 12 years ago

Once, maybe twice.

Each time no more than a few days. Generally to visit family.

gkelly• 12 years ago

Where I work (state government in the US), I accrue 2 vacation days per month. I have about 30 days in the bank. I'm going to take the next six months and travel the world with my wife, while working remotely. I am going to work at 50% of full-time and use my vacation days so I only work about 40 hours per month. My wife and I saved money, vacation days, and credit card points for about 2 years for this trip.

true_religion• 12 years ago

I took no vacations or Holidays for the past 4 years, until this December I've taken off for a 3-5 month trip around the world. I head my own company, so not taking vacation is pretty much voluntary although I never work weekends even if things are on fire.

Ask HN: How many vacations do you take a year?

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