42 Days Off...

I was having a really hard time getting going this afternoon so I went down to Caribou Coffee in my building and grabbed myself a mocha to get re-energized. One of the things that Caribou does is has a daily trivia question for 10 cents off your order. I find it fun to check out their question and it is a good way to get curious people like myself to come back, especially when they have some themed questions. Each Caribou picks their own questions (at least from what I can tell) as I've visited two different Caribou stores in one day and they had different questions.

Anyways, today's question was, "Which nation has the highest amount of average paid days off at 42?". I knew it had to be a European nation so I guessed France since they seem to often have a lot of vacation time. I wasn't quite right. It is actually Italy.

Now can you imagine having 42 days off every year? And remember, that's the average amount of days off. Some people get more, some less. Still, 42 days off is a whopping TWENTY more per year than I currently get, and I'm pretty lucky to get 22 a year. I know a lot of people who get 10 a year, or even less.

It's really sad how few paid days off United States workers get, especially if you're talking about the lower middle class and under. The lesser paying the job, the less time off usually seems to be the way things go. I wonder if people would be more motivated to work if they knew they had more fun time off? I'd like to say I would be, but honestly I don't know. I'd love the extra days off, but would it motivate me more? I know I'd definitely be a lot happier and, hopefully, a little less stressed.

So who wants to move to Italy with me? I know I'd put to use every last one of my 42 vacation days!