Over here in Germany where everybody has at least 3 weeks paid time off (being ill does not count to this contingent btw), it is common that leaves are planned in the beginning of the year for larger vacations, so there are no collisions.

Also, if you have children you have priority during school breaks for paied leaves.

This concept could be copied by us employers also, I wonder why not? Maybe because this way you can pressure your employees with your vacation as leverage

And in this system, it is common courtesy to make effort to make sure your team has as few problems as possible from your absence. Of course it is also common courtesy that you are not contact for anything work related during your vacation time.

All of this is possible in North America, but you need a union job.

My day-job is a unionionized Managed Services gig subsidiary of a larger company. The rest of the company fits a stereotype we see in the deLoittes and IBM Pro Servs of the world, but the union contract gives us a sane bit of breathing room:

• 9x9 ‘compressed’ time so you get one day off each week regardless
• statutory holidays are sacred
• OT for weekend work, but it quickly goes double-time so it’s rare; and holidays are 2.5x quickly
• standby time is paid. Call-outs are paid.
• mandated remote work capability. It’s in the union contract, guys, so we can Work From Home Office or Work From HQ as best suits us

The combo of compressed time, stats and careful placement of my 21 vacation days this year will give me 7 carefully-placed weeks off; it’s not contiguous, but it’s really great.