Holiday entitlement

Can you buy some extra for your birthday?

You've prompted me to check my current balance. I'll be taking around 230 hours off that LSL allowance in summer though:

Recreation Leave
16.64 Hours

Long Service Leave
491.79

Sick Leave
609.59 Hours

Rostered Day Off
-3.2 Hours

I wonder how i've got a negative balance?

Have you not got the option to buy more annual leave?

When I was a postie, we got 4.5 weeks on entry plus bank holidays; an extra day after five years service; an extra week after fifteen years and six weeks total at 20 years.

No leave allowed late November until Xmas Day.

But after being there a year, we could buy extra to have six weeks plus bank holidays.

Go on depress me further, how much do you get?

365 days.

Dilema, big birthday this year, thought I’d treat myself to booking it and another day off.

Big birthday last yr, took nine weeks off that straddled the end of year so only had to take 2 days unpaid leave, but did have no paid leave for rest of the yr

Nine weeks. Now that is a big birthday!

Are you getting about 20 days plus bank holidays. The enforced Xmas shut down out of leave is a bit poor.

I'm in HE and get 35 days, plus bank holidays and an additional 3-5 days over Christmas depending upon where Christmas falls.

I do use them, mainly as long weekends during better weather to go camping and biking etc. They were a godsend when the kids were young so I could cover half term etc as wife worked with just 20 days hols.

I don't understand people who do not take their full holiday allowance.

That's just weird in my opinion.

In my last job, it was slightly complicated due to shift patterns. Basically I worked for five, twelve-hour days, had four days off, then work another five days. Then I’d have five days off, work four twelve hour days then have five days off, rinse and repeat. On top of that, we had twenty five paid days holiday, plus a paid day off for our birthday, and a Wellbeing Day we could take any time we wanted.
That was a lot of time off! One of the best jobs I ever had! [img] [/img]

it was slightly complicated due to shift patterns

Sounds very nice. I'd be worried about turning up on the wrong day! 🙂

I knew someone that worked on a 28-day 12 hours, followed by 14 days off. That 28 days would go pretty slow I reckon.

Oooh, you just reminded me that I get an extra day for long service next month. ?

I've  a mate who works shifts.  We usually do a weekend away biking, add on a day or two, but he has to pre-book his time off 6-9 months ahead, so we usually end up, he can do this weekend or that weekend.  I never plan that far ahead.

I get around 190 hours. Includes public holidays. So around 23 days. But I work 22 hours a week so worth around 40 days for full time equivalent. Just booked my last leave except 1 day kept for emergencies. I took the days I had left in March in the hope the weather is better and the certainty of more daylight. Only working about 5 days in March.

I work shifts so during the year my strategy is to only take leave when I am nightshift to try and reduce the number I do. Ever so often I can take 16 hours leave and get 7 days off.

Don't know how I managed to work full time, and more, for decades

Just reading posts since mine has reminded me of a quirk, we were supposed to book the following tax year's leave by end of October the previous year, called into the office in rotation to pick two weeks at a time (different order each year for 3/4 year cycles).

So I was often booking a late March holiday ~17 months in advance! 😮

...but he has to pre-book his time off 6-9 months ahead,...

This does my head in. I've always been able to book my time off last minute if needed but, every October,  Mrs Vlad has to book 85% of her annual leave for the following year. I dread the days I get a call from her asking what our holiday plans are "next year"...and she gets a shit ton of time off

27 days full entitlement plus 8 BH

I can carry over or buy up to 5 extra; this year just finished as a special we were allowed to sell up to 5 days back as long as we kept 26.

So I started with 27 plus 5 c/o = 32, I used 26, sold 3 and kept 3 into this year so I have 30 to take this year.

I'd normally try to at least use my 27+8 but the option to sell towards a big medical bill was useful.

I get 25 days. In 2024, I had five trips/holidays planned, cancelled four of them as I couldn’t get away from work. Ended up with 12 days untaken after I’d frittered as many as I could on gardening and ‘riding a bicycle’. Feel a bit stupid.

36 + Bank Hols + Birthday off.

I have been carrying forward 10 days for as long as I can remember, and sometimes book a days leave to get work done without interruption. I don't mind doing this as I know it's a generous allowance.

34 days + 6BH's + bought an extra 5 days.  As I work shifts the BH's just get added to my holiday allowance.

My BIL is a Postie, don’t know how much actual holiday he gets but I do know he can’t choose his time off. It’s allocated.

Self employed = non.  Cry me a river.

26 days + public holidays for me, can also buy or sell up to 3 days but needs to be done at the start of the year which is annoying. We also have to book certain percentages of our entitlement by certain points of the year but there's no penalty for cancelling later so every one just books random weeks off to stop getting nagged by management and cancel/rebook when they actually want to take them, not sure why management think it helps them plan better. I quite often find I was supposed to be off all week when I come to do my timesheet on a Friday (but can still just cancel that randomly booked leave).

I've had a few years (a while back) when I wouldn't use all my leave, I'm in a project based role so always felt guilty taking time off if it messed with project milestones etc. I don't anymore!

30 + buy 5 + 5 rolled over+ bank holidays. The thing with buying is it makes you really want to make the absolute most of your PTO as you've seen how much you're losing to have the day off

I tried to find statistics to show what the average holiday entitlement was, to see if it was more (I suspect so), but searchFU failed me.

well 5.6 weeks is the statutory minimum = 28 days for most employees.  Sounds like what you have?

if you are on the legal minimum and some people are on more then you must be on less than average.  A lot of people will be on 28 days, 30-35 is quite common.  Many public sector roles would be more like 28+ bank holidays.  Some are even more generous

30 plus bank holidays. I have 13 days left to take, allowed to carry 5 over officially. There’s no way I’ll get the time off before end of March so agreed I’ll carry 10 over and take 3 at half term. Have a big holiday this year, partners significant birthday so taking most of June/July off.

As Poly says that sounds like statutory minimum. And having to take 8 of your paid leave days for Christmas shutdown is really harsh. My partner's industry has a shutdown from Christmas Eve to New Years Day, so 4 days forced and we get annoyed at that! He currently has 25 days + 8 public holidays, I have 27 + 8 public holidays. My minimum when I first started working in a professional job was 22 + public, my max in University sector was 30 leave days + bank holidays + 5-6 closure days. I do use mine, but sometimes carry over 5 days to have a winter holiday. I can see why some people don't use it if they have a big allowance - some people prefer being paid back.

OP can I ask what industry you are in? I really don't think I would cope with only 12 days with freedom to choose 'when'.

I actually have a bug bear at my current workplace, I like to book holidays well ahead to get good rates / deals, but our 'vulnerable' periods at Christmas, Easter, and school summer holidays we have to agree cover in the team and it only gets decided about 1 month ahead. So I am booking holidays with a risk I may get asked to work... hoping it never materialises lol.

Think I get 23 or 24 + bh's. We have to take some at Christmas but it's usually about 3. I always buy another 5 on salary sacrifice so don't notice it.

29+5 long service +4 shut down Bank holidays at xmas/new year

1 of 3 at the same level so its easlier to get holidays now than when i was a PM.... which basically amounted to never. even on holiday you were solo on the project - even if you handed over there was always something.

I just get the standard 28 days inc Bank Holidays and often have a couple spare at the end of the year!

This stems from 25+ years of being self-employed when I rarely took holidays. Even stat minimum feels a luxury to me! 🙂

And a 'week' off is only five days from holiday allowance. And if you take weekends into account you're basically not at work for over a third of the year.

If I was being forced to take Christmas + bank holidays, I would simply find a new job. Completely unreasonable.

Go on depress me further, how much do you get?

Maxes out at about 43-44, my contract is 30 days plus all BHs, which actually follow a date here, not shifted to the nearest mon/fri, so some years i get 8, (this year i only get 6 though) i also get all the squeeze days, so if a BH is tue/thurs, i get the mon/fri off for free. Means that i got 17 days off over Christmas and new year and only used 2 days holiday allowance.

I don’t understand people who do not take their full holiday allowance.

That’s just weird in my opinion.

When i can get 17 days holiday over Christmas and NYEs for 2 days allowance, and have a flexible schedule it's quite easy to get to the end of the year and have a few left over as i don't count them. A lot of my odd half days off and early finishes don't come out of my allowance. They just happen. Only years i think i've taken my full allowance in the last decade or so was those couple between the parental leave running out and the new 30 day/flexible schedule contract.

Turns out i've got 13 days left to take before the end of march...

Teacher contract is 195 days a year.

The OP is only getting the absolute Statutory Minimum, 28 days INCLUDING Bank Holidays.

I'll be honest, I've never had a job that had so few, mine have always had Bank Holidays added.

Just thinking back (over 40 years of work) and I think the least I've had was 21 days plus Bank Holidays and the most is now 35 days (25 holiday, 1 long service day for +5 years and 9 bank holidays).

I can also buy 5 days, which I use to do before Covid but don't need to anymore as we moved onto flexible working (and as an early starter, dead easy to build up hours) - so add in at least another 20 days a year off as try to work a 9 day fortnight.

Another reason why I've not actually retired yet 🙂

30 days + bank hols. We can buy some extra but I've not had reason to for a while and I think it's only 2 or 3 you can buy.

I used to like to carry a couple of days over in case of December emergencies but they stopped the carry over when they increased our allowance a couple of years ago. Which meant I had to use my emergency days over Christmas this year, which was a novelty, don't normally get time off over Christmas, it was nice.

25 + Bank Holidays with the option to buy up to 10 extra days. I usually buy 5 extra days. We can also carry over up to 8 days from the previous leave year and get the last working day before Christmas off as gift from the company.

The days between Christmas and New Year are shut down so we have to take leave then. It's usually 3 or 4 days.

Don't get paid overtime but can accrue hours and take up to 2 days a month off as 'flexi leave'.

A result this year. I work a 3*12 shift pattern. If I'm off shift on a Bank Holiday I get the day added to my allocation. This year I'm on shift for only one BH, so I end up with 20 days leave which in reality becomes 7 weeks. I work 156 days a year minus those 20 so this year I've only got to navigate 136 days. Hate every minute I'm there but have to remind myself I'm very very much part time.

Another quirk is if I book 6 days off that becomes 21 days off. Done exactly that in June and September. Just got to get there without killing someone!

I just had to check because I wasn't sure and I've crossed the line from 25 to 30 days which explains why I carrried over 5 days without realising. So I've got 7 weeks to play with this year.

That's plus 8 bank holidays and various closure days. I can also buy extra leave or take unpaid time off.

I never do shifts, weekend, overtime etc. When I leave at 5pm on Friday I completley switch my brain off until Monday. All my previous jobs have had none of these things so I fully appreciate the time off and increased flexibility.

26 paid annual leave days, plus 8 public holidays.  2 Well-being days and 2 voulunteering days - so 38 days in total.  I also bought 5 additional days this year and do so whenever an organisation provides this ability - so this takes me up to 43 days.

We have to use days leave between Christmas and New Year as the suppporting business functions close over the period - which this year is 4 days I believe.

I have 26 plus 5 long service, plus 2 for longer service plus BH. I can also buy 5 extra days and usually carry over 5 days. I don't have any enforced holidays like over the Christmas period.

Flour milling was the best for leave for me. due to the pattern we worked 4 years out of 5 I had 90 days leave plus 3 rest days between shifts (day 4 didn't count as that was coming off nights). The fifth year was 108 days leave. Working a 5 day week was a complete change of life that I still haven't got a handle on.

If I was being forced to take Christmas + bank holidays, I would simply find a new job.

presumably the employer is able to “call the shots” here because it is either in an area either low employment competition for this level of skill/pay.  I probably agree with you *I* would leave, but not everyone has the same options.   I would also say, I would rather work somewhere that is good with few holidays than work somewhere that I dreaded so much that the number of days I didn’t have to work was a major attraction.

Completely unreasonable.

If you were American you’d likely consider even the OP’s post quite generous!   It’s the statutory minimum - entirely within the grounds of reasonableness, some employers wouldn’t provide the option for flexibility on the 12 days either - they’d simply shut for two weeks in summer and have another couple of local holidays and be done with it.  As an employer annual leave that people take when they want is actually a PITA.

It’s an issue for employers- give people too little and people complain, give them more and they don’t really seem to appreciate it.  “Well I never take all mine anyway” or “I’d rather have the money” are things I hear.  Christmas is always a pain - people grudge using annual leave, people who work the gap period doss around eating quality street, people who have to work it to provide cover complain they don’t get a break.

26 + 8 x BH days contractual, extra day a month 'reward' day, so 46 in total. private sector. apart from xmas, BH are just added to total so I tend to work them and use the days when I want.

only carried one day this year as I miscalculated and couldn't quite fit it all in. In my old job I used to try and carry over the maximum but then realised if I did that every year it was meaningless.

My first job was. I'm sure, 18 days plus 5 public holidays.  Not only that the workforce was split into 6 groups with only 1/6th allowed off at one time. Three week periods were allocated in the summer. As in 1/6th off last week in JUne and first two in July. 1/6th off 2nd two weeks July, first week in August. 1/6th off last 3 weeks in August.   Half the staff couldn't be sure of getting any holidays during the time their kids were off school in the summer. Your summer holidays might be in May or September.

You would be told which public holidays you were allowed to take off or work.

There was a bit of flex. If you found someone in your group who would swap you were allowed. If you moved groups during the year you had the choice of retaining your old group or taking the one your new post had.

Other crapness. You were not alowed to do a second job. You had to ask permission from the employer to buy a house.

Different times late in the 1970s.

Think I get 23 or 24 + bh’s. We have to take some at Christmas but it’s usually about 3. I always buy another 5 on salary sacrifice so don’t notice it.

I ended up carrying over i had bought last year. Technically i have given myself a bonus. Buy them low use them high ?

You also forgot to mention our bloody awkward entitlement period making it properly grim to tie in with other hosiehold members.

The thing with buying is it makes you really want to make the absolute most of your PTO as you’ve seen how much you’re losing to have the day off.

One of the joys and pains of contracting. As many holidays as you want, within reason, but for each holiday you need to account for the cost of the trip away and the the loss of earnings for the unbillable time.

I usually work 220 days, so about 8 weeks off per year.

Yeah, I know first world problem 🙂

30 + bank holidays

Plus an extra day on top for every 4 years of service and the ability to buy up to five more.

As an employer annual leave that people take when they want is actually a PITA.

Surely you mean as a badly organised employer?

42 days ... xmas/ny, easter and may day come off that and are fixed

there was a poll to staff recently, easter and may day might not be fixed in future

I thought this was going to be about Germans stealing sunbeds at the hotel pool

"people who have to work it to provide cover complain they don’t get a break."

Not me. I worked 25th, 26th, 27th and  30th,  31st DEc, finishing 1am on the first.  Also worked   2nd Jan.  No point working for a 24/7 servce then complaining you need to work out of hours.  All balanced by the fact I can get loads of time off in the summer when outdoor activities are more pleasant.

I think every full time, permanent employee has to be given 5.6 weeks by UK law don't they?  It's pro-rata for PT staff.

I get the minimum, plus 1, plus 2-3days for site shutdown at Christmas and 8days BH.  I also have the option of working a 4 days week, but never seem to find the time (Daffy - at work (but not working right now) on a non-work Friday).  We have the option to sell 5, carry 5  and take non-paid sabbaticals for up to 1 year.

Started to pay monthly into a good private pension when I was 20, combined it with work pensions.

Took early very retirement last year and life is good.

12 years left to enjoy before state pension kicks in.

So, like Drac I also get 365 days holiday a year and no Sunday evening, here comes another Monday dread feeling any more.

25 plus bank holiday. If I'm on standby for the bank holiday, I get a day off in lieu whether I'm called out or not.

No forced dates for taking leave but there's only two of us qualified to do what we do so no time off when there's a big planned job.

However, there's only 5 days sick leave per year so most people tend to keep some leave in their back pocket just in case. That always leads to a scramble to use it all up by the end of the year which is our busiest time.

Good question! I need to check as I just changed my week from 5 days to 4.

It was something like: 25 days + 2 extra days for duration of service + 5 extra days I 'buy' + 1 day for 'charitable works' + public holidays

Now I expect it'll be something like: 20 + 2 + 5 + '1' + 8. TBC.

Holiday year runs from January. Maximum carry over 5 days to be used by April.

The January start for the holiday year caused some occasional planning confusion with my SO as their's ran from April. Not a problem now they've retired 😐

33 days + bank holidays + week for Christmas. I can take unpaid leave and due to long service can have a bonus 6 months unpaid "career break". Taking 3 months off this year to go and hang out in Spanish mountains. I used to have 6 months off every year so feel a bit short of holidays still.

Officially 32 days + 8 BH + 3 days in lieu of the old civil service Tuesday BH. In practice, because I now predominantly work a 4 day week, on call and 24/7 cover and both job plan and leave are now calculated in 4 hour blocks, I get 322 hours + the 8 BH. It works out as around 31 days or 7.75 weeks plus the BH,

It's not quite as complicated as the summary suggests.

My bit of the NHS, started with 27 days plus the Bank Holidays, after 5 years of service that goes up to 29+BH, after 10 years service 32+BH.  I'm on 29+Bank Hols at the moment despite having been here 14 years: Fortunately or unfortunately, I was a contractor for the first 5 and for other admin reasons they wouldn't put me through as 'time served'.

I have none left for this financial year...

@prettygreenparrot - I also switched from 5 days a week to 4 last year.

The way my leave has been calculated is to pro-rata the whole lot - i.e. 80% of 34 (25 annual + 1 long service + 8 bank hols) = 27.

If I want to purchase leave I can only purchase 80% of what FTEs can - i.e. 4 days not 5. but obviously that still gives me a full week essentially.

I actually managed to balls up my own leave calculations by counting some of the days off by mistake and ended up unintentionally not booking as much as I could.  On the plus side, the leave system worked this out for me so I had 5 days to carry over to this year.

20 + bh up until last year when I campaigned to get the three of us in our office on the old entitlement updated to the same as there test of the organisation on 25 + bh.

Currently working as an agency driver so it's calculated pro-rata on how much work I get!  Works out at maximum 28 days a year plus I don't generally work bank holidays so it's generous, add in that I can book time off with a week's notice and it's one of the few perks of being with an agency.

My last full-time job was 25 days but no bank holiday working, 3 days had to be sued for the shutdown between Christmas and New Year.  People forget that you are only entitled to x amount of days, not that you can choose when they happen.  Most employers will have either a mix or all by request but they can legally allocate it all for you.  Ask any factory worker where there is planned shutdowns etc.

The best I've ever had though was my job pre-Covid.  28 days by request with Lieu days earned for working a Bank Holiday.  I dropped to a 4 day week a few years in and thought I'd lose 20% of my allowance but only lost 10%, actually a net gain.  My boss used to allow me to book the odd day or two off at short notice (meant to be a minimum of 6 week's notice) as I would do a lot of favours for him working crappy shifts and covering emergency jobs, to the point that I could pretty much dictate my roster to him.  It got so good that if any of my mates were going biking midweek I could pretty much guarantee I could too with a quick call to my boss and shifting things around, amazing when the roster was posted 4 weeks in advance and for almost everyone else was fixed.  It meant I didn't 'waste' holiday entitlement on small trips and as we weren't allowed to carry over holiday from one year to the next and the holiday year ran Jan 1st to Dec 31st so I would usually end up with 'enforced' holiday time in the run-up to Christmas.  Never had it so good and probably never will again.

so you get 20 plus bank holidays, but xmas shut down takes some of those days, that's crap

I get 30 (5 long service) and a birthday I;ve rolled over 5 days since I started and now buying 5 days

so 36 with option to use 5 spares ill more than likely roll over..

Private sector, 25 0r 26 (can't remember), plus birthday plus BH. 1 extra day after each 5 years of service up to a max of 28. Wife works in hospitality and gets 36 inc BHs.

Teacher so plenty of holiday 🙂

13 weeks + the occasional BH.

I also get a work life balance day, and as a school we normally we have 2 or 3 occasional (non-pupil/non-working) days per year that are 'paid' for through twilight training sessions.

So about 70 days.

36 days leave

8 Bank Holidays

2 days Flexi in every 4 weeks period

So 70 days in total pet year, plus and sick leave which is there for using (union rep tells that people have fought hard for paid sick leave so you better use it!)

Ours is ridiculous at 315 hours + BH. (37.5 hour week) although about 80 of it is ‘earnt’ through attendance.

We only work a half day Friday too so you can double up and not have to work many Fridays at all.

Nine weeks. Now that is a big birthday!

Countered by the fact I'll probably work in some way or another until I'm 70, but I'd rather take time off now & use it while I'm fit, healthy & able to get travel insurance. Holiday allowance is 16 + bank holidays + 4 long service + 4 extra in lieu of pay rise + birthday + 52 on account of me only working 4 days a week, but like some above I'm mandated to take 5 days over Xmas/new year - construction industry & almost everyone does the same, I actually really like it & have never worked at that time of year.

Must admit I do enjoy the break between Christmas and new year, but loosing holidays for the rest of the year over it takes the edge off.

We were given choice of returning on 2nd or 6th, majority chose the latter.

I see the minimum wage is rising again this year. I'll be as good as on it then, time for a chat I think.

29 + bank holidays + a day that can be taken in weeks around your birthday and usually qn extra day over christmas.