We get 8 paid company holidays -- our long haul is between President's and Memorial, which isn't so bad, plus a discretionary holiday which I JUST REALISED I FORGOT TO USE LAST YEAR. Damned thing doesn't roll over with the rest of my time off. Dammit. I'll use it early this year. Maybe abutting President's Day.

Patriot's Day? As in the Pats?

Celebration of the battles of Concord and Lexington, aka Boston Marathon Day.

I get 11 paid holidays, which is nothing to complain about. The unique one is Cesar Chavez day in March. I realized lately that I have over 600 hours of paid sick leave saved up, and I'm not complaining about that, either.

I've never heard of this discretionary holiday thing.

I've never heard of this discretionary holiday thing.

It's weird, at least the way it works here. There are the 8 paid set days, my two weeks, and then one day I can use on my birthday or adjacent to a paid set day. Which means my only options are next to New Year's, or next to Christmas, since I rarely take blocks off around the others, and wouldn't need my b-day off. Unless NY was on a Friday, maybe.

How many bank holidays are there a year in the UK? 10? 12? And I seem to remember them being more mandatory than most holidays here, where you can still go shopping in a number of places.

I've never heard of this discretionary holiday thing.

Also known as a floating holiday or a floater. Basically the same thing as a personal day at our company, which we can't carry over into the next year if we don't use, vs. vacation time, up to three weeks of which we can.

Okay, cool:

Of the countries with the highest number of holidays, the list dominated by ones which have a weekend that is only one day long. On the other side of the coin, all five countries with the fewest holidays are all former Communist states, or part of the former Soviet Union.

...

The country with the longest gap between two regularly scheduled holidays in Bosnia, where residents sometimes have to go 731 days without a holiday. Next come Taiwan (353 days), followed by the Netherlands and Switzerland (333 days) and Qatar (286 days). Of course, these gaps may not occur every year if they are associated with a special alignment of fixed date holidays and weekends

...

At the other end of the spectrum, some Canadians never have to go more than 60 days between holidays, Marshal Islanders 67 days, Thais 74 days, Tajiks 76 days and Colombians and Jamaicans 77 days.

Oh, and for stat geeks.

and then one day I can use on my birthday or adjacent to a paid set day. Which means my only options are next to New Year's, or next to Christmas, since I rarely take blocks off around the others, and wouldn't need my b-day off

Oh, huh. No, that is different (from our personal days). And, yeah, weird.

The country with the longest gap between two regularly scheduled holidays in Bosnia, where residents sometimes have to go 731 days without a holiday.

But really, isn't every day in Bosnia a holiday?

I wonder what holdiay is ever 2 years a day? Or maybe what calendar they are using.

some Canadians never have to go more than 60 days between holidays,

Okay, there are no National Holidays between New Year's and Easter, so this is not me. I bet it's Quebec or Newfoundland.

In Quebec, they get New Year's Day and January 2nd off. I guess they figure the hangover will be very bad.