Do you take leave?

[countrigal]

Following up on the post of the hours you work... and following a commercial that is now airing in the US thanking employees for not taking their leave because it saves the company money (or something to that affect) and remembering reading somewhere that Americans are the worst at taking leave they earned, while Japanese are the best at balancing their leave and work, I thought I'd bring it to this forum and see what my peers say from around the world.  In the same article, I remember reading that Americans tend to earn more leave than most countries, except for Japan, but that we take less of it than any other country, negating the positive seen in earning the leave in my opinion.

How much leave do you get per year, not including paid holidays?  Do you take all the leave you earn each year or do you have a balance at the end of the year that is either sold back to the company or is simply lost because you didn't take it?  Or do you take every bit of leave they'll give you and are willing to take more if given the chance?  Where do you fall in this effort of balancing leave and work?  

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[elkiedee]

An advert thanking employees for not taking leave? That's OUTRAGEOUS (sorry to shout). Is that from a particular company?

Luci

[laurafmcdermott]

CG, I guess that ad isn't running up here, haven't heard of it.

I get 15 vacation days, 10 sick days and 2 personal days per year.  I take all of the vacation, because we have a "use it or lose it" policy, no carry-over or payout.  The sick days I do carry over, and usually only use 3 or 4 per year, this system is meant to replace a non-existant short term disability policy.  Personal days also don't carry over so I use those as well, ususally for a nice "mental health" day.

[juspeachy]

I earn the max leave for Civil Service employees (26 days a year).  Normally, I manage to take enough so that I don't have to worry about "use or lose."  However, this year, I'm still carrying 30 hours of "use or lose."  I'm not worried about it yet, since I anticipate being able to use it before the end of the calendar year by taking a day here and there or a week or more at Christmas.  



JusPeachy

[beaintheuk]

I think this should show the great difference between the two continents!!!!  Interesting question indeed!!!!

Here (UK) I have 24 paid holiday days + 8 Bank Holidays.

It's also 'use or lose' so I take all my holidays.

We also have a few sick days allowance a year (after one year's service).  

Bea

[hgray]

I'm in the UK too.

I get 25 days holiday per year + the normal Bank Holidays, Christmas etc.
We get an additional day at Christmas which we have to take either Christmas Eve or New Years Eve.

We are allowed to carry maximum 5 outstanding days over to the next year which has to be used within 3 months - any more has to have senior management approval with justification.

Mostly I try to use as much of my holiday as possible during the year - it's re-assuring knowing I won't lose it as soon as the year ends though in case for whatever reason I haven't used all my days.

H  

[charity]

In the UK too.

I get 28 days and are allowed to carry over 5 days maximum.  If it is 6 - 10 days you need to carry over - you have to put a case to your Departmental Head with an indication as to when you intend to take the leave.

[catsmeat]

I get 25 days plus all the standard UK bank holidays.  As a bonus, I also get an extra day off around Christmas (varies) and the Tuesday after Easter.

I take it all! - can carry over 5 days into the next year, as long as it's taken within January (or, unofficially, at my manager's discretion).  January doesn't tend to be a good time to take it for me but I make sure it's all taken in February.

[countrigal]

The commercial is actually full of sarcasm, making a point that you earn the leave and should take it.  That you are only helping the company and not yourself (and then not a whole lot of help to them if you burn out earlier because of not taking leave).  It's trying to make a point that is hard to address here in America where the mentality tends to be that if you use leave you're less focused business-wise, or so the story goes.  May be only for those dedicated to making advances up the corporate ladder, and not neccessarily affect us Admins, but wanted to ask.  Also wanted to see if the thinking varies between countries regarding taking leave.  Are you seen as less dedicated if you use all your leave versus losing some at the end of the year "because you were too busy", thus impressing upper management with your dedication to them?

(the commercial is airing on my DirectTV, so may be only on satelite, or only with them, or only for the Southern area... I just know that everytime I see it, it reminds me that I have leave and should use it guilt-free.)

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

Edited by countrigal on 27/05/04 04:58 PM.

[newtofl]

I'm in the US.  I have been with the company for almost 2 years and get 10 days vacation - accrued at 6.67 days per month and I cannot use time that I have not already accrued (which means my vacation next month can only be 3 days since that is all of the time I have left that I have accrued).  I also get 40 hours of sick time to be used for doctors appointments for myself or my family or if I need to call in sick (but I don't do that since it is counted as a bad mark - you cannot really be sick).  We also get 9 paid holiday days.  When I am with the company for 5 years I will get 15 days of vacation.  We can carry over vacation days only and only a couple of days worth.

[raindance]

I'm in the UK.  All our leave is paid, although I expect we could take unpaid leave if we needed it.  My company has the same holiday allowance for everyone in the organization: 25 days' holiday, plus eight Bank Holidays and two privilege days.  Holidays are important for one's health and sanity.  I try to space mine out so that roughly every quarter I have a break of some sort.  

Raindance

[gee4]

In the past I have been lucky enough in the public sector to get 25 days leave plus 8 stats.

Private companies normally offer 20 days plus the stats.  I find it's a tight squeeze to manage on 20 when you have to set aside 3 for Xmas!

G

[carrielgreen]

Hi all,

I only get the minimum holiday allowance of 20 days holiday (Everyone gets a minimum of 20 days paid holiday pro rata in the UK) plus bank holidays (which employers are not obliged to give as holiday paid or otherwise).

But luckily we do get the days between Christmas and the New Year off (which this year is a full week – yippee), but we're on an on-call rota.

As a small company any unexpected time-off e.g.sickness is disruptive. So we dont have any allocated number of paid sick days.

My Mum works as an admin in the steel industry and has to keep a couple of her 20 days to take between Christmas and the New Year – stingy boss or what. They even asked her to use some holiday when her father passed away recently - not v.compassionate - she is currently looking for a new job.

[Katie G]

Darn right I take it!  Actually, the organization I'm with now frowns on NOT taking leave (and I'm in the US).  But I'm with a university, so maybe they have a different view of things.  

I know that the company I worked for before here (over 5 years ago) gave a paltry 5 vacation days a year until you had worked there 3 years.  By the time I took a day for Christmas Eve, a day for some testing at the hospital, a day for the funeral of my best friend's father, and a day for surgery on an immediate family member, well, I ended up with one day for myself.  I planned it, took it, and it rained!  Not very good, if you ask me.

[sobriquetnic]

I get the maximum amount of leave my company gives which is 25 days a year - one of these has to be Christmas Eve so I guess it's really more like 24!

We get all the Bank Holidays/Christmas/New Year days.  We do not have allocated sick days as such but after a year you do get paid for them.  Prior to a year's service, our staff have to choose whether to take sick days unpaid or to work the time back.

I work quite a few additional hours so can get some lieu time back very occassionally.

We work on a 'use it or lose it' policy too - bad luck for me as I let 10 days go last year!  Every time I tried to take holiday, it just seemed to clash with someone else!  I managed to get a lot of time off over Christmas and New Year though which was fantastic.

This year, I have already taken 11 days, so hopefully I'll do better in 2004!

All the best,
Nicola.