6. Move to country where it's understood that healthy and well rested workforce is an asset.

I spent way too many years working for an employer who expected me to work while I was deathly ill if I couldn’t cover my shift. I now work for an employer who has told me that my vacation hours were in danger of expiring, so maybe I should take a week off next month, or did I want to leave early every day for the next few weeks instead?

And even when the company is understaffed, you take your PTO.

same in Scandinavia, where productivity is pretty much the highest in the world. Companies and colleagues will URGE you to take time off.

THIS

Also: How crappy is the rest of the team?!?!

It is fascinating that paychecks still exist anywhere in the world. (Transfer directly to the account, anything else is a nuisance.)

Damn right.

I agree with you zzabeth - (very clever of you) & I'm a boomer.

"If you're indispensable, you're also un-promotable". Start looking for another job.

No, you're missing the point. It's not taking away resources like donuts, it's taking money out of the pockets of the Shareholders and CEO bonuses! Don't you understand how corporations work?! It's all about the owners, not the workers (/s but only partly)

Not just America. Also applies to public services in UK which are so understaffed and underfunded that we find ourselves thinking like that

So if you took what you deserve they would have to hire someone who can also do it if needed.

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80% of the deaths are retirement age or older... so that would be 120,000 deaths of people who theoretically had coworkers.

That's the first thing my dad told me when I started working!!! " Today you're indispensable because you are working unpaid overtime, tomorrow you're fired for taking your lunch break."

Also complaining about having a hard time hiring people for crap wages and no benefits!

Some people can afford to work to live, other people need to live to work to live.

The team has proven that you're the key to their succes, which needs to be rewarded with a raise and a bonus. In reality you will be written down for a lack of loyalty and work ethos.

Has also to do with the fact that European governments actively fought exploitation by legislating strict labor laws and securing employees rights like pregnancy leave, no randomly firing people without a good reason, safety rules on the job and a maximum of hours someone is allowed to work per week.

He is absolutely right. No matter what your opinions on unions might be the historical fact is that people literally fought and died so that all of us had to right to have days off, and reasonable work week, among other things. We forget that to our peril.

Is a 'swirlie' some horrible euphemism I'm unfamiliar with?

It’s sarcasm people! Good god!

The absolute worse advice...ever. I have been in the IT industry since 1993. My wife has photos of our vacations, with me in the background either on my phone or on my laptop. We are a blended family and have six kids between the two of us. I have missed out on the vast majority of my kid's childhoods. I have missed out on precious time with my family because I was afraid of losing my job at the time. I worked for 4 days while on my honeymoon. Let me just tell everyone.... Your spouse WILL remember that and you will gain nothing from it. I worked for three different companies (one for big pharma) and I was expected to be available 24/7, 365 days a year. I am finally (at 48 years old), working for an awesome company. My manager will force us to take time off if we go too long without a break. In IT, there will always be after-hours work, but he recognizes it and plans for all of us to have our time given back to us. I cannot regain lost time, but I can live now.