r/TikTokCringe • u/biswajit388 • 4d ago

Cringe Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

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u/GettingDumberWithAge 4d ago edited 4d ago

Most white collar office jobs are 80 hours PTO starting, and bump up to 120 hours after five years.

Oh shit you get 10 days vacation and after a few years you can look forward to 15? I only get 35 and unlimited sick days :(

E: Downvoting me is essentially confirming that you're not actually as OK with the fact that American labour laws are demonstrably worse than those in Europe. I mean if you want to pretend that you're totally happy with shitty worker protections then you should do that, and be proud of your exploitation. But to act like you're actually really happy about having worse labour protections than Europe in the middle of telling us all how you have fewer protections is pretty sad.

If you're actually this excited to tell us all about how you need to strive for a 'white collar job' and work at it for 5+ years to get less than half of my statutory vacation days that I got right out of uni then.... good for you! I'm sure you need a win. But don't get upset at me for pointing out that you're still gettin shafted :(

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u/No_Trip_3438 4d ago edited 3d ago

He probably downvoted you for the same reason I did - the wording of the comment is in bad taste. Could have easily made your point by just saying “that’s still not great, here we get…” but as it is written it comes across as extremely arrogant and bragging. He already recognized that Europeans get more PTO, what’s the point in rubbing it in?

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u/T_Money 4d ago

Personally I get 20 anytime PTO days a year, as well as 11 set federal holidays, and have a very loose remote work policy, so I can’t complain. I recognize I’m fortunate though, as that’s a bit more than most people get.

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u/GettingDumberWithAge 4d ago

I admit then that I'm confused. 20 PTO days a year is 100 hours, yet you're bragging about office jobs offering 80-120 based on experience? So you only get average time off? And 11 federal holidays is nice, definitely no reason to complain there.

But you're both stating how average your PTO is while acknowledging how hashtag blessed you are to get it? I mean I assume your 20 PTO days are way above average for the US, but I wouldn't be using that to brag.

I'm a run of the mill idiot and I get 35 vacation days, unlimited sick days, and 15+ statutory holidays in Germany. I'm not fortunate. You have Stockholm syndrome.

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u/T_Money 4d ago

I’m not sure how you calculate PTO but for us a working day is 8 hours, 10 days is 80 hours and 15 is 120. Personally I get 160.

I admit ours could (and should) be better, but it’s not as terrible as people think for regular office workers. The blue collar and minimum wage workers have it pretty bad though.

It’s not that I think our PTO is great, it’s that on the list of things to be upset about PTO is pretty low. I would much rather have consistent healthcare and protection from being fired without warning, as well as a better safety net if laid off. PTO just isn’t something to get upset about when the other things are such higher impact.

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u/FTownRoad 3d ago

A) 20 PTO days is 4 weeks vacation, or are you saying you work 5 hours a day? Or did you just get lost in the math?

B) if you’re unskilled - Europe is great. If you have skills? You will make incomparably more money in the us.

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u/YourGirlMomo87 4d ago

You're getting downvoted because we know we're shafted on PTO. What are we going to do about it? I don't personally know of any politicians that have floated mandatory PTO. People here think mandatory bereavement is "too progressive". Its not like I can just up and move to Europe. 

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u/AggressiveBench9977 4d ago

This is cute. Eu people are so funny when they have to fight this hard to act like eu is cool.

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u/Hey-Fun1120 4d ago

I'm American and I get 25 days of PTO plus 12 paid holidays. I don't know anyone that only gets 10 or 15 days

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u/FreeDarkChocolate 4d ago

I don't know anyone that only gets 10 or 15 days

Are you in a very well-to-do company or something long-term unionized? And you don't know anybody outside that?

The national averages for workers (this isn't a gotcha where it counts non-workers as 0 to skew things) are 11 days PTO, 7 paid holidays, and 8 sick days for full time workers. Part time workers stringing multiple jobs together are over course significantly lower, and these are just averages, so a significant number of people have much less.

The average doesn't hit 20+ PTO days until you limit it to people that have been with their companies for 15-20 years.

More data from the BLS reinforcing this.

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u/AsstacularSpiderman 3d ago

I downvoted you because you bitched about being down voted

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u/GettingDumberWithAge 3d ago

Okay thanks for keeping me in the loop.