scilly

I worked in a university, and was governed by union rules.

We could roll over 5 days holiday from one year to the next, but only for 1 year so you couldn't accumulate for many years. The days were never paid out.

I started with 2 weeks holiday a year but not taken until after 1 year of employment. It then increased to 3 weeks after 5 years, and finally to a maximum of 6 weeks after 10 years, if I remember correctly. BUT the time off had to be tied in with other employees in your department so that only 1 or 2 were off at any one time. I was the only person doing my job, so it could be a bit difficult for me. I would try to save about 6 or 7 days holiday until the end of the year so I could take off the time between Christmas and New Year, and in case our daughter was sick.

My department, as with many others, could not afford to pay for overtime, yet it was often required for public vents. They were allowed to give us time off in lieu. For every hour worked overtime, you were allowed 1.5 hrs in lieu. So another way to get extra days off.

We got the equivalent of 10 sick days per year for full time, pro-rated down for part-timers, and could accumulate that from year to year to year. After 25 years, I had about 6 months of sick leave accumulated, which was lucky because I then had a serious operation and treatment. Any sick leave accumulated had to be taken before retirement, it was never paid out ............ this resulted in certain employees reducing their working time for as much as 1 year prior retirement by taking 1 day "sick leave" every week. Others ensured that they took a year's worth of sick leave before the end of every year.

Parents, especially mothers, would often have to use holiday or sick leave days for family sickness.


I was a school teacher in the UK, so got a lot of time off, not all of which was relaxing as lessons had to be prepared in advance during holidays. So to drop to 2 weeks was a big drop ............ TBH, I never even thought about it at the time. I was living in a country that I loved, we could take weekends off and see and do lots of things.

As I see it, the UK is lucky with the holidays, much better than in many other countries. If it means so much to you, then Canada or the US are NOT the places for you.

Mordko

There is a lot of variability between industries and positions. Conditions are better for professionals and management than for contractors or salesmen and staff with low qualifications. Government is different from private sector. Qualified Trades may have long periods off work but very long hours and high pay when on a job. Corporations will be different from small business. Then there is education sector and its a different story entirely. One should be careful generalizing too much.

For professionals in the banking sector (assuming its big four), I would expect 3 weeks of paid vacation for a young employee going up to a maximum of 25 days of paid vacation after a couple of decades with the company. And I would expect them to take it. On top of that bank employees are likely to have 10 “personal days off” a year, 3 paid days for “personal training” and other perks.

For management its different. Management at a bank may have 4 weeks of paid vacation in year one but they will also have a package of benefits which they could use for a choice of perks, including extra vacation days.

The companies I worked for had limits on carry over between years and were happy to pay unused vacation days. During the Covid period there is pressure on employees to use vacation because as salaries jump between years, the costs of “carry over” could escalate.

Haven’t noticed people being under any pressure to skip vacations but experiences will vary.