Divorce . Even though it needed to happen , and was completely dramafree , it returned me to a state of childlike fear and inability to function in reality , from when my parents got a divorce . It wasn ' t so much the person being gone as it was my utter aloneness with myself . On the plus side , that terror got me to get real help . <| sep |> Come on over to Ohio , where you hear crick more than any other body of water . Edit And also where you can experience all 4 seasons in one day . <| sep |> Get yourself some light up sketchers or crocs if your feelin really spicy <| sep |> It ' s fine i ' ll breed it with an addy ditto to fix it im online <| sep |> The main issue is that if you make it optional you open employees up to pressure from employers to not take the vacation time . It ' s been decided that it ' s better to make everyone take it rather than risk a culture where nobody can . I don ' t know it works in Europe but the main pressure forcing vacation time in Australia is that companies are required to cash it out if you leave whether quit , fired , whatever . It ' s held on their books as a liability , and if that liability becomes too large it ' s an issue for the company . The usual rule of thumb is that you can ' t have more than 12 weeks of vacation saved at any given time , generally your bosses will make you take some once you hit that . This is actually specified in my employment contract . There was some talk of allowing people to cash it their vacation time , but I hope it doesn ' t happen because it could easily become the standard . This coming from someone who has saved probably 2 thirds of my vacation time at my current job , and most the remaining third has been used during the mandatory Christmas shutdown sorting which there are 3 public holidays that don ' t count towards the amount used , and usually about an extra 7 days which do .