Is twenty-nine days off work (for various reasons) "generous"?

GRALISTAIR said:

I suppose there is no point me whining I only get 15 days in the USA plus public holidays?

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Though, it is pretty ridiculous that most employers there require you to work for a full year before you're entitled to any time off.

GRALISTAIR said:

I suppose there is no point me whining I only get 15 days in the USA plus public holidays?

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That was what I got when starting my first two jobs in the 1960s (UK) - and some lower grades got only 10 days (both plus BH). In my 2nd & 3rd jobs, annual leave increased according to your length of service

I've just stumbled across this thread, and it's interesting to see some people don't get as much holiday time entitlement as me and my squad do. I don't remember off-hand how much I get (I'm sure it's mentioned in some paperwork, but where I put said paperwork is a whole other matter) but it's at least 28 paid days off a year. That's for each of us, it used to be every 5 years of service gained an extra holiday day, but that was changed to level the playing field.

Instead of building up extra days off, the more hours we do in the previous 3 or 6 months prior, the more holiday pay we get per hour when we're on holiday time. Certainly handy if you're one of those people who do overtime regularly, the holiday pay rate I get is usually a reasonable amount over my normal hourly rate. Which I prefer to earning extra days off, I can barely use the ones I have now let alone any extra ones! Which does remind me that I need to get some extra hours in pretty soon, so I can bump up my holiday pay rate in January some more! Don't get me wrong, it's not huge amounts of extra pay, usually a matter of pence, but as they say look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

Sick leave I've never really got my head around, I think in the last 12 months as of today I've now had 2 days off sick. We lose the first 3 days of being off on sick, after which depending on what it is we're off with then it can be paid time off. Again, I don't know that bit well enough, generally speaking when I'm ill it's usually on rest days or holiday time, so I rarely have to call it in.

Anyway, I wouldn't necesarily call 28 days off a year as generous, or tight-fisted, or whatever. It works for me, and I'm quite happy with my holiday time allowance.

28 days paid holiday for a newbie in my job. 33 for me. Had one day off sick since I started employment in 2007. Could have 12 months off if I wanted. Usually take June off each year. Nobody cares as long as my work gets done.

26 days annual leave here, I don't consider that especially generous.

Looking forward to the time 4 day a week season tickets or similar are available.

These rules around sick leave are crazy. Good management should do this without the need for arbitrary limits.

PeterC said:

There were still employers giving season ticket loans when I retired in 2011. HMRC apply a notional interest rate to determine the value. This has always been treated as a taxable "benefit in kind". There is a fairly generous floor limit below which benefits in kind aren't taxed and a season ticket loan on its own should be well below this. If there are other benefits the liability can be minimised by starting the loan early in the fiscal year.

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Season ticket loans by employers are still very common, and I know that some central London employers, including TfL, also offer a 75% reimbursement on annual season tickets because without such an incentive they wouldn't be able to attract staff.

initiation said:

26 days annual leave here, I don't consider that especially generous.

Looking forward to the time 4 day a week season tickets or similar are available.

These rules around sick leave are crazy. Good management should do this without the need for arbitrary limits.

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24 to 26 plus bank holidays has been pretty much the norm in companies that I have worked for. The most generous were clearing banks which had a very hierarchical approach. As an IT specialist my salary put me straight into the lower of the two management scales and qualified for 28 days. The higher scale would have been 33.

I too worked in IT industry and at my level with a few years under my belt, 30 + 2 1/2 + B/Hs was the norm.

In my previous job, anyone classed as management got 25 days + bank holidays, rising by one day per year up to a max of 30. And you could buy or sell five days. So after a few years you could get 40 days plus bank holidays. But wait...

Any required Sunday attendance (even if just for an hour) garnered an additional day of TOIL. Since I often had to travel on Sundays for 9am Monday starts I think I once was due 56 days leave in year (and this was without buying any additional days)!

What are bank holidays , although admittedly I do get at December and January off (but don't get paid) my job means that I generally have to work harder both leading up to and on bank holidays. When radio stations and the like mention the long weekend esp. over Easter I think to myself "what long weekend?" as the only day off I get over the weekend (and any weekend once the park is open) is Sunday!
I do know that if you are salaried then you are supposed to take most of December off for holiday as the park is technically shut then with only some security team kept on as far as I am aware.

HE is very much a different world to the rest of the working world when it comes to leave, it seems.

If I did my current role as a permie, I'd get 42 days by default. 10 days are purchasable on top of that (for 1/260 salary each) to produce a total of 52 days.

For TfL office staff it's presented as 7.6 weeks, which for a normal office job works out at 30 days, plus BHs. Five extra days can be bought. It's a contracted 35 hour week, but there's no overtime or time in leiu. You do the hours required for the job and don't get recompense. Certainly when I worked there everyone did well over their contracted hours.

GRALISTAIR said:

I suppose there is no point me whining I only get 15 days in the USA plus public holidays?

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Are you allowed to buy extra leave, or take unpaid leave?

Adam Williams said:

HE is very much a different world to the rest of the working world when it comes to leave, it seems.

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What is HE? Highways England?

radamfi said:

Are you allowed to buy extra leave, or take unpaid leave?

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Straight answer - no

radamfi said:

What is HE? Highways England?

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Higher education.

Goldfish62 said:

For TfL office staff it's presented as 7.6 weeks, which for a normal office job works out at 30 days, plus BHs. Five extra days can be bought. It's a contracted 35 hour week, but there's no overtime or time in leiu. You do the hours required for the job and don't get recompense. Certainly when I worked there everyone did well over their contracted hours.

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There is the option of doing ambassador duties where you're paid an hourly rate or can claim an enhanced rate of TOIL. Demand for shifts is somewhat competitive.

TOIL isn't completely dead everywhere either!