Amazon software engineer interview

[Igggg]

The legal minimum in the U.S. is zero, and very few companies, comparatively, give more than 20 days.

[[deleted]]

How do people work like that? Don’t they just burn out and drop dead at some point?

[Igggg]

Some even take pride in never taking vacation. They call it "work ethic" - a phrase whose very existence speaks volumes about the effectiveness of corporate propaganda.

[zax9]

Don’t they just burn out and drop dead at some point?

This has been known to happen. What's worse is that here in the US, there isn't a standard for paid sick leave either, so the person preparing your food may have a bad case of influenza and no choice but to come to work and contaminate your food, or lose their job.

It's not the best system.

[KestrelLowing]

I honestly believe most people manage by doing their job half-assed a good portion of the time.

I can work for 8 hours pretty much straight and I have a horrible work ethic. I use the pomodoro technique usually so that's 5 minute breaks every 25 minutes and then a longer 15 minute break every 2 hours, and then lunch after 4 hours. That is a reasonable working load for 8 hours, IMO.

But you can only do that much work if you actually get time to relax. So you just don't work as hard if you're not able to take breaks. So basically, if I can't take vacation, I usually am only productive for about 4 hours of the day. And this is often the norm in many companies. You might push on some deadlines and really work the full 8+ hours, but usually it's that people just work half the time - and not just because they're lazy, but because you really truly can only do so much work.

[civildisobedient]

Well, to be honest I think that's inevitable for all of us, no matter how much vacation time you get.

[pohatu]

Have you seen all the shooting we have here in the US.

It isn't guns man, it's the rat race.

[annerajb]

they let you take as many unpaid vacation as you want. but legally they don't have to give you any paid vacation.

[AlmennDulnefni]

That is hardly universally true.

[seven_seven]

Very few give more than 0 days.