i can't remember when i had a real vacation, or more than 3 days off from work in a row. take out sick time for the kid and time you need to take off for doctor appts for the kid etc......
when i started at my company i had to be on contract. no vacay for six months. nada.
so i get hired and i negotiate 3 wks of vacation plus 1 wk sick time. yes, they say.
two months later the HR staff rewrites the PTO policy to lump sick time in with other vacation and in one fell swoop i lost my extra week of vacation. couple that with having a new born eating away all your PTO and bam.....where's the vacation?
one guy i work with had agreement for 4 weeks vacay + one week sick time. when they did the PTO change, he was under 5 years, so they put him back down to 120 hours total. essentially 2 weeks plus 1 week sick.
dude lost 2 weeks.
it is true, if you want a premier job, you have to bend over and work all the time and travel a lot and kiss ass. But the perks are there. Fewer and fewer get these jobs but become more and more elite.
if you can't swing that (because its not family friendly at all) you are indeed stuck with a tier B job, and you still have to work way too much considering you can't do a one wage earner family off it. Marginal pay, stingy benefits. Lack of flexibility in working arrangement and no time off. All for the 3.5-4.4% raise. when everything else in the GWB era goes up 10-20% or more per year.
No wonder people are pissed off.