Archives for January 12th, 2007

Slovenia’s public holidays in 2007. (Bigger and better version)

You may have noticed already, but Slovenian workers will hit the jackpot in 2007: All public holidays this year fall on weekdays. (See this table for the glorious details) Slovenia has precisely 13 public holidays. According to this page, that puts it in the same league as Austria, but behind such holiday heavyweights as Italy (16) and Iceland (15). However, bear in mind that the list doesn’t include eastern Europe, so it neglects to mention Bosnia, which boasts a heroic 17 public holidays per annum.

Also keep in mind that this is in addition to the weeks of paid free time most Europeans get. In my experience, many Slovenes don’t know how unusual this is. Americans get an average of 9 days of vacation after their first year of work — and even then it’s a question of if they’ll actually take it. Many don’t. If you want to get ahead, you definitely don’t.

For example, my father took about three family vacations during his entire career. That’s how many I took last year alone. By law, Slovenes get a certain amount of government-guaranteed vacation every year. The number depends on a number of factors: like how many years you’ve been working, children, etc… but it’s set, and people actually take it. I didn’t at first, because of residual guilt, but now I’m slowly going native.

And I likes it.

(Thanks Dejan!)