ANNUAL LEAVE

[aconroy]

We all love 'em ... I was just wondering (being nosey actually !!) how many days holiday your organisation grant you.

Having worked in my present job since leaving school (10 years .... eeek!), I am interested to compare annual leave entitlement.

I am entitled to 25 days for my 10 years service.

Is this about the norm?

AJC

[aberdeensecretaries]

In response.........

In the UK - the correct entitlement is 4 weeks annual leave per annum (European Legislation).  Public Holidays are given purely at the discretion of your employer - although many firms allow 8 days as a 'usual' (many employees think these are an entitlement, but they are wrong) - although I know of council employees building up between 10-12 per annum!

As for myself - having now worked with this company for 22 years - I get no extra entitlement for the years of work.

I have heard of people (secretarial/admin based) accruing up to around 6 weeks plus public holidays as a maximum allowance though.

Pam

 www.Aberdeen-Secretaries.co.uk  

DeskDemon Forum Board Staff

[smitkit]

Different parts of our business allow different amounts of leave, so that they can be competitive employers in the different locations.  Having said that, 26 days in the maximum (not including Bank Holidays) and 20 the minimum.  Mine goes up at 1 year, 3year and 10 years of service to 21, 23, 25.

Smitkit

[mlm668]

I get one week of paid vacation, 40 hours of sick leave per calendar year which can be accrued and the usual paid holidays (New Years Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving plus day after and Christmas Day).  However, our company normally shuts down for a total of 5 days (sometimes less) during the Christmas season - depends on  the day of the week Christmas falls on.  Also, because I work for a small company, they are more flexible about my taking personal time to take care of business or attend school functions.  For example:  the week my daughters have their dance recital, I am allowed to leave early to get them to rehearsal if I need to and to take a few hours off on that Friday to prepare for the first night.  Since I would normally use my second week of vacation for these types of things at my previous employer, it works out great for me.

Michelle

[jewels6567]

When I started with my current company (last year) I negotiated for 25 days of leave per year but I am an exempt employee that gets no overtime.  

[donnap99]

Over here our vacation/annual leave time, as a rule, doesn't hold a candle to our European counterparts.  To get 4 weeks vacation at most places it takes 7-10 years of service.  Most companies begin with only 1 week (maybe 2) for the first few years.

As for me, I work at a university whose time is quite generous:  12 sick days, 2 weeks vacation first year - then 3 weeks years 2-6, then 4 weeks years 7+, plus 8 holidays.  

My brother has worked at the same place for... 21 years - he's middle management, and gets 2 weeks vacation, they close only for the most major holidays (Thankgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day), and he has no sick time.  Therefore, if he's sick, he either gets docked (not paid) or has to charge himself a vacation day.  Oh - and he didn't get the 2 weeks until he had been there 10 years - in years 0-9 it ws only 1 week.

Now I have a whole 'nother issue with my vacation time -- that I have to charge myself vacation days for the Jewish holidays I observe.  I don't even do them all - as it is I take 8 days - 2 for Rosh Hashana, 1.5 for Yom Kippur, and 4.5 for Passover.  And Passover sometimes suffers if I don't have enough days accrued.  In the 6 years I've been here, last summer was the first time we (my family) had the opportunity to take an entire week's vacation - where I had accrued an entire week and my husband had as well.  It was incredibly nice to have a REAL vacation!

In 9 short months I will begin accruing vacation time at a 4-weeks-per-year rate.  I can hardly wait!



DonnaP99

[countrigal]

I get all the Federal holidays as paid holidays, and then we earn AL at various hours/pay period.  From 1-5 years it's 4 hours/payperiod for a total of approximately 9 days AL/year.  From 6-14 years it's 6 hours/payperiod for a total of approximately 13 days AL/year.  And 15+ years earns you 8 hours/payperiod for approximately 17 days AL/year.  And then the last pay period of the year we normally get a little extra leave if you're in the lower leave brackets.  We get paid every 2 weeks, so it can add up quickly.  Everyone earns 4 hours Sick Leave per pay period, no matter how long you've worked here.

CountriGal
Deskdemon Editorial Board Member

[spitfire78]

I passed my 20th anniversary this past summer, so it's hard for me to remember how quickly our vacation accrues.  I think by the time you are here 3 years, you are entitled to the full amount.  Which is great for the newcomers, but kind of sad for those who stick around.  I achieved my full amount of vacation 17 years ago and have no hope of ever accruing any more, even if I'm here another 20 years!

That said, I am certainly not complaining about the amount of time we are awarded.  We are awarded 2 vacation days per month which you can accumulate up to 24 days.  If you have 24 days in your "bank", you cannot accrue any more vacation time until you use some.  In addition, we are closed the week between Christmas and New Years (this is an extra vacation and does not come from our vacation time).  We also have the following holidays:  Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after).

Our sick time is accumulated at a rate of 1 day per month.  You can accumulate up to 90 days in your "bank" of sick time.  Beyond that, we also have short and long term disability.

[jahdra]

We have 18 days vacation/sick leave for the first 5 years or up to pay grade 9, after 5 years or upon reaching pay grade 10 or higher, 25 days, after 10 years, 28 days. We have a use it or lose it policy and they strictly enforced it this last calendar year.
We have 7 paid holidays: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after and Christmas Day.

[sueg22]

For non-exempt workers:

Years 1 - 4 - 2 weeks vacation
Years 5 - 14 - 3 weeks vacation
Years 15 - 25 - 4 weeks vacation
Over 25 years - 5 weeks vacation

We also get 8 days for personal time and illness (your own or your family's)

We do get the standard 10 US bank holidays too.  

So I guess it's pretty good, provided you don't get sick after using your 8 days because school is closed or snow days or something.  Then you wouldn't get paid until disability kicks in (another 8 days).

It seems Europe is more generous with the vacation/leave time -- how do we get that to catch on over here?  

[vegasadmin]

Most places I've worked (I'm in the US) have had what I consider typical days off:  about six holidays, 1 week's vacation after one year, 3-5 sick days.  Some have been more generous (1 week of vacation after six months with another week after a year and two a year thereafter, and up to 10 days sick time).  I've worked for some companies who are far less generous.  Where I work now, there are no paid days off of any kind - we had holiday pay but it stopped after Labor Day last year because the business is having such financial problems.  (We went from 17 people in the shop to six and most of our bills are unpaid.  We're getting more work and money is starting to come in again, so maybe the shop won't go out of business - it remains to be seen.)  My boss thinks vacation is silly - he doesn't take it himself - and he's lost at least one very good employee because he wouldn't offer one week's paid vacation.  (Why am I still  here?  It's a long, detailed story, some of the details being that my boss was, until October, my stepfather and because I can get unpaid time off pretty much whenever I want it.  I really want to go to Texas and visit my sister this spring, so I'm trying to hold out but don't know if I can.)

About vacation time in Europe:  a couple of years ago, I worked with an Italian-American woman who spent lots of time in Italy with her cousins.  She told me that they told her that, though they're legally entitled to several weeks of vacation a year, they actually can't use much of them because if they do, their employers will be angry at them missing so much work and find a reason to fire them.  Is this true in other European countries?  Is it really true in Italy, or did Grazie's cousins just have really horrible employers?

[raindance]

The vacation where I work is 25 days per annum plus eight public holidays and two privilege holidays to be taken in conjunction with the public holidays.  This entitlement is for every employee, regardless of status, although in the first year of employment employees are entitled to two days' vacation per month of service (plus public holidays as they occur).  As for sick leave allowance - that depends on length of service, but it is documented and return-to-work interviews after sick leave are not unknown.

Raindance