Hale, Janet RiolaPaul, Preston2016-07-052016-07-052016-05Paul, P. (2016). Give me a break: A critical comparison of United States work policies (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.https://hdl.handle.net/10877/6133The division between the professional and personal realms of an employee’s life has been widely accepted as an important component of employee happiness, and as a result, overall employee productivity. With multiple routes to improving and strengthening the divide between the two, having the time off to have a personal life outside of one’s professional life can be extremely beneficial, but how does the United States fare? By examining other Western countries (Austria, Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland) that have a higher rate of employee happiness and more federally mandated breaks, it is clear that with having more federally mandated holidays, shorter work weeks, and paid time off, it increases employee satisfaction and productivity which the United States could stand to benefit from.Text69 pages1 file (.pdf)enpaid time offUSAinternational businessSwitzerlandAustriaAustraliaDenmarkworkplaceHonors College