I wonder what the effects on our society would be if we had a national three month summer holiday. No one in school, no one at work. Fascinating to think about!

Come to Paris in August, the whole city is on vacation!

Joke aside, it baffles me every time this comes up wrt. american workers. I have 5 weeks PTO and I'm the worst off from all of my friends: most have between 7-8 weeks, some even up to 9-11 weeks per annum. [and they're not even teachers] Of course you're also expected to take every last day.

11 weeks = 55 days, this is a lot. I have an average of 42 (depends on how bank holidays are placed in a given year) and it looks good (Paris area).

Though when I think of that, a friend of mine who works at the CEA mentioned something like 50 days off.

For US folks :this does not include sick days, these are completely independent (and not capped)

Yeah and there is even more peace of mind when everyone is off at the same time.

This happens a few days a year in north america, say at christmas or thanksgiving.

You can almost feel the whole country breathing a sigh of relief.

Not everybody.

Someone invented shifts. Imagine, you go on vacation for 3 months in summer, I go on vacation for 3 months in winter, next year we switch. Wouldn't that be awesome, eh?

I think the country would be a much healthier and happier place.

Health care expenses would go down a lot and I believe in many jobs productivity wouldn't suffer much either. I see so many people just going through the motions pretending to be busy.