Americans sure are clever

Chris · 2026-07-03T08:24:17.681618Z

When a holiday falls on a weekend, like tomorrow, they just make the Friday before a day off too! But I'm sure the German unions will take a close look at that in the ongoing discussion about working hours. 😉

Chris@1Chrischi1

4J

In some other countries, it's similar—in those cases, Monday is observed as a holiday instead.

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DEW_7240@DEW_7240

4J

@1Chrischi1 Or the holiday is only a holiday if it falls on a Monday. Otherwise, the holiday is observed on the Monday following the actual date.
This way, people aren't tempted to take a long weekend. See May 1 in the UK

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@DEW_7240 Here in good old Germany, there are even flexible holidays for teachers and schools every year—I think there are 4 or 5 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Of course, they’re always scheduled to fall on the long weekends following Ascension Day, Corpus Christi, and Carnival.

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DEW_7240@DEW_7240

4J

@Multibagger I know. Thanks to 25 days of vacation and my wife working shifts, starting this year I can also try to juggle my vacations, holidays, and long weekends in Baden-Württemberg.

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investment_guru_2353@investment_guru_2353

3J

@1Chrischi1 Yes, exactly. The practice of moving public holidays to the following Monday here in England has its origins in Ford's shift production system. To avoid having the assembly lines come to a standstill in the middle of the week, the holiday was moved to the following Monday.

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Greno@Greno

2J

That's how they do it in Spain 🇪🇸, too.

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Haberlapp@Haberlapp

4J

Well, then I'm glad that in Germany I get 30 days of vacation, have public health insurance, am protected against dismissal, am paid according to a collective bargaining agreement, and so on and so forth... so the Americans can move their holidays forward as much as they want.

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jkb92@jkb92

4J

Fritze would say that “we” can’t afford that 🤡

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NEWT@SteelAnacott

4J

@jkb92 If you earn a low six-figure annual salary for working just one or two days a week (source: BlackRock employee), it’s going to be hard to afford a private jet. I can certainly understand where he’s coming from.

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MarTheRadi@marda304

4J

It's just the 250th Independence Day.
But maybe it also means that Americans aren't entitled to paid vacation. That's enough to make union members turn pale.

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Musikerie@Musikerie

4J

How many vacation days do Americans get on average? Maybe half as many as we do? I'd be careful about that 😬

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@Musikerie I didn't mean to start such a big discussion about the holidays; I just wanted to complain about how boring today's trading session was.

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Musikerie@Musikerie

4J

@Multibagger Too bad—I'd like to have more holidays, but please, no Christian ones.

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Luis B.@Laruibasar

4J

UK does something similar, and because I work for a multinational with teams there and US, I managed to do something similar for my public holidays, it's great, I tell you. :D

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Yoshika 🦋.@Yoshika

4J

@Laruibasar
In Germany, they’d move the public holiday to a Wednesday so nobody gets a long weekend.

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edumarbar@emppsb

4J

@Laruibasar Portugal is the same

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Luis B.@Laruibasar

4J

@emppsb Portugal does not move the public holiday officially, I’m doing it because of the company allow it. Which works great because my kid is at school while I chill at home for a few hours ;)

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Endurance@MozartsGeist

4J

But we're not really going to complain about a lack of days off in Germany, are we!?

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@MozartsGeistp I certainly don’t think so—in Germany, people work far too little and take far too much sick leave. I used to work 50–60 hours a week quite often. Yes, I earned quite well that way, since I had high performance-based bonuses. Twenty to twenty-five years ago, six-figure annual salaries weren’t common unless you had a college degree or had otherwise advanced your career. But I was also almost never sick. When I see how many people today—especially younger ones—take a few sick days every month, I think paid sick leave should be regulated on an annual basis rather than per illness.
Then our country’s economy would start to improve again, and we could once more invest broadly in German companies.

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Endurance@MozartsGeist

4J

That's fine; I wasn't trying to question that anyway.

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Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin@Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin

4J

@Multibagger Sick leave is unlikely to decrease with the mandatory submission of a doctor’s note starting on day 1 and the elimination of sick leave requests made by phone.🤷🏼‍♂️ Those who used to take a day off without a doctor’s note are now more likely to be “signed off” for 3–5 days by the doctor, while those with infectious diseases—who until now were able to avoid the doctor’s office to get a sick note—must now sit there for hours alongside “healthier” patients, thereby infecting even more people in the waiting room. The likelihood of success for these measures: probably the opposite of what they’re intended to achieve.

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Musikerie@Musikerie

4J

@Multibagger I’m afraid we shouldn’t underestimate the frustration that young people in particular are feeling today. It’s all a matter of perspective, too. If all you ever hear is, “You won’t get a pension anymore, you won’t have a career anymore, you won’t get any real wage increases anymore, you can’t afford houses anymore, you don’t have time to start a family, the world’s going to hell—here you go…” …we still worked our butts off, but it didn’t do you any good either. Just buck up—we still want our pensions. Hmm. Tricky. And I’m not saying I don’t agree with you to some extent… it’s just that your perspective is a bit too one-dimensional for me.

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@Musikerie I don't think that's right. You can still achieve something in life today—both professionally and financially. And it gives me hope that here (yes, I know it's a bubble), many young people are striving to avoid becoming dependent on government benefits later in life. Of course, this is also a matter of education and upbringing.

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin You're right about that. That's why I suggest paying continued wages for only 42 days a year, except in cases of chronic illness or serious injuries resulting from an accident. Then the constant 2–3-day absences due to a slight cold, hoarseness, stomachache, a hangover, nice weather, etc., would stop very quickly once the 42 days are reached and only 60% of the base salary is at risk. Our economy and our social system are being ruined by this. I’m also against raising the retirement age across the board. Anyone who starts working at 16 or 17 after graduating from high school should be able to retire in their early 60s without any reductions in their pension. Anyone who drops out of three college programs and doesn’t start working until age 30 would have to work until 70 to qualify for a pension without reductions. That would be a fair solution. Which brings us back to clientele politics. You can’t pull that “continued annual wage payment” line on me with the SPD, and you can’t use the “working life” argument with the CDU!

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Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin@Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin

4J

@Multibagger I completely agree with you.👍🏻 I think the suggestion is absolutely valid and I would support it.

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erbsinator@erbsinator

4J

@Multibagger 42 days is already very generous... I like the suggestion, but I'm afraid something like that is too simple and pragmatic for politicians. It would probably be too easy to understand...

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Chris@Multibagger

4J

@erbsinator Yes, I'm afraid so, too. Right now, there's just 6 weeks of continued pay for each new illness.

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Musikerie@Musikerie

4J

@Multibagger I was trying to give you a perspective beyond your own—I didn't say that you can't achieve anything anymore these days. Investing has been a trend for a while now, and unfortunately, those who need it most are probably the ones who are least likely to be doing it. But it’s also a big topic—it’s easy to talk past each other when discussing it. Ultimately, people are all the same; we just don’t always understand them.

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Voir toutes les 13 autres réponses

BKnightsCapital@BKnightsCapital

4J

Here in Luxembourg, a day like that counts as a vacation day :)

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Marcus-79@Aktienneuling-1979

4J

But they work more in those countries than in Germany.

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Gerald@Irlandfan

4J

Well, there's no legal right to vacation time for that. But you can take unpaid time off for it, or a few days a year if you negotiate it with your employer.

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