This article really hit home. Sadly, it's true. For the last ten years I've supposedly had either 15 or 20 vacation days, depending upon my employer and number of years on the payroll. I've yet been able to actually take more than half of them. This is what happens when you report to the CEO, who has both your land lines and cell phone number, and thinks it's perfectly normal to call you at 10 pm on a Saturday. Every year, I head into Christmas and New Year with over a week's unused vacation, on the "use it or lose it" plan. I lose it. Why? Because I'm conscientious.

Once upon a time we Americans actually got to use our vacation days. No more. And Europeans now wonder why we're nuts? We never got the month of August off, but we did used to be able to depend upon national holidays for a day off. Now I find myself having to come up with an excuse for not reading and replying to my office email on a Sunday. "Gee, George, I must have been outside tending my garden, or taking a nap on the patio. Hang on while I fire up the box and log in."