Here in the Netherlands, we actually get extra 'holiday pay' by law too. It makes salary calculations more complicated but it also makes me get a big grin on my face in May :)
In Austria we get 14 Salaries per year. We pay less tax on the 13th and 14th one. I got my 13th just now for July and will get my 14th in December.
We have 25 days of paid vacation. You can work while at home or on vacation, but your co-workers might not appreciate it. Taking leave for doctor visits, weddings, relocations, funerals, etc. does not count towards that.
Also, our stores are closed on Sundays, which encourages spending time with friends and family.
I don't love Austria, but a few things here I find allright.
I'm in Austria too, and as someone who suffered through 15 years of professional working life in California with no more than 4 consecutive days off the whole time (seriously), I can seriously say: thanks, Austria, for the time off. ;)
Lots of other things not to love about Austria (mobthink, Austro-fascism, the horrid city of Vienna, &etc), but the vacation policies are a dream.
I lived on the other side of Austria, in Innsbruck, and only visited Vienna a few times, but I thought it was quite pleasant. Not the most 'happening' place, but it seemed nice.
vienna is a great place - one of my favourite cities in europe (i have never lived there, but have a client there so visit regularly). suspect it's just some weirdness on the part of the original poster.
I live in Vienna, so there's a difference between tourist-view of the place and denizen-view. I don't know if you spent any time anywhere other than the 1st and inner districts, but I respect the fact that everyone has their own opinion. I think its weird to love a city built as a fortress and then as a mass collective to industrial aesthetics, but then again I love big blue sky and buildings with space between them.
Agree with mobthink and Austro-fascism. I would add lack of enthusiasm and closed-mindedness. Don't know what your problem with the city is, though. Even after having lived in Vienna for more than a year I'm still stunned how beautiful it is and how easy it is to meet interesting people.
If you're in a circle of cool people, Vienna is probably one of the nicer capitols to live in. And as a country-bumpkin I find it a lot less mentally taxing than let's say London or Berlin.
Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder - I grew up in the wide-open desert of Western Australia, and spent my young adult life in Southern California, so I'm used to having more sky above me than the pitiful strip that most Viennese residents have to put up with in their daily lives.
I'm a huge non-fan of all these buildings glommed together, 5 or 6 stories high, and I find it oppressive, personally.
By my reckoning, Vienna is an Imperial Fortress with working-class box-traps being used as buttresses around the center. I wouldn't call it beautiful by any stretch of the word - oppressively architected inventory of the masses does not a beautiful city make.
But hey, to each their own. If you find it beautiful, more power to you. I can't stand Vienna, personally, and am glad I live outside the city border near Bisamberg ..
I agree with everything you wrote. I recently moved back to Mattersburg because my dad passed away and I took over the house. And I really enjoy living in the open again.
But the things you describe are something that many big cities have in common. It makes me wonder if you've ever been to a city with a somewhat dense population that you enjoyed being in.
I lived in Tokyo for a year. That has similarly oppressive issues too, but there are aspects of Tokyo that are tremendous for the soul. Haven't found much of that in Vienna, yet, after 7 years.
And, 15 years in Los Angeles - well, I love LA. To each his own. ;)
I think our tastes are very much alike. I feel what you're saying about the oppressiveness, and I wouldn't want to live in Vienna for the rest of my life either. I just think it's a bit much to call the city of Vienna horrid, especially when so many people say so many nice things about it in general.
You've actually made me want to check out LA sometime soon.
Really, the only people I've heard say nice things about Vienna have been American tourists who seem to be most impressed of all by the imperial, oppressive, architecture .. but everyone has their taste. Thanks for listing to my rant about my tastes .. ;)
I like Vienna very much - okay, I was there in the 90's and I come from South America, but I've since visited Toronto and many other European and Latin American cities, and Vienna is among the nicest cities I've visited.
Maybe the problem is a cultural fit, or high expectations from California, but not the city hopefully?
Edit: here in Uruguay we have almost 14 salaries as well: 1/2 a salary in June, 1/2 a salary in December, and 20 days paid vacation (almost a full salary)
In my case its the pure physical nature of the city that disturbs me. I find no love for the narrow strip of sky that most denizens have to suffer for their daily sunshine needs, and that strip of sky is a consequence of the composition of the citys' buildings, glommed together at a uniform height, each building providing a bare-minimum amount of shelter to the occupants. These 5 or 6 storey buildings are, in my opinion, an intentionally oppressive act designed to keep the working, industrial classes, introverted and perturbed - and in that sense, they function very well.
Yeah, each their own :)
I love narrow streets and high buildings (the older the better, bet skyscrapers are also nice). But yeah it mostly boils down to where one grows up (although I grew up in a small town so I shouldn't lake this ;) )
And I loved Vienna, when I stayed there for few days year ago.
Sorry, I expressed myself wrong. I meant to say I visited Toronto in North America, and other cities in Europe and Latin America (but I haven't been to the U.S. yet as it's the hardest country to visit in terms of visa requirements. Now that I can get one, I don't have time :) ).
Also in the US. Doctor visits for me come out of sick leave, a yearly-recycling collection of days that I'm allowed to take out for reasons of sickness. I have a separate set of days for vacation time.
As for funerals in particular, I haven't run in to this situation, so I don't know what I would be doing.
In Germany we have no sick days. If we are sick, we stay home. If we are sick for 3+ days we need a note from the doctor. But this does not affect our vacation time at all.
OK I'll provide a few tips as you're obviously doing it wrong ;)
The vacation days are what you should be using for stuff like doctor's visits and sickness. The sick days are to be kept forever...or an actual vacation. Normally on termination you get reimbursed for sick days. The vacation days are gone however.
Hmm... I suppose policies may vary, but in my experience exactly the opposite tends to be true. Sick days and personal days vanish at the end of the year while vacation days generally accumulate (sometimes with a cap, though). It's fairly common for people with separate pools to use "sick" days to just take a day off to recharge or run errands. (Although, technically, employers often have the right to demand a doctor's note, but seldom actually do so.)
Many companies have a policy for bereavement leave. The amount may depend on your relationship to the deceased. For example, it might be a week for a parent, spouse, or child; 3 days for a grandparent; etc.
I'm sure it's fantastic to get a 'bonus' every 6 months, but these government mandated '13th/14th paycheck' schemes are really just employer-managed savings plans. Personally, I'd prefer to get my salary as I earn it and decide for myself how and when I spend or save it.
I guess it's a result of a hundred years of slowly gained privileges getting added on top of each other, and bureaucratic rules muddling everything up every decade or so.
In Sweden, you accrue vacation pay as you work, and when you take your vacation, it's paid out and because of some law or other, it's larger than your regular monthly paycheck. So in essence you get a little bonus for having your paid vacation, same as a bunch of other countries that people have brought up in this thread.
However, if you're paid by the hour, it works exactly like you suggest. You don't accrue vacation pay or vacation days, and x% of your hourly pay is the included extra vacation pay which you just get straight up.
When you negotiate a monthly salary, the number is without the extra vacation pay, but when you negotiate an hourly salary it's with the extra vacation pay. Because, it's just the way it is. :-)
Well, that's more or less how it works. The vacation bonus of 8% percent of your salary is reserved each month, it's just common to pay out at the start of the summer.
But paying out once a year is the legal minimum, you can agree otherwise. At my previous job, we switched to twice a year at the request of the snowboarders that needed the money for the winter vacation...
Is it "extra", as in on top of the agreed yearly salary?
Norway has a similar thing, in that 10%+ of your salary gets paid out in a lump sum before the summer holidays, and the tax deducted in December is half what it is in the other months. But it's all just an adjustment in how salaries are paid out and when the tax is paid, so you end up with exactly the same total amount.
I guess it sort of depends on your employer here in Norway? I get paid 1/12 of my base salary every month except for when vacation pay is paid out, and then we get an extra amount. So in reality I end up getting paid 2.6% above my base pay every year. --That doesn't include additional pay for on-call hours, bonuses, and such.
Belgium has something like that, I'm not sure it's by law (it might just be working agreements), basically you get a "holiday bonus" once or twice a year, which amounts to about 70% of your (net) salary each time.
France has a slightly different concept (which is not universal by a long shot, but it's almost universal in some work domains) of 13th and (rarely) 14th months. Which are exactly what it says on the tin: you get 1 or 2 extra months of salary per year.
In several countries in Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, idk about others) you receive an extra monthly salary (a 13th month) by law. In some countries, you receive it all in one payment, in others (Argentina and Colombia I think ) you receive one half in July and the other in December.
Also, in Argentina, the norm is that you have 15 days of vacation when you start working for a company. After 5 years, you have 21 days, then after 10 years, 28. Finally, after 20 years in the same company, you get 35 days. Most probably, the ones getting 35 days work in banks, state owned companies or public service.
