I’m about to take a vacation, so I have vacations on my mind! Here’s a post about the vacation and holiday norms of the United States.
Most employees get 2 weeks paid vacation a year. They can take it anytime they want. Some companies (like mine) give you more and also the longer you stay at a company you might get more vacation.
A great new word that we use is “Staycation”. This means that for your vacation, you stay at home and don’t go anywhere. This word was coined because of the bad economy. People cannot afford to go on big vacations these days.
I know in the UK they say, “I’m on on holiday.” We don’t say that here. When we take time off of work we call it a vacation. A holiday is a day like Christmas or 4th of July where we don’t have to work and it is a special day. The normal US holidays when most employees don’t work are: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President’s day, Memorial Day, 4th of July and 2 days for Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are a few others that only some people get off like Columbus Day.
We also receive sick days. At my company we get 8 sick days a year. You can ‘roll them over’ to the next year and save them for an emergency.