perkinsgap

what about christmas do you get any time off than or dose it come from your leave

iaink

Cant speak for others, but typically Xmas is covered one way or the oither as noone wants to open up for a day or two between Xmas and New years .

Most but not all companies will give a "floater" to cover the gaps left by the stat holiday to cover any days falling between boxing day and new years (usually one day, sometimes two, depending where the weekend falls) In my case I have one "floater" and one "make up day" this year. Floater doesnt come out of allowance, make up day can, or can be made up with extra hours worked.

Hope this helps

Iain

indybrit

LOL......I knew I'd find something to piss my pants laughing at if I looked long enough.

I'll let someone else respond.......Ray, Glaswegian.......what do ya think, or am I the only one who regularly works 50 to 60 hours per week??????

iaink

Kind of depends on your level of seniority. If you are a production worker then yes, you will probably be all set for a 3.45pm tee time (for 8 months of the years anyway) but you might be struggling to come up with the money to pay for a round too often. If you are in management then you probably have the money, but not the time. I dont work 50 or 60 hours a weeks, but I am usually somewhere near work from 8 till 5 with one thing or another. Used to be worse than that, I started 7.45 and often didnt escape till well past 5. Dont miss that!

I have to agree about the holiday thing. No amount of whining is going to get you 30 days holiday, you just have to accept that thats the way it is in N America and get on with it.

Iain

PS I make a point of not working trully excessive hours. If they are not going to pay for the overtime, then it can wait until tomorrow. If its a small thing that I can fix in half an hour I will, but unless its trully "mission critical" I am not going to be burning the midnight oil. Quality Engineering was different as penalties for shutting down an assembly plant were extreme ($1000s per minute of downtime!) and everything has to be done to support production. As I said, I dont miss that job at all.

Toontje

No, you're not. I work just as much as you do.

Glaswegian

I didnt realise you could play golf in the snow! 8 months - I'm guessing here as I dont play but I would expect it to be 4 or 5 months in Calgary!

iaink

Last couple of years here in Ontario my local course has actually still been open in early December due to late snow, and is usually open a week or two before the Masters in May. More usual to close up in November. Of course those over the rockies from you in BC can crow about 12 season golf

Just wish i had more time/ money to play, but then thats what retirement is for

Iain

iaink

Saw this related article in the globe and mail that says 38% of canadians do not even take all there alloted time! Seems incredable to me. Alberta was the worst by the way.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...tory/National/

G&M has introduced registration so you may have to register to view, but it is free, and the best of the canadian papers IMO.

Iain

JanBe

Thank you all for the feedback to my questions. It is now very clear to me that those 10 days are indeed the norm, and that it would be very naive to think that more days could easily be negotiated. If you're lucky, 15 days seems to be the maximum to start with.

Someone mentioned that you need to adapt to local culture when moving, which is of course correct. And it is also not that I am lazy or so, but besides some very good reasons we have to consider to apply, I had some concerns on this particular issue. Pursuing a less stressful life is one of the reasons. Being used to have significantly more leave days per year, I don't want to end up in a situation where I have even less time for my family, friends, activities, ...

Therefor, I was happy to read a few reactions concluding that the 365 days result in better quality of life. I was surprised with one of the last replies with the article of Canadians not taking up their days, this says a lot.

Anyway, if you agree or disagree with these last conclusions, please let me know.

P.S. Toontje, thanks for the tip.

stewyvr

This certainly exists for the company I am working for here in Vancouver, however, this can be a bit misleading as most people I know end up working more, not less, and never really end up taking the time they have banked. Having said that we do get a base fifteen days, and I am in Vancouver so I have precious little to complain about (apart form the bear in my neighbouhood ) I would never swap this for the 90 min grind I used to have around the M25 twice a day...