Americans work harder than employees in almost every developed country in the world. While employees in countries like Germany, Italy, and France take an average of 35 to 40 vacation days including...

Americans work harder than employees in almost every developed country in the world. While employees in countries like Germany, Italy, and France take an average of 35 to 40 vacation days including public holidays per year, Americans squeeze in an average of only about 14 vacation days. Americans also tend to work as many or more hours per week. Moreover, these differences have been increased by advances in technology like cell phones and email, which permit Americans to work even while on vacation.But is all this work, which many Americans wear as a badge of honor, good? Increasingly, medical studies show a correlation between a lack of vacation time and illnesses such as heart attacks. In addition, there is evidence that taking vacations leads to increased workplace productivity when on the job, that refreshed workers are better workers. What do you think?Should the United States move toward the European and Canadian model of more worker vacation time?