60% of Americans had no plans to take any sort of summer vacation this year -- this from a survey by the Gallup organization and the worst showing in the poll's 28 years. 25% of US workers get no paid vacation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a huge increase from the 5% in 1998 and 33% only get 7 days including a weekend.

How does this compare with the Europeans. The British get 50% more vacation than Americans and the French and Italians get twice as much.

Some US companies are fighting back - for example the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, has taken to shutting down its entire national operation twice a year to ensure that people stop working — for about 10 days over Christmas, and 5 days or so around the Fourth of July. Rockwell Collins also closes down over Christmas, a benefit for which Pierre and I are very grateful!

So can the US workforce maintain their competitiveness by simply working harder or eventually will it suck all of the creative juices out of us?

Here's my theory. All of the great designer furniture comes from Italy - B&B Italia, need I say more? And US designers scurry around like lunatics at the end of July trying to get all their orders in so that they will be first on the list when the Italians return from their month long factory closedown in August. Maybe, just maybe, as the Italians lie on some beach in the Adriatic in their skimpy Speedos and bikinis, they allow the left sides of their brains to imagine great new furniture designs and return refreshed and at their creative peak after their month long vacation.

As I said - that's my theory and I am sticking to it. And I hope our new sofa arrives soon!

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive