Hacker News

I work the (for here) standard 36 hours per week, but I do 4 x 9 hours so I have a day off every week. You're free to create your own schedule (in my department anyway), so others work 8 hours for 4 days and 4 hours one day, or 8 per day and a day off every two weeks, or even 40 hours and they save up a day every two weeks to use at a later stage. A friend of mine does this and he takes a week off every two months and then goes on a longer holiday in the spring and autumn or something.

In terms of paid time off, I think I get about 25 days a year (plus some public holidays), but I also get a 16% "bonus" every month that I can spend on a variety of things. You can choose to receive it as extra salary, but you can also spend it on certain things like union dues, gym membership, a bicycle, etc with the benefit that you don't pay VAT (like sales tax I think) over those things.

But I often use it to "buy" leave. I think if I would always spend the full amount on leave I'd have about 10 weeks of vacation per year. You could definitely argue it's not really paid time off since I could work and earn more money. But you pay a relatively high amount of income tax over it and I consider it an extra anyway. So now I sometimes receive a bit more, but most of the time I get my normal salary, also when I'm on leave. I have a four day week and I can take two long vacations plus one or two short ones every year and I'm happy with that.

And as long as I perform normally I get a raise every year until I reach the highest step on the "ladder" for my position. And everyone's salary is raised slightly every year as well (though almost always, and especially now, less than inflation).