Get 54 DAYS of PAID VACATION in Germany! [How-to video] 🏝

[@PalmyraSchwarz]

I consider the 54 days to be more of a theoretical value, since other employees in a company also want to use bridging days and not all can take vacation at the same time. At least that was the case in the companies where I worked. Luckily you brought this aspect in towards the end. Personally, I mostly slept through the bridging days and often really enjoyed working on these days because it was quieter and you could deal with topics that went beyond pure day-to-day business.

[@martinbruhn5274]

The absolutely best place, vacation wise is actualy Augsburg in bavaria, since the city is within bavaria, which as a state has the most days of, but Augsburg additionally has the "Stadt Tag", where they celebrate their city, I guess, which is a legal holiday, when people get the day off, but only for the city of Augsburg.

[@suzannes5888]

Another fun video Jen and Yvonne! In the past years, in the US it’s becoming more and more common for corporate America to give unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), and make the employee accountable to getting their job done and taking whatever time off they choose for a balanced life and their wellness. They expect you to use it responsibly. Many companies now do this, it allows employees the autonomy of deciding when and where to work - and when to take a break. At my job I have 30 days paid Annual Leave (AL); 11 Federal Holidays and 10 paid Sick Leave (SL). We can roll over up to 30 days of AL each year; and also separately, unlimited SL can be rolled over. This means you can take up to 60 days of Annual Leave off at one time (which, with weekends and potential holidays would stretch to over 3 months off). You can use can use whatever/ unlimited SL that is on your books if you - or an immediate family member - has a serious medical issue. We also have a leave donation program where people can donate some (or all) of their leave to another person who has a medical emergency - which then allows that person to continue to be paid while away. We also have programs of Family Leave and other personal situations. For me, each fiscal year, I am also granted a minimum of 15 days of Military Leave for my Army training and preparation, more time is paid for in emergency situations. My annual total leave (without counting anything that may roll over) is 66 days. We also have a very flexible schedule option for your work hours - as long as your workday blankets the period of our core work hours of 1000 to 1500. This also allows that when you work more than 8 hours in a day, you an accrue those hours and then take that time off later as leave - we call it a “Flex Schedule” Some people do this regularly and work four, ten-hour days, and then take the fifth day off each week- or, work 9 hour days and take one extra day off every other week. Our week is usually five, eight-hour days. Like your video, this scenarios applies mostly to corporate/professional type jobs - and not the whole job market. I've missed watching your videos and look forward to getting caught up soon - the world is a little crazy right now!! Be safe! (btw...hope things are going "SMOOOOOTHLY" ....I missed hearing that today 😊)

[@simplegermany]

Wow, thanks a lot for all those insights! Sounds like you have a very good and fair work package. Great to have you back! Hopefully all healed up again 😊 And yes the world is a crazy place, especially right now.

[@christine9122]

Wow

[@wendyw.2778]

Augsburg is another excemption: there is an additional public holiday, the Augsburger Friedensfest, August 08. You get this day off if your job is within the citylimits of Augsburg.

[@TheMcNeeseFamily]

I love this video! Thanks for sharing all the tips!

[@loki19191]

you also have the right to 5 paid days of educational holidays (Bildungsurlaub) a year (varies slightly from state to state), which means you have to do at least 6 hours of something recognised by the state as educational per day in this time, but the education doesnt have to be job related, could be political education, language courses, rethoric seminars, whatever.

[@gridlockjoe]

Great explanation! In the US, our Thanksgiving Day holiday is always on the fourth Thursday of November. Most non-service employers also give the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. And whenever Christmas and New Year's days fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, you'll get the bridge day off as well.

[@alos33394]

Girls this is amazing content. Please keep doing this and provide this kind of info. Thank you.

[@Kurikost_]

i never had a job in germany with less than 30 days (holiday days). This year i have 66 days. I have a 39 hour week but in reality i work ( no jokes here :) ) i work for ~41 hours. So 2 hours a week in addition, These are 8 hours a month,, that gives me, around 10 to 15 extra "vacation" days /year. So even i used 30 days last year..i still have 66 days for this year.. 30 unused days last year + 30 days this year..and still 6 days due to overtime hours.

[@aliciadelasmaravilla]

Thank you for this. As an American I had no idea. This would have been helpful in Jan when they asked me to input my days. I had never had to do that before so I had a really hard time planning in advance.

[@maggieaseman2282]

You guys are Wonderful. Thank you very much for all the information.

[@yoshl1795]

If you're working completely remote, you get the publuc holidays from your home federal state, not the one your company is based. I'm 100% sure about this as this applies to my husband's contract 😁

[@amit46gupta]

I used to work for a German Company in India and we used to refer Brükentag as Bridge Holiday. Recently we starting having compulsory bridge holidays in our Indian Holiday calendar, it was used for shutdown and maintenance.

[@stirbjoernwesterhever6223]

In Baden (the south-west part of Baden-Württemberg) it was not uncommon that companies gave most of the craneval (or Fastnacht as it is called in Baden) days free, at least Donnerstag (Thursday, the beginning of the carnevals week) (Altweiberfastnacht in the Rhineland) and Rosenmontag, mostly also the Friday. But I don't know if that is still the case.

[@Al69BfR]

As an sales representative for my company, my holidays depend on the place where I live. So my company s located in Hamburg but my Bavarian colleagues are having all those additional holidays they never heard of in North Germany. 😉

[@ThePixel1983]

My company here in France just closes on Brückentagen. (Yeah, not possible everywhere)

[@Tulip_mania]

I like the way you say smoothly 😆

[@metin3289]

I got a sick leave for the whole week and now I feel guilty because though I am truly sick, I fear my coworkers will be thinking I am "abusing the system", like they said about others. My company culture on sick days and vacation is very relaxed, but the problem is the non-German coworkers that are always making a drama when someone takes sick leave. According to them, sick leave for people who are doing home office is not fair. I wonder the kind of work you do, if it is a very international work environment or else.

[@simplegermany]

We have worked in international and German work environments. And yes, you will always encounter 1 or 2 people who question everything you do anywhere in life 😉. As long as you don't abuse the system, do your job and respect others, don't worry about what other people say.

[@hdlink]

Some companys offer work off overtime at Brückentage. So you don't need a to use one vacation day. My personal experiance: Some companys I worked for closed complete on Brückentagen and "forced" you to work off overtime - If you don't have enough overtime, you have to make up for lost working hours.

[@matzek6200]

This really works, but the colleagues are normally also clever and want to take this days off.

[@sbcin]

Love your videos!

[@capeceneveral2129]

Love you ladies , greetings from Bavaria

[@janrupertalfeche8959]

You *must* take a two-week vacation? Goodness gracious that's a luxury, in my opinion. 🤯

[@freddyfernandes2645]

I always look forward to the new weekly video!!

[@Mozart4000]

0:54 Many Germans do and think so, but it's not true. The amount of vacation days (days off) is always the same. 😉

[@simplegermany]

We agree, it doesn’t change the actual number, but it can change the use case 😉

[@lunaarran6965]

Great tips for planning your holidays! An equivalent term for Brückentag could be bank holiday (4 bank holiday Mondays in UK, particularly after a public holiday being on a weekend). This is only the concept that is kind of similar of course

[@hashimoto00]

great content!

[@bcd-sb5jw]

I Already follow this in my country, I guess its possible in all country, Any special differences in germany..?

[@maithreyankuppusamy5005]

From Last year we could carry over vacation until September at our Company.

[@simplegermany]

Oh wow, that is very unusual and not legally correct. Unless your calendar year started in June?

[@maithreyankuppusamy5005]

@@simplegermany No idea! I work at a Forschungszentrum which is also GmbH. Maybe it's because a research centre it's like that?

[@marcossanchez7434]

Hello beautiful girls, can you please do a video on how to work in Germany as a freelancer or on your own?

[@simplegermany]

We have two great guides for that: www.simplegermany.com/freelancing-in-germany/ & www.simplegermany.com/how-to-start-a-business-in-germany/ 😊

[@axelplate9080]

Carnaval Capital? ooh, that will get you a thumbsdown. Ow,wait. You corrected it quickly, i guess it is a thumbs up then. Alaaf :-)

[@Rksh0xf]

Such a great website. :)

[@vinodyoukumar]

Can you pls create video on selecting General Doctor or Family doctor

[@simplegermany]

Do you have a specific question about that? You usually find a 'Hausarzt' online or via your health insurance and make an appointment. No need to ask them whether they can become your house doctor, just by you going there whenever you need a doctor makes them your house doctor 😊

[@n1vca]

I used to work in Munich for a company with a second branch in Berlin ... they were always jealous about our number of holidays while we were envious about their low rents. I believe you mentioned moving into the Munich area, any ideas when this might happen - do you need any recommendations for this area? Would be happy to give you some hints. Finally my favorite ladies are streaming in 4K - congrats - looks great, though it could also be 1440p upscaled to 2160p?!

[@mrrishiraj88]

Guten Morgen

[@totallyfilmy-jasleen286]

So is my understanding correct. we dont need to apply Brueckentag in the system as leave? wow! I am glad I have contract in Bayern :)

[@simplegermany]

Yes you do! The Brückentag is not an automatic day off (only in few companies). But Bavaria does have the most Public holidays 😉

[@totallyfilmy-jasleen286]

@@simplegermany ah got it! Your videos are amazing! I am really binge watching since days. Good stuff!

[@sox5404]

thank you for the video

[@fannychristozova8158]

Wie großartig, in der Tat! 🏝 (or, the emoji in my case should be 🏰 ) So some of those things explained here I already knew from your previous insights, and procedures have some fair share of similarities to Bulgaria for example. There is the whole calculations in front of a calendar to combine paid leave with public holidays, yes, and it's even considered dummy or inexperienced if anyone doesn't actually do it hahaha, but basically here's where the similarities end. Thing is, I currently work on a 24/7 cycle of shifts and every year there's a special kind of pre-planning, sometimes almost tossing a coin as to who would be the 'victim' of working on New Year's eve. (this Silvester I volunteered because I didn't care that much anymore) And that practice which Yvonne mentioned of distributing evenly, we ourselves actually implemented it, no manager ever says a thing to us, but we practice it as a team. If there's one thing I'm gonna miss about here, it's my wonderful co-workers! A friend of mine asked me if I'd be coming to Bulgaria on first occasion.. I said "Gee, what are you talking, for at least two years I'll be all over the castles!" 😂 and we laughed a lot because that was a rhetorical question. Thank you for all the information, it sure will take off a lot of head scratching and.. yeah, more castles when planned correctly. 😉

[@simplegermany]

Hehehe, yes, plenty of castles also in close proximity to each other 😉

[@fannychristozova8158]

@@simplegermany So far I've only been to Marienburg near Hildesheim, and it was aamazing! Close proximity to each other? Oh, I never knew that.. not all of them I'm sure, but that's quite the point to look for and consider!

[@fannychristozova8158]

@@simplegermany I forgot to say I no longer have a family here, no gf or something, just people I thought I knew. I still have my best friend and who I am! Both of us are devastated by what's happening now! So in the worst scenarios, I'll be here! We follow things and ... er muss weg!

[@simplegermany]

Check out the Mosel and the Mittelrheintal regions, plenty of castles 😉

[@simplegermany]

Keep working on your dreams and that planned move, maybe your best friend can move with you? 😊

[@HI-gj1qn]

i am moving !!’ no more US

[@kluger2222]

holidays are not applicable in medical fields.. leider 😅

[@AnaMaria-pg1fm]

Does this apply to healthcare workers like nurses or Surgical Technicians ?

[@rahulrathi584]

I have one question on this topic: how many days am I entitled to in my current employment if I resign in May (first half of the year) but leave in July (second half of the year)? If you have any links to official documents, that would be cherry on top:) thanks again for one more amazing video!

[@simplegermany]

We actually talk about it in our guide: www.simplegermany.com/vacation-days-in-germany/#What_Applies_To_Vacation_When_Changing_Jobs 😉

[@linlin-mk3vl]

Hi I love your video work it's amazing I would like to work with you can you give me a chance to explore in depth

[@simplegermany]

Thanks for your appreciation! ☺️ we are not looking to hire anyone externally though, hope you understand.

[@sebastianlpoliak]

Nice! In Argentina we call those Brückentag as "feriado puente" and we usually have a lot. Now in Berlin I don't even have a public holiday : /

[@Mozart4000]

Why not?

[@simplegermany]

Ah so you also use the bridge as a reference 😊 wel you should have 10 public holidays in Berlin 😉

[@sebastianlpoliak]

@@Mozart4000 Jus being ironic since other regions have more days, no?

[@Kurikost_]

this year is awful. The xmas days are on the weekend.

[@monicavaquerano6271]

We just say “hacer puente” haha

[@suntuz3389]

❤️

[@pitia5668]

Is it the first time they don't look at each other after saying "...smoothly."

[@simplegermany]

😱

[@pitia5668]

@@simplegermany oh wow i get replied by the channel's owner it's wonderful.😆 Thanks for all the great informative videos and advices/tips, Jen and Yvonne. Hope you're doing well. And hope i can move to Germany soon.😄

[@MetalBere]

Great video 😊