OMG…. Mandated Paid Vacation

(noon. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This past week some screaming radical leftist in Congress dared to introduce a proposal that would mandate paid vacation for workers.

Holy fuck some government bureaucrat is going to try and violate your civil right to work until you are dead. Will horrors in the American work place ever cease?

So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act – legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.

The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week

Could capitalism survive this? I mean, well rested workers might start thinking about stuff and enjoying their lives and recognizing their children. Over worked spouses doing opposite shifts from one another to accommodate the reality of little affordable child care in this country might have conversations with one another!

Over at Politico, it is noted that…

According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 28 million Americans – or about a quarter of the work force – don’t get any paid vacation. The center says that a lack of vacation causes stress and workplace burnout and that those evil twins cost the economy more than $300 billion each year.

One more if-you’re-reading-this-then-you’re-probably-not-on-vacation fact: The United States is dead last among 21 industrial countries when it comes to mandatory R&R.

France currently requires employers to provide 30 days of paid leave.

Isn’t that silly? We want American workers to be burned out. That is the whole point of America. Stressed out Americans are good for capitalism. Then when they get a free moment they go out and buy stuff to prove to their neighbors how hard they work. Besides we don’t want workers being mentally alert, they might become more mindful of workplace safety and go organize unions.

The author of the piece is quick to sniff out little problems….

But with many Americans out of work and an economy in shambles, some say this may not be the best time to propose more time away from the office, especially on the boss’s dime

Good point. Why doesn’t somebody in Congress introduce legislation to ban the fuck out of any holidays or vacation for Americans? Aren’t vacations unpatriotic? People might travel to… places… they might even.. leave America! And I can confirm that vacations are unpatriotic because I recently went hiking in Utah and most of the people I ran into were French and German. Those foreign people get some time off and they leave their own countries. For different experiences. Bad.Bad.Bad.

Ah. The negative impact.

The Society for Human Resource Management issued a statement Wednesday warning that “a one-size-fits-all, government-imposed mandate is not the answer.”

Because of the 50- and 100-employee thresholds, most small businesses wouldn’t be directly affected by the bill immediately. But the National Small Business Association warned of indirect consequences; companies might artificially hold their hiring at the 50-to-100-employee level to avoid the costs of paid vacation time

Yes. We absolutely do not want people to have access to the same thing. Only rich folks, a few lucky folks like myself, and important corporate types should have vacation.

Grayson’s bill is part of a larger move by Democrats to improve employee and workplace standards. Earlier this month, Democrats introduced a bill that would make employers give mandatory sick time.

“The committee is looking at a number of proposals to help workers balance family responsibilities and work duties,” said House Education and Labor Committee spokesman Aaron Albright. “The fact is the United States is behind the rest of the world in ensuring that workplaces have paid leave policies. These policies not only benefit workers but also help the employers’ bottom line because of lower turnover and better job satisfaction.”

Get real, happy workers, satisfied workers. Who wants that? We want oppressed, exhausted, and malleable workers in this country. We want workers who protest nothing. We want workers who don’t think for themselves. We want workers who prefer to get unpaid overtime, who shun health care and benefits as incursions into their rights as individuals. Oh. Yes, and lots of young workers with gigantic school debts. They will just want to work 60 hours a week.

Work/life balance, Ha let the French and Germans have that.

Isn’t that the American way?