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Investing and Economics Blog

Medieval Peasants had More Vacation Time

There are ways to get more vacation time

De Graff, national coordinator of Take Back Your Time Day, based his figures on the number of religious holidays peasants took off to eat, drink and spend time with their families, and found it was about two weeks extra.
…
According to Robinson, mentioning to your boss that you are willing to go on vacation without any pay can often be a very effective way to get some time off.
…
Take what you get: It may seem obvious, but many people don’t check how much time they are entitled to take off. Many others are reluctant to take the average nine days of paid vacation to which they are entitled, often because they are afraid it will show weakness or lack of loyalty.

Joe Robinson said there may be “ongoing subtle discouragement” in the work force, but employees should remember that they are entitled to their vacation and should not be afraid to take it. In 2005, U.S. workers collectively turned down a staggering 1.6 million years of vacation time that was offered to them.

I find these discussions of how little time off we have interesting. Similar studies look further back, at hunter gathers and find similar patterns. Still they are a bit misleading. What about total hours worked during the year (for peasants). What about the conditions of work and life. What about life expectancy… Still I agree with the thought that more vacation is more important than more work to fund more spending. I would rather reduce my spending and have more free time. I have taken unpaid vacation myself, and have worked part time, at times, to buy myself more freedom to spend my time as I wished.

Related: Vacation: Systems Thinking – Workplace Experiments

August 16th, 2008 John Hunter | 4 Comments | Tags: Personal finance, quote

Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Dream More, Work Less at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on October 16, 2008 8:28 am

    You need to keep track of your finances and manage them but that is in order to provide yourself options to live the life you want…

  2. Great Time for a Vacation at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on January 28, 2009 10:42 pm

    Times are tough. Economic news is grim. But if you are looking to relax somewhere warm, you are in luck…

  3. Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Work and Life on February 25, 2011 10:11 am

    There are several reasons for the lack of vacation time in the USA. One of the big reasons is the broken health care system…

  4. Curious Cat Management Blog » Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work on February 25, 2011 10:47 am

    “I want you to pause for a minute, you wretched weaklings, and take stock of your miserable existence.”

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