Lol. This country just voted to move in the opposite direction of this. We voted for less worker rights. Less power for the average person.
At this point, we’ll need to start utilizing our 2nd amendment right if we want to get anything better than what we have. People died to give us the 40 hour work week. Looks like that’s going to have to happen again for any further improvements.
Smarter countries did it without the bloodshed. America isn’t that smart.
My dipshit coworkers think trump will actually be good for unions. Mfers.
I’d like to add that 32 hour weeks is pretty much purely something that works for white collar work. It’s considerably harder to implement in blue collar settings.
Your premise is flawed in the first sentence - “Want happier employees?” No American employer cares about that in the least. Being happy at being allowed to keep their job and keep showing up to collect your meager pay is about all you can expect.
4 weeks is still not on par with other civilised countries. Living here in the UK now, 5 weeks is standard. When I was in the Netherlands I was getting six.
Know what really hurts?
Running into foreigners in your own city who tell you about how they’re on a multi-week vacation to America and they’ll probably do it again to another country again next year. I’ve had that happen multiple times while out at bars in my city.
Meanwhile, I’ve barely crossed state lines in my entire adulthood because it’s hard to even get a 3-4 day extended weekend.
America sucks y’all.
Join a union. I work part time in America. After just one year of working I had 3 weeks of vacation. After 3 I now have 4 weeks and am taking my 2nd international trip of the year and 3rd vacation trip of the year.
Or better yet, unionize your own workplace with vacations as the primary demand
Unfortunately the leading point of view from employers
Is that if an employee is happy with their job… THEY ARE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH.
They feel that ONLY those who hate their jobs … are efficient
Only 4 weeks? For an entire year? That’s brutal.
i dont WANT happier employees i want MONEY!
Don’t forget the healthy dose of salary and humane treatment.
Pay enough for them to afford two kids, a house and a car without dual-income and don’t have them work so many hours they can’t enjoy them.
4 weeks vacation is too small.
Make it 8. Rest is fine.
Also worth mentioning from the article,
I work fully in the office. But I think remote work is better for work-life balance. I don’t have the option to work remote
Well, why not? Covid showed how great this can work … but so many companies went back to 20th century norms as soon as the pandemic ended*
- AS per https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/who-pandemic-not-emergency-1.6833321 the global emergency ended on May 2023 - almost two years ago to the day, but covid itself still circulates.
Maybe he is a hardware toucher
Lmao they don’t want happier employees they want more money
Wait,you guys don’t get that? Shit I’m.here in Northern Ireland and that would be less than standard. That’s what we give teenagers,hell,most teens would not take that deal. When did America start treating the worker so bad? Like 1865?
Legally, I get 1 hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked. And this is a pro-worker state, most states don’t mandate any sick leave at all.
we never stopped. One week vacation per year is considered a perk at most jobs that offer it.
“But worker rights that is socialism! Socialism is evil because the soviets say they are that!”
America was built on treating the worker badly. Most of the first people that came here were either slaves or indentured servants. Chinese people got exploited to build the railroads, and then banned from being citizens in the country. Now we have prison slavery and wage servitude. There are a million and one examples, but exploiting the worker is as American as apple pie.
The only thing that has ever really improved in American labor is actual safety standards for work environments, equipment, etc. We do a great job of prioritizing that. But actual workers are viewed as expendable, and many of the largest employers are just meat grinders even if they offer half-decent benefits. Walmart is a good example of that
You have 32h/week as a standard?
Yeah its slowly becoming the standard
That’s awesome! I was actually looking into moving to Ireland (not the TERF-island part tho). Sadly their trans healthcare is also sub par.
But companies don’t want happier employees. With that title this article will never break out of the echo chamber and reach employers.
I worked for an employee owned manufacturing company for near ten years. The philosophy of our company was, “the essence of life is relationships”.
The founder of the company was the only religious person I knew who actually followed it’s teachings, he sold his stock to the company for less than it was worth until we were 100% employee owned. The stock price then shot up from $200 a share to $6k a share in ten years.
The company understood the importance of working ideas from the bottom up, (involving the lowest ranking employees just as much as the highest ranking). We understood the importance of company culture, and even had teams of people to make sure the needs of our employees were being met.
We had a supervisor who by all accounts was a fine supervisor on paper, however he rubbed every single employee the wrong way, he was a cunt if i may. With the support of all of us, we were able to, I don’t want to say get rid of him, it sounds cold, but his name came up on our (truly anonymous) survey one year the company asked him to resign, and he did.
The owner passed away in 2018, and shit got squirrely from there, i left during the pandemic. CEO and highest ranking positions then changed hands to folks not there at the founding of the company, I felt the culture shifting and left due to personal reasons. The stock has since tanked.
I dont understand why these companies don’t see the importance of uplifting their workforce.
I’ll never find and employer like that again i think. It was a magical decade. Of course my stock is tanked now, im to be cashed out this year.
The ladder has been pulled right before my time my whole life so this osnt new. I went from having enough for a down payment on a house, and now i wont even beable to afford a car lmao.
I’ve seen this happen to multiple people. Join a startup with good perks, listen to the siren song of “the stock price will go up!” while the owners are out getting offers for their shares, then the owners sell out or the company tanks and you’re left with nothing despite having millions just a couple years ago on paper.
The key is to sell out once you have enough that it makes enough to impact your life. 500k or more is enough to escape poverty for almost anybody for life.
Even if you just sold it as it vested you would probably be better off.
It works a little different for employee owned companies, but you’ve the right spirit. This company grew from about 1972 on- a long, successful legacy. Shame to watch it fall
Yeah, the nuance is kind of nuts but i’ve got a relative who had and lost about 5m. Could have cashed out at the 5m number but didn’t. Got about 40k at the end of all of it.
Numerous friends who went into startups have somewhat similar things, but few had that much equity available for sale at any time.
Wow that’s absolutely fucked. But at least you had some nice years. Sorry to hear that about the stock.
Only 4 weeks? In much of Europe, 5-6 weeks is the norm.
It’s 7 days in Singapore 🫠
But most white collar jobs here are around 18-21 days.
Do companies want happier employees?
If they ever figure out that happier employees are more productive therefore giving the co more money, but for that you need to look past the next quarter
