They also get long vacations in the summer months, and long stretches off for the holidays. I'd be willing to bet they only work 8.5 months out of the year, and that doesn't even count whatever personal off time they might have. Sounds like a European type job to me. In contrast, I work around 11.5 months out of the year. My employer can't tolerate me being gone for more than a couple of days at a time.
SLACKER!!!!
I know the feeling... I once had a hell of a time getting time off from work for jury duty. Part of the problem was my job as a networking systems instructor, and in the case of one of the classes I taught, I was 1 of just 4 instructors in the country authorized to teach the class. My employer had to write a letter to the court, to reschedule my jury duty, since I had been scheduled to teach classes for three months from that date. So, three months later I showed up for 3 days and then was done...
But even now (with a different job as a network admin), even though I've got 2 weeks of vacation a year, they'd rather that I not take more than 3 days of time off at a time. To be honest with you, I'd be absolutely thrilled if I could get an entire weekend off of work! A few months ago, I went 6 weeks without a full day off.
Mark
174 days in MS..that's how many days they work....174. My best friend is a teacher. She makes good money and sleeps in all summer. The whole argument is a crock....and if you'd hear the stories of how often she has to check the spelling and grammar of her fellow teachers before memos leave the building or check the bulletin boards etc....you'd wonder what in the hell was going on.
You'd be willing to bet? HEHE. Yes, we do get the "time off" which is unpaid of course. I don't mind that. I teach at a year-round school so we get the periodic vacations every couple of months. Even then, I often work full days getting things done. I spend more hours OUTSIDE of my job working for my job than classroom hours, almost twice as much.
It's easy to paint all of us with one brush stroke, but the truth is there are all sorts of situations and each one is different.