No, companies do not care and they have no imperative to do so (old-guard companies, at least). That's why its perfectly OK to call them out on their crap and take your holidays when you need them. If they're a big company, their cost/benefit will probably run lower than cost/benefit to your sanity (and your partners sanity, and your family, and your friends etc etc.). Being a grown up means you take what you need, because like your own life, a companies existence is temporary and (likely) meaningless. It's not a badge of honor to run yourself into the ground for some brand-x corporate. The US is way off, culturally, in this regard. Wanna screw the 1%, fight for and take your holidays, that's a really good start! :D
(disclosure: 4-6 weeks off foreigner in the US going what the hell to 2 weeks leave+no perf. bonus. Its bullshit, I don't get why people roll over and just take it. Love punishment? Validated by being victims? What the hell)
People accept the current situation for two reasons:
1. Protestant Work Ethic (work is morally good, not-work is morally bad, therefore do work)
2. Capitalism race to the bottom (if you take 2 vacation days, the company can fire you and hire someone who will take only one, then fire him for someone who will take none)
It really, really sucks. But if you get any ideas about standing up for your rights or organizing your labor, remember that the nail that stands up is hammered down. That, plus most coworkers will look at you bug-eyed if you propose that working conditions can be improved by worker organization and negotiation with employers-- after all, they're just trying to do their part and earn their portion, not get involved in some scary organized/unionized/socialist political mess.
There's not even a cultural foundation to build something like a campaign for more sensible vacation policy. Indeed, the cultural foundation is predisposed against such things.
I have never seen someone fired or heard about someone fired for taking vacations, at least not in the industry I work in. I have, however, read a lot of history of unionized workforces having lavish vacation and sick policies (e.g. one municipality has to fire entire police force due to unions becoming unmanageable - at any given day, 1/3 of workforce was out of work[1]) and pension costs destroying local budgets and pushing them into bankruptcy. Another municipality had to pay union teacher 40K to leave since he was accused of 23 instances of sexual assault on students but it still wasn't possible to fire him. "Rubber rooms" for such people in NY are notorious. Here's another guy[2] who has $110K salary and well-protected union rights - he is a criminal and a fraud, and yet he and his union sued the state and won not only his job back but back pay. And he also works in correctional system. The press is flooded with such cases, this is just a random sample.
Thank you very much, I do not want any of this crap nowhere near me.
In my first job doing software development I never quite realized you were supposed to inform them about vacations etc; I didn't even know about the concept of vacation days (I guess they must have told me when I started but maybe I wasn't listening...). So I'd just take off for two or three weeks whenever there was nothing big pending and I happened to feel like a break.
To their great credit (in my eyes!), nobody ever said a thing about this. Just before I left I found out that the receptionist had taken to noting down when I came in just so they had some sort of record of which days I worked (so I guess they missed the days I came in after 5pm, but hey).
Sadly, I am now aware of vacation days, and duly check with my manager before taking time off... TT
(disclosure: 4-6 weeks off foreigner in the US going what the hell to 2 weeks leave+no perf. bonus. Its bullshit, I don't get why people roll over and just take it. Love punishment? Validated by being victims? What the hell)