"For the record, the presidents who spent more of their presidency on vacation than all other presidents are GHW Bush (37%), GW Bush (33%) and Ronald Reagan (15%). For comparison: Carter, 5%; Clinton, 5%; Obama, 3%."My last years at AT&T entitled me to 5 weeks of vacation which is pretty close to 10%.. of course I also got 3 "management days" and 9 holidays off. All of this time-off was regulated by corporate policy.. had to work 25 years before you got 5 weeks vactions.. had to work there a year to get 2 weeks vacation.
In light of this corporate background it surprises me that there is not a policy regarding presidential vacations. There may be one.. please let me know if you know of one. And let me know what you think about taking vacations in general.. does your company have a vacation policy?
For the record I am glad that the prez is taking one.. vacations are good stress relievers.
Bob ~ I don't understand the percentage... What is it based on since Obama has only been in office a short time.
ReplyDeleteBTW ~~ I think every working person needs vacations... actually retired people too. ((smile))
I don't understand it either Wanda.. I suspect that he will take more vacation before his first year is up. The point I was trying to make is that there doesn't seem to be a policy concerning presidential vacations.
ReplyDeleteThe percentage of days taken as vacation was determined by dividing the total days of vacation by the total days in office. Obama was only in office 209 days when I calculated his percentage.
ReplyDeleteI doubt if there is a vacation policy for the president. Most of us would assume that any president would not take off more time than the demands of his job allow. 33% vacation is not too much for the most stressful job in the world if the president and his administration are fulfilling their jobs. 3% may be too much if they are not fulfilling their jobs. I assume that the Vacation Policy for the President, from a president's point of view, is the perogative of the president. Nixon put it simply, "When the president does it, it is legal." The military perspective is "rank has its privileges."
Naturally, each citizen's opinion about the amount of vacation a president takes depends on whether the citizen approves of the president's accomplishments.
LOL this is cute. I won't even "go there" about the vacation issue. It seems like people are looking hard for reasons to put down our President.
ReplyDelete"It seems like people are looking hard for reasons to put down our President."
ReplyDeleteNo, it seems like people are looking hard to reasons to put down Prezzes Bush, Bush and Reagan...
Let's see, I get two weeks' vacation and two personal days. Add that to the two weekend days I get each week, and I get 120 days off out of 365 days = 33%.
It's only fair to compare my schedule this way to the Presidents' because they are working 24/7 - weekends mean nothing to them. And they get away somewhere else because they have cameras up their noses, we don't.
Why are we criticizing any of their vacation habits?
I forgot the holidays! Add eight holiday days, and we get 35%! What a lazy slob I must be, huh?
ReplyDeleteNot criticizing TZ.. maybe just pointing out the differences and the lack of vacation policy.
ReplyDeleteGuess I am okay with no policy.. they are after all public servants.. why should they be subject to rules like the rest of us :)