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Paid Vacation Days in the United States

The United States is the only developed country in the world where paid time off is not required.

Yes, you read that correctly. Though the average American takes off about ten days off per year, none of them are actually required by law. While The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does offer standard benefits such as basic wages and overtime pay, it does not entitle employees to paid time off. Not for vacations, not for holidays, and most disturbingly, not for those facing any illnesses.

Instead, employers have the option to make individual contract agreements between themselves and their workers. However, this tends to be problematic for a number of reasons. For example, under this system, two employees with the same amount of job experience can still have an unequal amount of paid leave. This opens the door to favoritism or prejudice. More than that, many people will often avoid using their paid vacation out of fear of losing their job.

U.S. Federal employees have situations that prove to be a little better than the rest of the country. Depending on seniority, the government offers a standard amount of time for vacations and breaks. In addition to that, they are all given time off for ten federal holidays a year.

Americans have been proposing Congress mandate a solution to this dilemma for years, suggesting a minimum of at least two weeks. However, experts agree it’s just not likely that this will be resolved in the near future.

Paid Vacation Days in Other Countries

In contrast, every single country in the European Union, including Sweden, Italy, and France, have at least four mandatory weeks of paid vacation a year. There are differences based on individual government mandates. However, countries that rank the highest in terms of satisfaction are generally in these areas. Here is a breakdown of some of the other more successful ones:

New Zealand: 30 days off
Italy: 30 days off
Belgium: 30 days off (after they work for their employer for at least one year)
France: 31 days off
Spain: 34 days off
Germany: 34 days off
Portugal: 35 days off
Austria: 35 days off

Austria wins the prize for the most amount of time off, with 13 paid holidays and 22 paid vacation days. Additionally, if a person has at least 25 years job experience, they are entitled to more.

There are other ways international businesses are attempting to make improvements for workers. For instance, France has had a 35-hour workweek since the year 1999. Recently they have introduced new legislation that encourages employees to turn off their work phones and avoid emails during their time off.

Sweden is also considering shorter working days for their residents. It is reported that their 6 hour work days could make people happier and healthier than ever.

Finally, other countries desire to take parental leave more seriously. While the U.S. offers no mandatory parental leave, Denmark provides nursery care for all citizens so that mothers and fathers alike can have a better work-life balance. New parents are given one year of paid leave after they have a child, or if they have adopted a child. Finland has also made it a law that parents of smaller children are able to use subsidized child care centers.

Vacation Days Directly Linked to Productivity

So what is stopping the United States from adopting these same laws and ordinances for citizens? It could be that employers fear that time off equals more expenses they simply cannot afford. This is especially true for smaller enterprises and startups trying to compete with much larger organizations. Some offices would need to hire replacements or have employees work overtime to make up for that “lost” time. But hundreds of studies prove that workers are overall more productive with increased vacation time.

In a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for Project: Time Off, HR managers believe that taking vacation time leads to greatly improved performance (75%) and better job satisfaction (78%). In other words, vacation gives a person the chance to “recharge their batteries” and mentally rest from their job. When they finally return to their desk, morale (and overall productivity) is improved.

Time away from an office setting also gives people a chance to tap into their creative side. This is especially important for those who frequently face complicated challenges at work. Rest can stimulate new ideas to solve old problems by helping individuals gain new clarity. It is an excellent way to refresh or renew motivation.

The Case For Businesses to Invest in Paid Vacations

It’s not just the employees who stand to gain from mandatory paid vacations in the United States. Organizations will also see long-term advantages. When they invest in time off for their workers, they see the results in terms of work quality after they return. Not only that, there are a lot of cost savings involved.

How does this work? Employees tend to feel more valued when offered a certain amount of time away from work. Organizations with happier workers will see less turnover. A high turnover rate incurs high costs. Every time you lose an employee, Human Resources must spend time with the process of interviews, onboarding, and training. This takes up not only time but also money. In fact, every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it actually costs them, on average, 6 to 9 months of that person’s salary. So even if that person was making only $40,000 per year, a business stands to lose at least $20,000 in resources.

When employees have the flexibility of paid vacation days, they are much less likely to “call in sick” at the last minute unexpectedly. They feel more empowered to take care of themselves and their personal needs in their own time.

Finally, paid time off gives employers a strategy to attract more experienced workers. For example, a company offering a standard three-week vacation will help you recruit the best and the brightest in the industry, especially if a competitor only offers ten days.

As more and more companies expand globally and source employees from around the world, working in different time zones is becoming increasingly common. Working with clients and employees in different time zones can be a challenge. It also requires making some changes to the way you think about conducting business. If you’re new to international business, this may take some time to get used to, especially when it comes to remembering everyone’s current time zone. Here are some tips and tools to help.

Benefits of Working in Different Time Zones

Multinational companies and large enterprises often have office bases in more than one country or location. This helps them grow their geographic coverage and sell to more customers across the globe. Even small businesses are trying to break out of geographical boundaries and increase international sales. So, why work across multiple time zones? Here are some benefits of expanding your company and working in different time zones:

• Grow as an international business.
• Establish a local presence for your business in multiple locations.
• Improve business awareness and visibility.
• Make it easy for global customers to connect with your business for sales or assistance.
• Adopt a Follow the Sun model for global customer support.

Tools for Working in Different Time Zones

There are many services and tools available to make it easy for businesses to work across time zones and countries. These services and tools help improve communication, productivity, and collaboration:

• Call forwarding and time-based routing to route customer calls coming from across the time zones.
• Time zone trackers (more on this below) to be aware of different time zones.
• Virtual voice and video communication tools to communicate effectively.
• Project management software to track projects and tasks and support team collaboration.
• Customer relationship management systems (CRMs) to keep track of customer information.

Besides using these tools and services, what can your business and teams do to make working in different time zones easier?

Working in Multiple Time Zones: Best Practices

Let’s looks at the best practices you and your teams should pay attention to when working across different time zones and dealing with global customers:

1. Mind the Time

Make the most of the clock features on your mobile phone or tablet. If you have employees or clients in multiple geographic locations, set up a world clock for each of them so you can see at a glance what the time is wherever they are.

2. Set Time Zone Boundaries

Each time you begin working with a new employee or client in a different time zone, discuss issues that may arise because of time differences. This is particularly important when arranging meetings, setting deadlines, and any other time-sensitive communications. You will need to decide whether to book the dates and times in your zone or theirs.

3. Be Considerate Of Time Differences

If you’re working with clients or employees in a time zone that is very different from yours, show some consideration. Don’t book meetings or set deadlines that are very early in the morning in their time zone unless they specifically request that. Bear the same thing in mind when you are texting or calling people.

4. Keep Communication Channels Open

If you are rarely going to meet with your clients or employees in person, it’s important to maintain regular communication. Otherwise, they will begin to feel left out of the loop. Schedule a Skype or Facetime call now and again so that your communications don’t become too depersonalized.

5. Offer 24/7 Customer Support

If you own an online company and provide products, services, or both and your reach is global, your customers will need 24/7 access to your customer service team. If you’re a small business and don’t have a call center, an easy and affordable way to get around is with international call forwarding. You can give your customers virtual, toll-free international numbers that are local to them, and the calls will be forwarded to the number of your choice at various times of the day.

Related: 5 Ways to Leverage Time-Based Routing for Global Expansion

6. Maintain Realistic Boundaries

Although it may be dinner time in your time zone, it might be breakfast time in your client’s region. Although you may be gung-ho about working 24-7, not everyone else can handle that kind of rigor, especially if they are part of a different culture. Remember that your employees and clients may have family responsibilities, and it is important to be reasonable with your expectations.

Tools for Managing Time Zones

Here’s a rundown of some tools and apps that can help you manage time zone differences.

World Clock Meeting Planner: Things can get tricky when you’re trying to schedule a meeting with three different people, each of whom is located in a different time zone. But it doesn’t have to get too confusing. This tool will let you pick a date and plug in your location and the locations of your clients. The app will then generate a series of suggested times that may be feasible for your meeting. It even color-codes the times into sleeping, non-working, and working hours to clearly find a suitable time for everyone involved.

Spacetime.am: Slack has become one of the most popular cloud-based collaboration tools available today. If you are one of the 3 million users, you might want to add Slack bot Spacetime.am to benefit your whole team. Each member of your group can add their location and schedule their work hours so everyone can see who is available online, when, and for how long. This tool also allows you to arrange meetings and automatically adjust the time zone to suit each user.

World Time Buddy: This tool has a three-fold application; it converts world clocks and time zones and can schedule meetings. You can plug in numerous locations, and each time you revisit the site, they will load up. The neat color-coding system helps you keep track of business hours and where they sync.

Every Time Zone: If you’re looking for a tool that can keep track of your time zones with a pleasing and easy-to-use overlay, this is the one. Wherever in the world you and your clients are, Every Time Zone makes it easy to see the location and the time and how they correspond.

Time Zone Converter: When you need a simple tool that quickly converts the time across any time zone, this is a great choice. It’s a great app for people who are constantly making business trips all over the world.

24 Time Zones: This app’s colorful interactive world map makes it easy for users to see where in the world it’s time for business and where it is nighttime. Just click on a city to see the time there.

Time.is: Designed for time zone management, this tool displays the atomic clock, which can be set for any time zone in the world. Other useful graphics accompany the clock. It’s also a good app for telling if your computer’s clock is slightly off.

Time Zone Abbreviations: Are you familiar with AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time), CAT (Central Africa Time), and PYT (Paraguay Time)? Time zone abbreviations can be confusing, especially when you come across one you haven’t seen before. This tool provides a list of all of them, so you can easily look them up and avoid confusion. Now you won’t get mixed up between British Summer Time and Bangladesh Standard Time.

With more than 24 global times zones, it can be difficult to keep up with everyone if you’re conducting business internationally. Following these tips and using the suggested tools can help you keep your time under control.

Being active in your trade involves quite a lot these days. Pursuits such as continuing education and constant networking can really take a toll on the average professional, and conferencing may seem like one of these time-consuming activities. However, when done the right way, participating in regular conferences offers a return on your investment that makes it ultimately worthwhile.

A conference – also known as a trade show, seminar, or convention – often seems like a waste of time and resources. This is especially true if you spend a few days out of the office and shell out revenue for plane tickets, hotel reservations, and meals. Sponsors of conferences also set aside budgets for marketing materials. But you should know that if you have attended conferences in the past and have seen little to no results, you might be attending the wrong types of conferences. Read below to learn how you can purposefully choose a trade show to reach your business goals.

Choosing the Right Type of Professional Conference

There are many different types of events out there, and millions are planned on an international level every year. Workshops, for instance, are focused on educating professionals, while a consumer show is open to the general public. Not every event will be beneficial for your company, however. Here’s a list to guide you through the decision-making process.

• Business goals – Before you begin searching for events this year, ask yourself these questions: “What do we want to get out of this conference? What are our goals?” For instance, you might be looking to generate new leads or meet new vendors. By keeping your ultimate goal in mind, it is easier to pick which will be best for you.
• Cost – Add up the total cost of attending the event, and then consider your potential return on investment. If gaining just one or two new customers covers your cost, then it might be worth your time to go.
• Attendees – Who is your target audience, and will they be in attendance at the event? For instance, if you are only looking to meet C-level executives, then an academic networking event is not necessarily the best fit.
• Speakers and topics – Make sure that any topics covered are relevant to your field. It won’t do you much good to attend an accounting seminar if you’re in the auto industry.
• Networking opportunities – Some conferences will have events specifically for down time and social activities. You need to decide whether or not these can be used as time for connecting with other professionals.

How to Prepare for a Professional Conference

Even if a conference lasts through a long weekend, it can still fly by pretty quickly. This is why planning everything ahead of time is absolutely essential.

This includes making the right travel arrangements. Consider reservations for hotel rooms, rental cars, and transportation. Sometimes conferences will give you a discount on specific vendors, so it doesn’t hurt to give them a call and ask. Because there will be hundreds of other attendees, you want to make sure you have all the accommodations in place beforehand. Otherwise, you will waste valuable time.

Right before you travel, gather all of the necessary travel documents and confirmation numbers. These should all be in one place for easy access. This is especially true when traveling with a team of other people.

Pack accordingly. Since you will be on your feet for most of the events, bring a pair of comfortable shoes for walking in. If the weather is cold, bring a few layers of clothing. Extra phone chargers and small snacks also come in handy. Just be sure to make a list of everything that needs to travel with you so you won’t run into surprises if something necessary is forgotten.

When it comes to the actual seminars, are you prepared to promote your business? This is a very common mistake for conference attendees. When a potential customer is interested in your products or services, and you don’t have anything to show them, this can cost you revenue in the long run. Instead, print out additional business cards and marketing materials like brochures (if relevant). Most companies order promotional items like keychains and pens ahead of time. Keep business cards with you at all times, because you never know when you will run into a new opportunity.

By the way, don’t forget to follow up with new connections as soon as the conference is over! Gather their workplace email, phone number, and website if possible. There are many opportunities to sell to a potential lead by offering a special discount simply because you met in person at a seminar.

How to Make the Most Out of a Professional Conference

Gain visibility with active participation. Become a presenter, facilitator, or volunteer for just a few hours. Organizers are always looking for an extra set of hands to help. This is a proven way to strengthen professional relationships and get in front of your target audience.

Our next tip is to make sure to choose the sessions that will benefit your business the most. There are many different types of sessions, ranging from skill-building to simple meet and greets. Each type of event will have a host of different attendees, so plan your time wisely. Ideally, your agenda should be fairly full. However, if you need to take a quick break away from the crowds, plan a time for rest during the “less busy” hours of the conference.

Finally, participate in the conference through popular social media channels. Major attendees and speakers will already have Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, so you can follow and connect with these accounts before the conference even begins. Have your social media coordinator write about the event and make several announcements about your attendance. This helps build excitement for the event.

Additionally, conferences should have a designated hashtag that everyone can use. For example, this year’s popular Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has the official hashtag #CES2018. Be sure to take plenty of photos and use this hashtag when you post them. Hundreds (or even thousands) of people will potentially view the hashtag, so your account will most likely get noticed!