huddersfieldlass

[QUOTE=Daveheb1;10667722]Hi, I have been looking inti coming over on a IEC visa with my partner, and then when finding city prefer to look at ways of stopping there more permanently. My first question is about annual leave as I have read you only get 2weeks, which after visiting family back in uk wouldn't leave much spare. Also interested with such short holiday allowed how Canada does so well on work/life balance performing countries


Calgary info -

I'm a admin clerk in a school working full time i get 2 weeks annual leave. I had to wait a year to accrue this leave. There is no 'flexitime' as such. Very rigid work hours and not a lot of consideration for family commitments such as children being ill. To be fair I was told all this at interview stage.

Hubbie is an electrician who gets 2 weeks annual leave also. He agreed this beforehand with the Company. When asked if he could negioate more leave he was told all employees have the same concessions. So no!

In my opinion Canadian employers do not appreciate work/life balance. Why would they they don't have to! When you are new to a job and also Country you have to 'fit in' and accept some things may not be better than UK.

Former Lancastrian

Most people who are coming to Canada working didn't apply for the jobs based on how much annual leave they get
There are too many variables and you get what you get. Some companies are open to negotiation and some are not.
Some give you specified dates others don't. Some work on seniority others don't. Some shutdown completely over christmas others don't.
So why should a new employee regardless of your experience and age get their choice of leave above others?
Ive had kids but got no preferential treatment over christmas or the summer in when I took vacation.
My kids are now grown up so I basically apply for when I want vacation. If too many are applying for the same time off we either sort something out between us, pull the names out of a hat or use the dreaded seniority clause.
I usually get what I want.

YoshiPal2010

[QUOTE=huddersfieldlass;10675806] Which school do you work in? In the CBE, the starting leave allowance is 15 days, rising to 20 days after 5 years. There are also 8 earned Fridays-off, to be taken during the summer -- or by agreement with your supervisor, at other times of the year -- so you can take three weeks off during the summer, and still have some left for, say, spring-break or Xmas. In fact, even in my first job in Canada, I got three weeks leave, plus stat. holidays, and a Xmas shutdown.

JonboyE

A place where I used to work several years ago only gave minimum vacation (10 days a year to start with) but allowed employees as much flexibility as they wanted as long as they put their hours in. Many would work four days of ten hour shifts so have Friday or Monday off.

One guy had a cottage up country so for the statutory holidays in the summer he would work Monday to Thursday and head up to his cottage on Thursday evening. He would then spend eleven days there arriving back at work a week on the Tuesday and work a regular 40 hours Tuesday to Friday. Combined with the stat this used three vacation days. He did this three times a year. He also banked an hour or two a week so he was also able to take time off over Christmas/New Year to fly somewhere warm.