Yesterday, my eastern European friend mentioned that the Americans working for multinational corporations in his country were on holiday (July 3rd was reserved). However, the Europeans had to go to work, of course, as they had no reason to celebrate. Maybe some of the British had reason to be morose, but they don’t let you go on holiday to sulk, do they?
I find it interesting that Europeans would let Americans celebrate their holidays while working abroad. I’m not so sure that Americans, with our tenacious “time is money” mentality, would allow expatriates to celebrate their home country holidays without requiring them to use personal vacation time. For example, every year we see celebrations of the Chinese New Year or Cinco de Mayo in the U.S., but how many Chinese or Mexicans living in America get to take off from work for their respective holidays without using their allotted vacation days?
Maybe this concept is just part of the European culture as a whole. They seem to work fewer hours than Americans and even entry-level positions start out with at least four weeks of paid vacation. Also, Europeans spend less money on healthcare than Americans. In general, they seem to be happier than Americans and they definitely live longer (if only by a few years). So is this the key?
The impact of the global economic crisis has made me reevaluate the best places to live and work. In many cases, emerging markets are recovering faster than developed markets. While Europe is far from perfect, their socialized system does more to protect European citizens than America’s broken system.
Recent issues of the Economist discuss Obama’s challenges with reforming healthcare as well as how the developed world will deal with aging populations. At least two more years of work, anyone? Maybe the European system is not the answer, but more vacation and living longer sure seems nice to me. Happy Independence Day!
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