Isn't that the same thing? They're being forced to take vacation at specific times. Just like they do in Europe.

You know, I don't know of any place in Europe where employees are forced to take their holidays all at once. I'm sure there is some niche industry in some backwater country to which this applies, but I haven't heard of it. No, we are 'forced' to take our holidays all at once to spend time with our children, who DO have 'forced holidays'.

There are plenty of companies, here in Italy, at least, that shut down in August, at least for the first two weeks.

In Spain there are still some companies that do the same, but this a less common practice each day. I guess it's because the shift from a industrial economy to a services one.

Yeah, it's becoming less common here too, but is still way more prevalent than in the US. It's not uncommon to see something like 1/3 of small shops closed in your average northern Italian town in early August.

Amazing. I did not know that. And apologies for implying Italy is a backwater country, it certainly isn't!

Factory shutdowns are almost unheard of now it seems as we (in the UK) have no factories left ...

Typically, people in Silicon Valley get PTO (paid time off) to use for sick days or vacation.

By having a shutdown, people are encouraged to use up their PTO. If you don't have enough PTO, however, then it is effectively unpaid leave.

Adobe employees will be fine - they get an unheard-of 24 days of PTO per year (three of which are automagically consumed during the holidays).

Thanks for reminding me again why I love Australia. (20 days Paid Annual Leave, + Sick Leave, + Public Holidays (about 8 per year or so)..

Although I am usually encouraged to take at least part of my time off on the Christmas/NY break (which is Summer for us obviously).

Just think of what you'd have at Adobe in the US: 4 more paid leave days and 3 more public holidays. :) I'm not sure what their sick leave policy is, though.

And my experience is that people save up PTO because if they leave for another job, or get laid off, they can take it as cash. So they have huge backlogs of PTO. Anyway it struck me as having some aspects of how things work in southern Europe.

Don't know of a single place that does that here in the UK. Best not to paint broad strokes under that "Europe" term.

Edit: Actually manufacturing companies in the UK tend to shut down around christmas and new years come to think of it. I guess that counts.