How has a country founded on the promotion of the ‘pursuit of happiness’ become the No Vacation Nation?
History holds some of the answer.
.
The Puritans who first settled here had a Protestant work ethic that an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.
.
Those killjoy early Americans believed that taking a break from labor for reasons other than weekly observance of the Sabbath was sinful
.
A month in Ibiza, honey?
.
The conviction that hard work is the cornerstone of life has been shared by those who have espoused that work ethic, from Benjamin Franklin to Henry Ford, from Willy Loman to Ayn Rand, from Bill Gates to Michele Bachmann.
.
All these Dreamers of Abundance have taken Shakespeare’s Henry IV’s counsel as far as they could
.
If all the year were playing holidays,/To sport would be as tedious as to work. (Although I suspect they would all consider Elizabethan theater to be a frivolous waste of time).
.
American Law reflects this cultural war on sloth.
.
Americans do not like the nanny state — AKA the Federal Government — telling them what to do, especially when it comes to running their businesses.
.
This is a main reason why the US is the only industrialized country in the world where central government does not mandate companies to give its worker bees any paid holidays at all.
.
None at all.
.
Labour unions have far less power to protect workers’ mental and physical health than in Europe.
.
Their influence has been eroding since the 1968 collapse of the New Deal coalition. In 1970.
.
Americans were still working ten percent fewer hours than the French, largely thanks to strong unions.
.
Union membership then began a steady decline, as did their public support.
.
The Reagan administration made it harder for new unions to be formed, and Republicans have continued that sacred mission ever since.
.
In March of this year, the new Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, signed a law that took away collective bargaining rights from most public workers.
.
The result is that the American worker is vulnerable to exploitation by all the Mr Gradgrinds and Mr Burnses out there.
.
When I moved to New York, I was “let go” from a job.
.
When I protested that I had received no warning, nor had my boss giving me any reason for firing me, I heard for the first time the term “employment at will” – referring to the right of any boss to terminate employment at whim.
.
My outrage was useless. In London, getting fired was rare and shameful; in New York, it’s as commonplace as a bagel, and best treated with a shrug.
.
Hoping that America will introduce “wrongful dismissal” to defend its workers is as much of a pipe-dream as it is for assault rifles to be banned.
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So you think you're irreplaceable...?
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Without union protection, national paranoia has set in.
.
Those in gainful employment have to watch their own back.
.
According to John Wright, senior vice president at Ipsos
.
People are fearful for their jobs.
.
They need the money.
.
They don’t want to miss out on anything at work because they don’t want to fall behind or lose their job
.
They work longer hours and proudly boast about how long they work.
.
Note however that American productivity is not higher than elsewhere.
.
With real US unemployment at a whopping 16%, jobs are highly prized.
.
If establishing a competitive advantage requires accepting a job that has absolutely no paid vacation – a deal that one in four Americans has accepted – so be it.
.
But still — have you ever heard of a Brit accepting a job involving no holidays?
.
I asked the vendor at my local bookseller for further insight into this strange work-life imbalance.
.
Americans are terrified of free time, he said grimly.
.
They’re scared of what they might do with their hands.
.
Onanism aside, many Americans get the heebie-jeebies at just the thought of traveling abroad.
.
Starved of accurate international news.
.
Americans come up with elaborate reasons not to leave the homeland:
.
Pick a country, my Californian friend Micah told me, and there’s a serious situation going on.
.
I could get decapitated in Mexico, mugged in Casablanca, or blown up in Spain.
.
And look at the joke that England has become after the riots – why would anyone go there now?
.
The terror is only growing.
.
According to John Schmidt, author of No Vacation Nation.
.
Being in a recession intensifies the pressure on workers to buckle down and work as hard as they can
.
So if the boss has to make a decision on letting 10 percent go, you’re not on that list.
.
Like a plague, the economic downturn is spreading the anti-holiday virus across the world.
.
Attacking holidays as wasteful dovetails neatly with many politicians’ need to justify tough austerity measures.
.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently scolded southern European countries for their laziness.
.
We can’t have a common currency when some gets lots of holiday time and others very little she said.
.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a fan of American jingoism, instructed his ministers in the spring not to leave the country for their holidays
.
Noting that they were “entitled to rest, but not to a vacation, and ordering them to stay in daily touch with their office.
.
Sebastian Doggart
.
The Puritans who first settled here had a Protestant work ethic that an idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.
.
Those killjoy early Americans believed that taking a break from labor for reasons other than weekly observance of the Sabbath was sinful
.
A month in Ibiza, honey?
.
The conviction that hard work is the cornerstone of life has been shared by those who have espoused that work ethic, from Benjamin Franklin to Henry Ford, from Willy Loman to Ayn Rand, from Bill Gates to Michele Bachmann.
.
All these Dreamers of Abundance have taken Shakespeare’s Henry IV’s counsel as far as they could
.
If all the year were playing holidays,/To sport would be as tedious as to work. (Although I suspect they would all consider Elizabethan theater to be a frivolous waste of time).
.
American Law reflects this cultural war on sloth.
.
Americans do not like the nanny state — AKA the Federal Government — telling them what to do, especially when it comes to running their businesses.
.
This is a main reason why the US is the only industrialized country in the world where central government does not mandate companies to give its worker bees any paid holidays at all.
.
None at all.
.
Labour unions have far less power to protect workers’ mental and physical health than in Europe.
.
Their influence has been eroding since the 1968 collapse of the New Deal coalition. In 1970.
.
Americans were still working ten percent fewer hours than the French, largely thanks to strong unions.
.
Union membership then began a steady decline, as did their public support.
.
The Reagan administration made it harder for new unions to be formed, and Republicans have continued that sacred mission ever since.
.
In March of this year, the new Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, signed a law that took away collective bargaining rights from most public workers.
.
The result is that the American worker is vulnerable to exploitation by all the Mr Gradgrinds and Mr Burnses out there.
.
When I moved to New York, I was “let go” from a job.
.
When I protested that I had received no warning, nor had my boss giving me any reason for firing me, I heard for the first time the term “employment at will” – referring to the right of any boss to terminate employment at whim.
.
My outrage was useless. In London, getting fired was rare and shameful; in New York, it’s as commonplace as a bagel, and best treated with a shrug.
.
Hoping that America will introduce “wrongful dismissal” to defend its workers is as much of a pipe-dream as it is for assault rifles to be banned.
.
So you think you're irreplaceable...?
.
Without union protection, national paranoia has set in.
.
Those in gainful employment have to watch their own back.
.
According to John Wright, senior vice president at Ipsos
.
People are fearful for their jobs.
.
They need the money.
.
They don’t want to miss out on anything at work because they don’t want to fall behind or lose their job
.
They work longer hours and proudly boast about how long they work.
.
Note however that American productivity is not higher than elsewhere.
.
With real US unemployment at a whopping 16%, jobs are highly prized.
.
If establishing a competitive advantage requires accepting a job that has absolutely no paid vacation – a deal that one in four Americans has accepted – so be it.
.
But still — have you ever heard of a Brit accepting a job involving no holidays?
.
I asked the vendor at my local bookseller for further insight into this strange work-life imbalance.
.
Americans are terrified of free time, he said grimly.
.
They’re scared of what they might do with their hands.
.
Onanism aside, many Americans get the heebie-jeebies at just the thought of traveling abroad.
.
Starved of accurate international news.
.
Americans come up with elaborate reasons not to leave the homeland:
.
Pick a country, my Californian friend Micah told me, and there’s a serious situation going on.
.
I could get decapitated in Mexico, mugged in Casablanca, or blown up in Spain.
.
And look at the joke that England has become after the riots – why would anyone go there now?
.
The terror is only growing.
.
According to John Schmidt, author of No Vacation Nation.
.
Being in a recession intensifies the pressure on workers to buckle down and work as hard as they can
.
So if the boss has to make a decision on letting 10 percent go, you’re not on that list.
.
Like a plague, the economic downturn is spreading the anti-holiday virus across the world.
.
Attacking holidays as wasteful dovetails neatly with many politicians’ need to justify tough austerity measures.
.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently scolded southern European countries for their laziness.
.
We can’t have a common currency when some gets lots of holiday time and others very little she said.
.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a fan of American jingoism, instructed his ministers in the spring not to leave the country for their holidays
.
Noting that they were “entitled to rest, but not to a vacation, and ordering them to stay in daily touch with their office.
.
Sebastian Doggart
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