Living Large on a Large Piece of Land, if You’ve Got the Time

I lied on my last post. I said that if I could lobby the government for two things it would be roundabouts and getting rid of change – as in pennies. I need to add a third. It’s about vacation. (I can’t believe this is part of my Sierra Leone blog! You should feel cheated)

Canadians have a good reputation abroad as being nice, like vanilla ice cream, and progressive, like vanilla ice cream with nuts. Sierra Leoneans seem to like us, but it is rumoured in my house that when this one Sierra Leonean saw one of our compatriots on the street (without ever having met him) he said “not another Canadian!” That’s so funny! As if a Sierra Leonean can peg a Canadian on the street! What does a Canadian look like?

There happen to be quite a few Canadians here. Locals sporting Tie Domi jerseys must be getting sick of being told “he’s awesome!”, or “you should burn that shirt!”. It must be confusing. (Photo: Congo Cross roundabout, getting a face lift)

Back to the vacation thing. When talking to expats from all over the world and Sierra Leoneans, I feel proud to be Canadian. People seem to respect Canada and even in frank and sometimes-heated conversations about politics, environment, human rights, government…, Canada gets good grades. Although I often have to point out that it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors – we are among the worst violators of the environment for example… living large on a large piece of land. The secret would be out if anybody really read anything about us.

Regardless, we are seen as progressive. But one place where I think we are still in the Stone Age is on the work-life balance issue. We’ve adopted the America live to work attitude, and I see that reflected in the attitudes of Sierra Leoneans who have been influenced by us.

Friends from other corners of the world are always shocked to hear that Canadians are - by law - entitled to only 10 days of vacation. This is against the law in most developed countries. The UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Aussie, NZ and many of our other friends have much more time away from work than we do. Maybe it’s no secret that they enjoy a healthier work-life balance. Canada has followed our amigos to the south when it comes to work-life balance. Maybe developing countries are taking this standard because it’s easier to gage performance on dollars, not good sense. “Look at the American machine. Let’s copy that!”

We should recognize our unique need for more time away from work. We are a huge country. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have someone important – hi Mom – to see who lives a 401 length away. Do you know what it takes to get to Moosonee from Ottawa? How about Kingston to Sault Ste Marie. Ya. Punch that into Expedia.ca. You should first call expedia to ensure they have enough computer memory for the operation.

More evident is the madness and stress brought on by trying to take advantage of the short summer and escape some of the winter. It’s a game of chance. Should I take my vacation for a February escape and watch through my office window while others dance in the summer sunshine? Or should I take coma pills to get me through the winter and pray that it doesn’t rain on the week I took off in the summer? I am certain we have a culture case of “summer madness”. We have a short summer. You can probably count on your hands the number of days off you have. When it’s nice, you MUST take advantage or you’ll regret it come November. On a nice summer Saturday morning, Canadians scramble as if Godzilla is coming or it’s the last day on earth. …Dad putting the canoe on the top of the car. Mom filling the cooler. Kids crying. And a stop a Canadian Tire to buy a life jacket because you couldn’t find the one in storage. Most likely the kids used the life jacket as a goalie for street hockey, and now it’s packed away in the winter storage. But don’t worry; no one else is at Canadian Tire buying a life jacket on July 3rd. (Photo: Me and Ernie in the canoe without life jackets, approximately a half kilometer from the family and 890 klms from my office)

And I don’t buy this bull about “lost-man hours”. The economy would compensate and we’d be better off. I think it’s more about greed and consumption. Do we really need stores to be open on Sunday? But I do think Shopper Drug Mart should be open 24/7, 390 days a year because they now sell limited edition Harry Potter collectable magic cards – get back to work Dave!

It seems bizarre that I’m “complaining” about not having enough vacation time while I’m amongst a populous that needs more work just to get by, but I guess I see the trend. If you don’t develop a system that respects people’s time away from work from the beginning, it will be difficult to change the culture in the future.

I would lobby to double the vacation table across the board. If you know Ken Lewenza please forward this post to him. Thanks.

Here are some figures to ask your employer or Ken about.

Minimum vacation time around the world > legally required (most recent) by country. (Source NationMaster.com)

Which one doesn’t look like the other?

LOT A
Australia Not required, but 28 days is standard.
Austria 35 days, for elderly employees 42 days
Belgium 20 days, premium pay
Czech Republic 4 weeks
Denmark 6 weeks, of which 5 days can be "sold" back to the employer
Finland 35 days
France 5 weeks + 2 weeks of RTT (Reduction of Working Time) = 7 weeks.
Germany 4 weeks plus 9 to 13 bank holidays
Ireland 20 days, plus 9 public holidays
Italy 20-30 days plus 12 public holidays
Netherlands 4 weeks
New Zealand 4 weeks as of April 1, 2007
Norway 25 working days
Poland 20 business days
South Africa 21 consecutive days
Spain 30 calendar days
Sweden 25-32 working days, depending on age
Switzerland 28 days
United Kingdom 20 calendar days, plus 8 bank holidays

LOT B
United States Not required, but 7-21 days is standard for most employers. Typically, 10 working days with 8 national holidays.
Vietnam 10 working days.
China Not required
Hong Kong 7 days
Taiwan 7 days
Turkey 12 work days
Singapore 7 days
Korea, South 10 working days
Mexico 7 days
Canada 10 working days, determined by provincial law