No vacation? German man stunned by American work culture after moving to the US with wife

Work culture can vary drastically from one country to another. Things that are a norm in one country might be hard to get in another one. A German man, u/AcrobaticArrival9168, experienced a similar thing in terms of work-life balance and perks when he moved to the USA. The man was quite shocked to find out that things that are normally offered to employees in Germany were quite rare in the US. He shared his experience on Reddit and wondered what was the reason behind the work culture in the US with little to no work-life balance.

"I met my American Wife (military) in Germany and recently moved to the US about 2 years ago," the man began. He admitted that it was a huge culture shock for him to work in the USA because he came from a place where 5 to 6 weeks of PTO (paid time off) was the norm. "[There would be] mandatory sick pay if you work. 35-hour weeks being the norm...to moving to the US and having absolutely none of those 'perks' has been mind-blowing," he went on. "I can't seem to land a job here that offers any PTO. Even my friends who work for large companies only get 2 weeks if they are lucky."

The German man felt that such a working style was "unproductive" and he could see the "burnout in people's eyes." He wondered, "My question is to my fellow workers of America, Why do you think this is so? If it's truly about profits for shareholders and it has been proven that rested and contented workers are more productive, then why don't American CEOs adopt the European paid time-off model?" The worker pointed out, "My only thoughts are, if they know it's unproductive and do it anyway, it must be out of malice." Many people in the comments expressed their thoughts on the same.

u/White-tigress wrote, "It’s more because they own trillions in real estate sitting there empty and if people are not in the buildings working, they can’t justify owning it or the price tags they have on it. So they have to force people to return to the office to protect their 'investment' in real estate." u/Edymnion commented, "Because over here, there's a saying, 'Penny Wise, Dollar Dumb.' It basically means many companies take short-term cost-cutting plans that hurt them in the long run. Usually, because the corporate culture means that by the time the larger price needs to be paid, the guy that instituted the policy has already gotten their huge bonus for saving money in the short term and moved on to another job. The new guy comes in, blames all the world's woes on the last guy, and the cycle repeats."

u/anonymous_opinions remarked, "It's because companies refuse to pay a livable wage to long-term employees, so the only way to earn enough money not to basically die in poverty is to apply aggressively. Even with high turnover, companies would rather chance those odds than invest in already hired talent because to USA employers, everyone is just a warm body and every job can be done by anyone cheaply."