I’ve been working for a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Europe. They have labs all around the world in every continent.
Today during a meeting my supervisor, based in another state, asked me to ask someone what the plan is for our site for the last week of December as she wasn’t sure. I asked the dude and come to find out the entire organization (except for the manufacturing sites) shuts down the last week of December.
He said they’ve always done that. Everybody gets a paid week off for Christmas. Even us lowly contractors!
That’s when it really hit home about the difference between American companies and European companies.