<p>Hi, I am not from the US and I would like to know which days do people not go to work on? Are they Saturdays and Sundays or does this applies only to government workers? Also I would appreciate it if someone were to tell me what the situation with corporate lawyers in the US is. :)</p>
<p>National holidays: My company holidays (usually 7-8 days a year total): Memorial Day in May, Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day in September, Thanksgiving (usually get day off after Thanksgiving too), Christmas and New Year’s Day. Some companies give Good Friday off before Easter, and some companies give Christmas Eve as a holiday. A typical corporate work week is Monday to Friday.</p>
<p>Vacation benefits will change by company. In my experience, an employee is entitled to 2 weeks of vacation and 5-days of paid sick time after a year of employment. After five years of employment, some companies give 3 weeks. After ten or fifteen years of employment, some companies give four weeks. I’ve never heard of more. My employers have had use it or lose it policies, so if you don’t take your vacation you can’t cash it out or carry it into another year. Some employers do permit some hours to be carried forward each year, and some employers let people get paid for some of their unusued vacation.</p>
<p>As a lawyer, I typically have to forfeit vacation time every year. Somehow there’s always work that comes up that makes it impossible to get away. I’ve had vacations cancelled by my company. Fortunately, my company has reimbursed me for vacation costs//deposits that I lost due to cancellation. </p>
<p>I’ve also had to work on holidays sometimes too. When 5:00 rolls around, we don’t stop working. (Managers and executives don’t stop working either.) Our culture and the corporate expectations are that we all just keep working if something needs to be done. Managers, executives (and lawyers) don’t get extra compensation for working these extra hours, although certainly some people would argue that our salaries already include the expectation of the extra hours. </p>
<p>Working weekends is common, although weekend work can usually be done at home. Weekends are also often used for business travel, such as coming home from a business trip on Saturdays, or travel on Sundays to get somewhere for a Monday business trip. </p>
<p>Every company may different work expectations though. This is just my experience.</p>