h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So ... I've actually got a week off from work and looking forwards to it. The problem is ... it is really hard to switch off (good candidate for Burn-Out, don't you think?). Yesterday I spent a few hours in the garden getting it ready for the winter. The winters here in Germany are quite harsh, with normally plenty of snow (which is great). I don't remember seeing much snow in London.

No gain without pain ... and aren't I feeling it this morning. I did do lots of stretching yesterday. You see, in my garden I've got a twenty metre willow(wicker) tunnel. I planted it some years ago and it has grown and grown. So, I drastically cut it back and hope that it will grow back in the new year. It does however look amazing and the talk of the village (that mad English artist fellow!!).

Going to the seaside with my family tomorrow. Looking forward to that. Hope the weather is better than it is now.

Here's wishing for good weather for you.

It's your autumn holidays starting tomorrow, isn't it?
Thsi year, we didn't even have a week in common with Lower Saxony, our scholl starts again tomorrow.

Wouldn't it be nice to have all the school holiday Bundesweit and not this silly regional thing. It is very confusing sometime. Naturally, all the Catholic (bank) holidays would be nice to have in northern Germany too!!

Well, they do start on different dates to avoid traffic jams. Not that that would help avoiding them in some federal states, but I think it really could be worse.

And all you need to do is move to NRW or Hesse for the religious holidays.

Wouldn't it be nice if we got holidays like that here. We only get nine paid holidays each year.

I took a week off (and used up some of my mass of accrued vacation time) in July, and I know what you mean about difficulty switching off. It took a few days for me to settle in to the time off, and by the time I was totally relaxed, it was time to go back to work!

Hope you have nice weather and lots of R&R!

Argh- my third sentence should have started with "I" and not "we". "We" don't all have the same holiday schedules in the States. I've worked for a company that was closed every postal holiday (lots!) and another where we only had one holiday a year (Christmas day).

But it would be nice to have more!

Federal States - that's the word I was looking for, thanks.

How do they do things in France? I believe that the holidays are national, even the lesson that they teach are co-ordinated. Perhaps StunningFrenchie could tell us if they have lots of traffic jams on the holiday?!

Would you agree that the German people, north of Kassel, all go to Denmark, Finland and Sweden, etc.. And south of Kassel, they go to Italy, France and the other southern countries? That's driving, not those that fly to their holiday destination:

Nine days off is unthinkable here in Germany. How about the teachers? Do they get paid vacation during the school holidays?

And another thing, how about Burn-Out-Syndrome? Do the Coworkers get ill more often?

Sometimes I'm jealous of people who live in "small" enough countries where they can drive to another country on holiday. From Chicago, it takes 18 hours driving non-stop to get to someplace lame like Florida, and twice as long to get to the West Coast. If I want to go anywhere "foreign and exotic", I have to fly.

Have I got that right? In Germany we have religious holidays? In England bank holidays and in the US postal holidays?

I don't mean things like Thanksgiving, May-Day or Christmas!!

Nice to hear from you again Psychocandy. When I visit friends in Southern Germany, I have to travel about 6 hours in the car. Which I consider a long time, especially with children in the back. To London it takes about 12 hours (under the tunnel).

Getting a plane to travel short distances (under 1,000 kms) is that normal?

I don't know of any teachers who are paid vacation time for the summer holidays. I do know that teachers work a little later into the holidays and start a little earlier than the students, so it's not *that* much time off. Most of the teachers I know work part-time jobs in summer to keep income coming in.

In addition to the nine holidays my company pays, I get three weeks vacation with pay (until I have been there five years, when it goes up to four), two "personal" holidays, and six paid sick days each year. So I am actually entitled to 32 days off per year with pay- but I can't see taking more than 10 consecutively!

"Burn-Out" is probably fairly common here, though I'd guess no more common than anywhere else. I don't know as that there is a set threshold for burnout as such- it depends what you're accustomed to, I think, and how much you try to cram into your time. Sometimes I overdo it, but I don't get too burned out in general. Not like I used to at a previous employer.

That's too many questions.

I think Flensburg-Munich is about 1,200km, not easily done in one day. If I want to go to anther country, flying there is the easiest way. But then you_re right, pc, depending on which direction I go, it takes me only about 4h of driving to reach a foreign country.

In the US, what are most commonly observed are federal holidays. This means that government offices (which includes the post office, hence the "postal holiday" term), public schools and libraries are closed. For those of us who work in the private sector, it is up to the individual employer which holidays to observe. While I was in school and worked retail, we were open and worked 364 days a year. My office is closed nine holidays a year (seven federal holidays, plus the day after Thanksgiving and New Year's Day). When I worked as a library services technician, the library was closed for all ten Federal holidays and for New Year's day.

2007 federal holidays were/are as follow:

Monday, January 1-New Year's Day

Monday, January 15- Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (my present employer doesn't observe this one)

Monday, February 19- president's day (we used to observe both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays separately, but they are now combined into one federal holiday)

Monday, May 28- Memorial Day (remembrance of war veterans)

Wednesday, July 4- Independence Day

Monday, September 3- Labor Day

Monday, October 8- Columbus Day (my present employer doesn't observe this one)

Monday, November 12- Veterans Day (my employer doesn't observe this one)

Thursday, November 22- Thanksgiving Day

Tuesday, December 25- Christmas Day


For most federal employees, as most of them work a Monday-Friday week, if a holiday falls on a weekend, they get the following Monday off. My current employer does the same thing with the seven applicable holidays.

Boy, was this a boring post for you?!

Not at all ... all interesting to find out what people in other countries live their lives.

What do the unions say about some boss not having the national holidays. Or aren't they that strong in the US.

What is the difference between Veterans day and Memorial day?

Have you all bought your x-mas presents yet?

Christmas presents? What's that?

You can't escape it, Bel. I went to the GardenCentre the other day and there, waiting to accost me was, Christmas decoration!!

I'm sure your husband would love a nice Playstation 3: HAHAHA

I've never worked in a union job, so I'm not sure, but I would imagine that companies that do employ union employees would have to honor whatever holiday schedule the union had negotiated into the contract. Unions tend to be representative of trades- construction, technicians, various engineers, electricians and plumbers, hotel workers, upscale bar staff, staff at larger grocery and retail stores. The one retail establishment and two bars I have worked at weren't union employers. And now I work in accounting- there's no accountant's unions.

But, my dad was a cop and as such was a member of the local Teamster's union, and as best I can recall he worked most holidays on a voluntary basis in exchange for additional pay.

Sorry, I goofed- Veterans' Day is intended to honor all veterans of the armed services. Memorial Day is intended to honor those who were killed or disabled while serving active duty during wartime.

I've bought a couple of Christmas presents already! Still have quite a few to go, though, and my better half apparently enjoys making a last-minute mad scramble every year.