[PhoenixAzul]

I work at a startup. I'm not a founder or a partner. I am salaried, no overtime pay or earned PTO. So I work my set schedule and nothing more. No work emails outside of work hours. No work on weekends. And I will take every single day of my 25 days off a year. I do good work when I'm there, I flex when I am needed to work on a client that's international, but I have too much other stuff going on in life to be working all the time. When I was in non-profits, that was the expectation. Work til you die, and you have time off but you aren't allowed to take it. And we're going to give you a pay cut. And you have to contribute more to your health insurance.

Unless I feel that I'm being adequately compensated for the extra stress and time away from my family, life, and my health...not happening. I don't live for work. I work to pay for things so I can live. And that's about it. My relationship with my spouse, my family, and my emotional and physical well being are way more important.

Maybe too many years of living in Europe? But when I explained to my friends my time off (in my new job, 25 days a year, which is amazing in the US)- they were appalled at how low it was. Perspective, I suppose? My 25 days is super generous to me, where the expectation is two weeks, but paltry to my friends who expect 45 days as a minimum.