Hey,

This is my 3rd year in Canada. I came because my wife was a foreign student from Canada. We left Scotland for here.

Canada is a very nice country and compared to scotland both have ups and downs...

The part that has me trapped..Is the fact that Canada has the worse legal limit for Vacation days in the developed world. Just 10 days(exc stat hols) thats arent even fully paid, there a percentage of a wage you get every week. Sick is unpaid also. (USA has no legal limit I believe)

I know some companies here do offer more because as a company they see the benefits to a well rested and less stressed employee. Just these jobs are few and far between. I feel I would have seen more of Canada if I stayed in Scotland with my 22 days (exc stats again). That I have gotten to here. I came because I felt, if I didn't I would have regretted it the rest of my life.

These poor labour laws which lead to North Amercia being termed "no vacation nations" really have me depressed. My dad needs an operation. Its not minor but unlikely to be life threatening at the same time. I would love to come back and help my family. My Job in Scotland would have seen this done with the odd fully paid emergency day and part of my fully paid vacations. Here there just want me to use over half of the 10 not fully paid days, or if they are kind enough to give me a day or two absence of leave, I believe I will have to paid part of my benefits to stop from losing them.

I just feel trapped..I also trapped as I am the one, in my marriage with the benefits, which makes it hard to just up and quit. I do look for another job but the market isnt the greatest.

Life balance for family and vacations just seem so poor to me. More vacations times lets to more people having time off to go and spend money visiting places. Hopefully within Canada more. So it passes the wealth around the country to have this. I know being close to the states would be a problem form that but I still think it could work, if more vacation time was given here.

I really dont know what to do...To go back home to scotland..Could cause personal problems. I already have given up my job and sold my home in Scotland. Here I maybe renting but to give up a job and start again at 34 years old.

I do like it here in many aspects but to not have the ability to have valid time off is very frustrating...how many times do you need vacations days for other things that come up...10 days is no where near good enough...

Including extra days that my company gives, i get 4 weeks vacay a year. Last year I took 5 weeks - one week unpaid. I've been with the company just over a year.

I didn't tell you this to make you feel bad, just to point out that it's not true that Cdns only get 10 days a year vacay. There is always room to get more.

when taking a job you negotiate your vacation. I've never had an issue negotiating more vacation for myself and I am not a professional either. I don't know what your employment terms are but can you negotiate more vacation?

wouldnt work for the the position and company i work for unforunately. My boss is great and if I do decide to try to visit home, will help as much as she can.

The mid-level higher management are the problem

Do you earn more money here than you did in the UK?

Depends on the job. I have never worked anywhere where anything was negotiable, pay, benefits etc, always set in stone.

I would love to find a place that would negotiate, but not in the kind of work I do.

fair enough.

Could you work for yourself doing the same job?

Just a little less...I guessing I earned at the time I left Scotland $31000/$33000 CAD. Now i around $24000/$26000 CAD.

We are under paid for the admin/accounts duties we do here...I have an HND is accounting and finance. Been looking for work on accouting payable team role, just not found one....Been waiting for a payable position to open in this company too but not yet...

I an not really a professional but I am part-qualified

I think you should leave Canada asap

It's always a crap shoot on making those decisions but you have to make them. Pros and cons and everyone on here giving their 2 cents and smart ass remarks to boot.

On holidays, it's what you negotiate and I've been at it a little longer than you - I get 5 weeks.

I wouldn't worry about starting again at 34, to me, you've got a lifetime. I'm now 48, spent a year in NZ before my kids pulled me back to Canada and been back for two years. I now have a potential job offer back in Scotland and am thinking of packing in all in here and heading over to start yet again.

Live life with no regrets as you don't get a "do over".

I live in the US, but am from Scotland. I understand about vacation time . 10 days is not enough. i look at my 27 year old daughter, who I brought to the US when she was 2. She is now a single mom and gets 1 week paid vacation a year and no sick days. She pays $240 for her health insurance as her company does not offer any!I think of my working life in the US and then think omg I could have had so much more time off if I had stayed in the UK, not to mention the NHS, but I suppose it depends on how successful you are in your career. I always have had low paying retail jobs so in part its my fault for not going to college etc. I just wanted to sympathise with you because my family back in the UK go on "holidays" . What's that I say, lol.. I cant afford one and then hate to use my limited vacation time for one stretch. I would go back to the UK in a heartbeat but my US husband would be left here! Some days its tempting just to flee back to the uk, right now I have no health insurance etc . Would your wife move back to the UK ??

You may get more vacation time in the public sector, if you can get in. But it is a tough predicament that you are in. Having done 3 years in Canada you may now be more employable and be able to get a better role with better benefits. Why not try that for a year and see if you can gain more vacation time, and it not consider a return to Scotland.

I don't normally comment on the to go or not to go discussions as there are so many personal things that affect the decision which are different for every person.

However, if you did decide to go back to Scotland I don't think 34 is too old. I moved to the US at 32, back to the UK at 35 and 14 months ago to Canada at 43. I'm sure that many others on here were similar or older.

When I came here they wanted to give me 10 days. I eventually ended up with 15 (I tried for 20 but was a no go). My sentiments are that if I wanted to take more time off with my family, I'd just take unpaid - f**k 'em.

It's not an easy decision (one we had to make when we moved back from the US to UK) and whatever you decide I hope it all works out for you.

Cheers

We both get 10 days leave per year. Well I get paid a % in lieu of vacation time as I am casual work. This means I can take any time off unpaid but rarely do as there is no guarantee that I ever get any work, so I take what I can. My husband took just over a week to go back to see his sick mother as he has done previous years but we still got a nasty email from his nephew saying we were off on exotic vacations instead of visiting her.

Do you have PR or on a visa? Can you not look for a different job that has better vacation? Or sick days?

I agree that you're not too old to start again, where ever that may be. I moved here at 31 and I doubt we'll be in Vancouver for ever... which will mean a whole new start!