Paid vacation

source :: Guardian News

Paid vacation and productivity: how much holiday is too much holiday?

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/14/paid-vacation-holiday-peoples-panel

picture: my own pic at a hotel pool in Bali

Do you wish you lived in a country that gave more vacation time? Are you happy with yours? We want to hear from you

According to a study published in Time magazine, the average American worker earns 14 days off per year, but only takes 12 of them. About a quarter of Americans don't have any vacation time at all. John Schmitt, a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington DC, says that the US is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have statutory requirements on employers to provide paid holiday. "We are enormous outliers," he told Time in March.

Consider the EU, where frequent holidays are understood as an integral part of any worker's life (some countries give as many as 40 paid vacation days) but not without consequence. "Many have long believed that lengthy European holidays are part of an overindulgent cornucopia of social benefits that's bound to collapse," writes journalist Sonia van Gilder Cooke.

Research, however, is showing that commonplace American ideas about productivity might be out of touch. A Eurofound study showed that the average German has 40 days of holiday a year – tied with the Danes for the most in Europe. Greeks, on the other hand have only two weeks paid holiday a year. While one is the economic rock of the EU, the other is falling apart.

Consider the state of the US economy: for all its extra man hours, is the country's economy any better any better off than Germany's? Is there a relationship between economic growth and hours worked?

As part of our people's panel series, we want to hear from you: how much vacation time do you get? Would you like more? How would you spend it? Do you think paid holidays make a workforce more productive? Or does our economy need all the man hours it can get?

Tell us your thoughts in the form below by 9am Tuesday, June 19 and we'll publish your responses on the Guardian.