below86 (12/19/2013)
majorbloodnock (12/19/2013)
Jim Youmans-439383 (12/19/2013)
At my last job, we had a use it or lose it policy. If you did not use your two weeks, then you lost it. The bad part was that if you tried to take more than a 4 day weekend (Friday - Monday) your manager would make a big deal out of it and try to guilt you into not doing it. The one time I did take a week off, I got called every day and had to log in twice to fix something. It was a horrid place and I am very glad I do not work there anymore.My new position is much better and I am looking forward to my vacation this summer!
It's posts like that which remind me of my good fortune.
In the UK, four weeks is the norm, and the flexible benefits package in the company where I work allows us to buy extra to take it up to a maximum of six weeks per year. That aside, holiday is not a privilege; it's a contractual right. Once again, in the UK, the scenario Jim's post outlines would very likely have constituted harrassment and landed the company in court.
From my point of view, if a company cannot do without someone long enough for them to take a holiday, they have a critical single point of failure and that person's manager isn't doing their job properly.
"Four weeks is the norm"? No matter if you've been there a year or 20 years?
They seem to have the right idea about this in the UK. I'm going to have to check out the job market over there.:-)
I'm not completely sure about this but I think the minimum statutory holiday leave here in the UK is 15 days. Bank Holidays (first Monday in May, last Monday in May, last Monday in August in England, differences in Scotland, Northern Ireland and possibly Wales) can be included in those 15 days, although that's not usual. Typically leave increases with service. When I was an employee at the place I know freelance, I had 30 days plus Bank Holidays plus Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, so 38 days in total, with reasonable sick leave on top of that (it's normal to have to provide a doctor's certificate if one is off for more than two days or more than one day either side of a weekend).