My parents lived on a single income in the 90’s. Owned 2000+ sq ft house. Had an RV and we used to road trip most summers across the US. I’ve never had the opportunity to repeat their level of travel.
Soon the headline would be “Americans using PTO to do grocery shopping and cleaning their house”… followed by “New Labour reform have Americans using PTO to use the bathroom during office hours”
“Americans using PTO to do grocery shopping and cleaning their house”
That’s EXACTLY what a staycation is. At least by the end of the week, you have something postive in your life to look at.
https://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.html
After the UAW strikes they fought for and negotiated a 25% wage increase over four and a half years, reinstated cost-of-living adjustments, and the elimination of the two-tier wage system. Additionally, the contracts improved retirement benefits and provided stronger protections against plant closures, marking significant gains for the workers involved.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_United_Auto_Workers_strike
They also coordinated contract expirations for May 1st 2028, and the more labor unions who coordinated those dates the more collective bargaining can effect even with anti labor laws like Taft-Hartley.
Who the hell can even afford a vacation?
Oh yeah, that’s me.
There are lots of times where I was up with the kids all night because they were sick.
Good docile slaves
My vacation is not moving for a few days in my apartment playing video games eating ultra processed frozen foods that were on sale Edit: for anyone saying this is an incredible vacation you need to think hard about how it’s not. Years ago people used to be able to go places and do things. Now we’re numb.
Even I, someone who loves videogames, want to leave the house sometimes. I have been sheltering in place, to avoid spending money.
…it sucks.
This backlog won’t play itself!
That sounds incredible.
Sounds like a good time to me
ETA: This was meant more as a joke, specifically from own neurodivergent and introverted perspective. I do agree that people in general are more tired in modern life and that is arguably quite bad.
The bar is so low compared to my parent’s days.
yeah but that should be a possibility on any random weekend, not a special occasion
Waking up early for the fucking 8:30 AM meeting is the worst part of my life. I hate it.
ours is 8.37 every day, and management struggles to think of things to do at it.
sounds like easy money if you’re paid that half hour to do nothing, basically
if you’re salary, that’s dumb af tho
Maybe it’s time to start thinking about another job?
We need money to live, but there is no amount of money worth losing your happiness over. Sometimes it’s better to sell the house, buy a good used Toyota, and take a pay cut to get a significantly less stressful job. Also make sure you are practicing self care. Eating well, taking time to yourself to enjoy the things you want to do, even if it’s just sleeping.
I legitimately chuckled at first but I can’t tell if you’re serious.
House? Toyota? I make well over median wage, save everything, and those things might as well be private jets to me.
My savings interest rate is some of the best countrywide and it’s literally less than house price increase averages alone.
I have 5 yrs exp and an MSc in STEM and I haven’t heard back from a single job application I’ve sent out even while I’m still employed after sending out at least 10 of highly personalized applications of CV + cover letter.
Everyone else I know - people who are frankly - way smarter than me live with parents and are unemployed with the exception of one person who lives with their parents and has no money, but is an accomplished academic researcher (maths I think) who gives talks at international events.
What are you smoking? What world do you live in? How do I get there?
And on that note, I highly recommend a Prius! They are amazing companions.
The fuck part of 830 is early? Enjoy your breakfast and shitting a home I punch in at 630. At least I do get paid for my morning dump and shit post session
This kind of “must be nice” reaction is exactly what the owner class wants: workers pissy at each other over how big their crumbs are, instead of at the perpetrators who feast on the bad situation they created.
Ok, but think of it in terms of normal start times vs needing to go in early, instead of the actual hour. If you usually start at 6:30 but had to go in for 6:00 for no reason other than a meeting that could have been an email, it sucks.
I used to have a 6:30 start time when I was younger, had an hour commute, and still had time for breakfast at home in the morning. It absolutely sucked and I hated it. Getting up for 8:30 start times still sucks if you’re used to 9:00 start times.
That’s a perfectly fair point, well taken.
Let’s just say getting out of bed and leaving the house on somebody else’s schedule to make somebody else money sucks in general.
I get up at 9:30 for my 9-5 WFH gig and it doesn’t actually feel any better. You can get used to good things too and it doesn’t render capitalism any less soulsucking.
Pretty much. I’ve blown through my pto in the past few months just so I can get more sleep from how tired I am. Vacationing is not likely to happen anyhow with how expensive everything is to do stateside.
I just want more sleep man.
Sounds kind of like depression tbh. When I had a bout of depression recently. I was sleeping like 10-15 hours a day when I could, sometimes as soon as I got off work until I’d wake up, and it would never be enough. I’d be fantasizing about the bed all day lol.
There is usually some root cause to it usually if you don’t have clinical depression. Mine was being trans and thinking the Nazis were going to try to kill all of us. Still true but I guess i feel a bit better now. Really just coming out. As I came out and told people much of that went away and I feel better now. I can play video games again which is cool.
Based on your other replies I feel like you must be trolling.
Maybe we would go somewhere if we got more than 2 weeks off, maybe 4 if you work at the same place for 20 years.
Yeah, because I can’t afford to go anywhere in my time off. Sleep is the vacation.
I work swing shift with weekends. I use PTO to avoid two shifts with only 8 hours in between them.
I try not to think about the times I dream of work.
workers’ rights are a joke! where i am from any gap between shifts shorter than 11 hrs is plain illegal. As it should be - seriously: unionize! It is your life they are wasting
I worked for a movie theater for a while, and once I got off at around 3 am and had to be in the next day at 8 am.
I routinely clocked more than 40 hours a week, once making it to 100 - but they didn’t have to pay OT because it’s the “performance industry.” Despite me being a hourly projectionist.
Oh we are, but my state level government is doing everything they can to disband our union.
Sadly, its better than what I had before.
Be well!
“Welcome back, Kotter…”
Whatever breadcrumbs of paid time off we get in this country is a disgrace.
Watching from Europe, it’s astonishing.
We have adopted many parts of US business culture, luckily not this one.
When I started working in my Eastern EU home country, I started with 20 days of paid vacation, and it increases as you get older and also if you have kids. Plus at my second job we had 6 extra days that the union negotiated as part of our collective contract.
Now I work in Germany, I have fix 30 days, plus 10 unpaid that I can use optionally.
Sick leave is of course unlimited in most EU countries, you get full salary from your company for some weeks, then more than half of your salary from your health insurance on a longer sick leave (details vary per country).
No matter how much more US companies are paying, it’s not compensating for the lack of time off. “You can always earn an extra dollar/euro, but you cannot earn an extra minute”
I honestly wonder, how people can live like this - I’m of course talking about higher paid white collar workers, not those on poverty wages who wouldn’t have a choice in any country
We’re also wondering how we can live like this. Not well, I can tell you that.
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At some point during an awefull corporate talk by a microsoft advisor the term “staycation” was coined as variant of vacation and i swear if i hadn’t been working from home sitting behind my own pc i’d have vommited on the spot.
What about ‘workation’. That’s where you take a pto day to get caught up on your actual work and not have to be interrupted by meetings or other coworkers.
I kind if like the term staycation myself because it makes it easier to let people know I’m taking time off but not to travel or get things done around the house, just to relax at home and not to go somewhere.
That is generally what I do for the week of my birthday.
I hate travel anyway and everything I want is at home. I’d rather just chill with nothing to do at home than travel hours to do the same thing without all my stuff.
Not gonna lie, that’s such a boring, corporate term.
Germans use the much more creative expression of travelling to Balconia.
Yeah we’re taking a break from work. Some of us don’t want to go out and have to keep waking up early.
Everything is to fucking expensive
All of mine are mental health days. Too depressed to work too damn often. I never accumulate enough to take a real break.
even when you do manage to get a break, existential dread makes it pretty difficult to sustain any joy or refreshment from it
