That sounds really bad man. I'm originally from Germany,but lived previously in Asia(Singapore/Hong Kong), New Zealand and now Australia. I never got less than 3 weeks vacation.
The US is a good environment to innovate, but it's mostly good for companies and not people.
Mind sharing where exactly in Europe is 8 weeks vacation the norm? In Austria it's 5 weeks for everyone but law and that's what most tech companies will give you as well.
I went from 8 weeks / years to 4 or 5. Currently 3. Ha.
I cannot recharge the same way ( meaning : travel for weeks at a time, or chill hard for 2 weeks in a row )
It’s flexible all right. But I feel like I’m always working somehow. Work is near, lurking.
I’m nursing a nice little depression that I feel a road trip would cure easily. Too bad I need to keep my last week of vacation for Christmas week.