Mitch read in BA news that airlines across the board are cancelling several flights a day for a five month period.
Take a wild, wild stab at how many flights you think that is. Total, globally, all airlines, five months.
I was thinking one million, but said 500,000 for fear of looking stupid.
One of Mitch's co-workers said 40,000.
What's your guess? Let me know what you really thought by leaving a comment.
Now leave your comment guess before you read the following. I'm going to tell you what the number really is, based on a British Airways estimate. Would you ever have guessed in a million years that the answer is fourteen million flights? In only five months? Yeah, me neither. Environmentalists everywhere must be ecstatic.
I was happy and slightly concerned I was a lot closer than one of Mitch's co-workers.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Put your fist in the air and shake it wildly at The Man!
I was waiting to pick up a package in our mail room when I saw our building’s vacation policy taped to the wall. There was the answer to a lot of the questions I got while living in Europe about why Americans are the way they are. Namely, why we don’t have passports or leave the country. Why, for the most part, we don’t learn a second language or take the time to be informed about world events.
After working in our building for an entire year, you get one week of vacation. That’s five days, not seven. Up to that point, 365 days, you get no vacation. Zero. After FIVE YEARS, you get two weeks, or 10 days off. After 10 years, 15 days.
To be fare, our building’s policy is standard for hourly employees in the US. If you are salaried or in a higher-level position, you usually start out with two weeks’ holiday, though generally to show your dedication, you wouldn’t dream of taking more than a day or two of that within the first year while working 50 hours a week or more.
Compare this with Europe, where day one of your job – any job at any level – you are entitled to 20-25 days of leave on average. And you take it, all of it, guilt free.
I started my job in Germany in July, and a few months later some friends invited me on a week-long trip. I was telling my co-workers how much fun it sounded, and it was shame I couldn’t go.
“Why not?” they asked.
“Well, I just started working here, I can’t go on vacation yet.”
“Why not?” they asked.
“I’d feel guilty.”
Oh, Lindsay, dear, dear Lindsay, they said, and proceeded to describe this employment paradise where vacation days are all but mandatory. No one can work 35-40 hours a week without a break, they said. Your employer gives you those days so you are a better, happier employee, they said. Besides, if you don’t take it throughout the year, you’ll be forced to take it at the end of the year.
Hold on, forced to take vacation?
Which leads me to another type of US employee: someone in a salaried management position with over 20 days’ vacation. This is the case with one of my nearest and dearest. I just assumed he didn’t visit me in Spain, Germany or the UK because he only had a week or two and understandably wanted to spend that time with his young family. But no. His employer had “suggested,” for they’d be sued if it were policy, that management strongly discourage employees taking any holiday and they should lead by example. W.T.F.
I’m regularly in the building’s foyer when the shuttle dumps off the NYC commuters. Eight, nine, 10pm and hoards of people are unloading after an 8am start. Who’s going to learn French with that kind of schedule? And then have enough money to take a trip to France for five days?
So you see, I believe within myself all Americans aren’t ignorant homebodies, we’re just seriously overworked and under-vacationed in a system that works us blind. Which is why I'm boycotting work altogether.
I put my fist in the air and shake it wildly at The Man!
After working in our building for an entire year, you get one week of vacation. That’s five days, not seven. Up to that point, 365 days, you get no vacation. Zero. After FIVE YEARS, you get two weeks, or 10 days off. After 10 years, 15 days.
To be fare, our building’s policy is standard for hourly employees in the US. If you are salaried or in a higher-level position, you usually start out with two weeks’ holiday, though generally to show your dedication, you wouldn’t dream of taking more than a day or two of that within the first year while working 50 hours a week or more.
Compare this with Europe, where day one of your job – any job at any level – you are entitled to 20-25 days of leave on average. And you take it, all of it, guilt free.
I started my job in Germany in July, and a few months later some friends invited me on a week-long trip. I was telling my co-workers how much fun it sounded, and it was shame I couldn’t go.
“Why not?” they asked.
“Well, I just started working here, I can’t go on vacation yet.”
“Why not?” they asked.
“I’d feel guilty.”
Oh, Lindsay, dear, dear Lindsay, they said, and proceeded to describe this employment paradise where vacation days are all but mandatory. No one can work 35-40 hours a week without a break, they said. Your employer gives you those days so you are a better, happier employee, they said. Besides, if you don’t take it throughout the year, you’ll be forced to take it at the end of the year.
Hold on, forced to take vacation?
Which leads me to another type of US employee: someone in a salaried management position with over 20 days’ vacation. This is the case with one of my nearest and dearest. I just assumed he didn’t visit me in Spain, Germany or the UK because he only had a week or two and understandably wanted to spend that time with his young family. But no. His employer had “suggested,” for they’d be sued if it were policy, that management strongly discourage employees taking any holiday and they should lead by example. W.T.F.
I’m regularly in the building’s foyer when the shuttle dumps off the NYC commuters. Eight, nine, 10pm and hoards of people are unloading after an 8am start. Who’s going to learn French with that kind of schedule? And then have enough money to take a trip to France for five days?
So you see, I believe within myself all Americans aren’t ignorant homebodies, we’re just seriously overworked and under-vacationed in a system that works us blind. Which is why I'm boycotting work altogether.
I put my fist in the air and shake it wildly at The Man!
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