Compared to the tech world HN is obsessed with, a majority of businesses have a more direct relationship between labor and productivity.
If you run a store in NYC that needs three workers at all time to operate, there's no getting around the fact that giving every employee time off will result in less productivity per year per employee. If you run a construction or transportation business - you need a certain number of people (maybe even legally) to operate at any time.
For the tech world and other white collar jobs for which it is true that time off may help the headline above isnt as applicable. While probably still behind european counterparts, many of these jobs in the US already have real vacation time and generous remote work options.
As an observation, one difference between US and EU PTO behaviors is that everyone in the EU tends to take their PTO at the same time around July/August. In the US, it is much more spread out even when they have equivalent amounts of PTO. It creates a different business problem in Europe because everyone stops working at the same time, effectively shutting down business, whereas in the US they can operate at the same cadence all year because use of PTO is so diffuse.
Some of this is probably closely connected to the reality that much of the US has nicer weather for much wider periods of time due to its lower average latitude.
> As an observation, one difference between US and EU PTO behaviors is that everyone in the EU tends to take their PTO at the same time around July/August.
That is very much country dependent and can't be stated as a general rule. While this may be the case in France, where some businesses close for the entire August that's certainly not the case in, for example, Switzerland where a business may close 2 weeks in February.
Most businesses don't close at all and within certain limits employees are free to take their vacation whenever it suits them.
