I don't know about other countries but I know at my last job we didn't get sick days. We could call in sick but it was counted against us and after 8 call ins in a rolling calendar year you might as well not bother returning to work. We had 10 vacation days, that we had to earn before we could use them, no floating holidays, and very rarely did we get a night off due to inclement weather. We drove to work one night in a noreaster because we couldn't call in.

Don't get me wrong, I loved my job, but as far as sickness went they didnt really care.

Want to elaborate on what kind of job this is? Like I said my job we had unlimited sick days, 15 vacation days though we did have to earn them. We got 10 hours a month but you could go negative 40 hours with managers approval. I got approved some unpaid leave to for an extended vacation. It is just different company to company and I guess it depends what you do. Mine was an engineering job.

over here, the President just signed into law an additional 3 public holidays putting us (I think) at 15 days per year...thats not counting all the "incidental" days..like, teachers day (teachers dont work), journalists day (journalists dont work), pasta maker day (yes its a real holiday), etc...you get the picture....where there is a profession there is a yearly holiday attached to it.
plus, we still practice siesta, that is a 4 hour break in the day where everyone goes home for lunch at noon and doesnt return to work till after 4 pm...

Perfectly said!! You have written down exactly what goes on in my head every day!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

If you don't mind, I copied this to share with other like minds!
They thank you too!!!