Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Anybody else really struggle with the limited time off in Canada? how do you deal with it?

I get 3 weeks paid vacation per year and its just not enough I've been in Canada 3 years now and the issue has never really gone away. In my first job I took 5 weeks off per year got paid for only 2 weeks and it really put us under financial strain taking that unpaid time off. Any decent vacation spot is a long flight away from Canada with a big price tag so taking time off unpaid is just unrealistic.

The stupid way it works with my holiday I don't get it in advance so mostly I end up taking part paid vacation as I haven't accrued enough in my bank then I get the money back at the end of the year for the vacation I was not paid get taxed more then have to wait until April to get the extra tax money back. This is pretty normal practice in Canada and is the same for my girlfriend she gets even less 2 weeks I find it the most backward way ever of doing vacation.

In the early part of my second year in Canada my grandfather passed away. I had to plea with my employer to let me go back and see him before he died (he had lung cancer) by the time they said yes and agreed to pay me and I got back he died and it was literally earth shattering and I would have gone back as soon as I found out if it had not been frowned upon and also at the time it was a case of we could not afford to take time off.

I see loads of British people out here and wonder how they deal with this? not seeing their families for years and limited vacations. If its a choice between family and Canada its family every time but others seem to cope just fine and I am mystified. Sure we earn more money here and have a much better house than we would own in the UK but that means nothing in comparison to family and just your overall happiness.

HELP

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

That's the trade, family and culture vs. more stuff. Successful immigrants are either so poor that "more stuff" for them is the basics of survival or shallow people for whom it's more important to have a lot of toilets than to see their younger relatives grow up. .

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

You deal with it, or you move on to a country with better holiday leave!

The general deal is that paid holiday time is accumulated over a 12 month period, so you don't actually get it until the end of the first year in a job, unless you are very lucky.

If you want more time off, you discuss with your employer to let you take the extra as unpaid leave, NOT for longer with pay.

The compensation?

Better living for most of us,
about 10 Stat holidays a year resulting in long weekend breaks about once a month on average,
beautiful areas to go within a short distance of where you are living.


BTW ............. I believe the US is worse for paid holiday leave than Canada ....... they don't even get Boxing Day off.

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It sucks. The only places we have vacationed in 14 years is the UK to visit family or Canada and occasional short trips to the States. We haven't had a proper holiday as it's so spendy to travel. We may have a bigger house, more cars and a higher pay (although the cost of living has made that questionable) our quality of life is poorer for it.

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Boxing day isn't a holiday in the US, so why would they?

US doesn't have any law regarding time vacation, in my experience though most employers will provide 2 weeks vacation per year, if they are not, then its a crappy company and one should find a new job, I am by no means a professional but I never worked anywhere that didn't provide vacation as part of the benefits package.

I was never in an industry that had holidays off in either country, so no long weekends in either country.

The US has 10 federal holidays, some states like California have state holidays, so 11 in California, jobs that typically get stats off in BC will get holidays off in the US.


Anyhow only way for more time off in Canada is to try and negotiate with your employer, if you high enough up or valuable enough to them they might be willing, if they are not, simply nothing you can do but try and work with what you have or seek an employer who might offer more, government jobs might offer a bit more.

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Brits would expect it because that's what we're used to. ;) Same as we'd expect to get Good Friday and Easter Monday off. :nod:

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US doesn't have Good Friday or Easter Monday as a holiday....when I first came to Canada it was surprising Good Friday was a holiday.

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Actually, I would dare to say that the way to get more paid holiday would be to get a one that is governed by a union.

Universities generally get longer holidays even at the labourer level because that is what has been negotiated.

At the university where we worked, faculty were restricted to 4 weeks paid holiday, though they could get extra time off with permission of either the Head of the Department or the Dean of the Faculty (depending on how much time they wanted to take) to do research elsewhere or travel to a conference.

Members of the union started at 3 weeks off, beginning at the end of the first year. After 5 years, it rose to 4 weeks, then rose again to 5 weeks, and finally reached 6 weeks at the 10 year mark.

I got more paid holiday time than OH :rofl:

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I was really surprised when I learnt that ...... especially it was someone from a Bible Belt state who told me, and those are two of the holiest days for any Christian religion

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You will find in regions places will shut down on Good Friday, schools might be closed, some states may close their offices, but its not a federally recognized holiday. Stock market for example is closed good Friday, religious affiliated medical offices for example may also close.

some school districts will put their spring break the week of Easter so schools are may be closed on Good Friday due to spring break.

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Sorry to hear about your Grandfather.. devastating to have not been able to see him before he died.

I don't know if you were aware, but there is compassionate care leave, family medical leave and critical illness leave - any of which could be utilised where a family member is suffering from an illness they are not expected to survive; or there is personal emergency leave if the employer has more than 50 employees.
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/00e41#BK90
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/00e41
https://www.ontario.ca/document/your...-medical-leave
https://www.ontario.ca/document/your...eavement-leave


Other than that, you either 'suck it iup', find another job where you can negotiate vacation time or go back to blighty... try booking time off to fall between statutory holidays, so you get an extra couple of days with pay, if you time it right you can get 7 to 8 days but only have to book off 4 :)

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Probably depends where you live I guess. In the beautiful Okanagan I do more vacation-like stuff in a week than I used to do on vacations from England. I also figure with the extra stat holidays and quite a good vacation pack with my job I only get a few days less each year than I did in the UK, but can do SO much more with them. I guess it also helps I have little desire to visit anywhere else than BC, which is why I moved here.
Perhaps try doing more with your free time outside of work hours. SO many people fall into the rut of being at home in the evenings after work or binge watching TV. In theory in the summer depending on when you finish work and when you go to bed you should have about 5 hrs of free time in the evening, thats more than a half day off! Use it. Get out there and enjoy Canada wherever you live then you wont feel like you need so many vacations.

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The OP is in Etobicoke.

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OP: Can try and find a job that does 10 or 12 hour shifts, will give you more days off per week.

When I did hour shifts, I had 3 days off a week.

When I did 12 hour shifts, I had 4 days off each week.

Sometimes its better to work longer hours each day and in return get more days off.

I don't know how anyhow does the 5 day a week thing, would drive me bonkers.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

I agree that Canada needs to increase vacation time to 4 weeks standard. We live in a beautiful country yet there's such little vacation time to enjoy it!

Thankfully at my company I do get 4 weeks paid leave, but just because I have it doesn't mean I've forgotten about the poor saps who don't. This is the first job I had in 10 years living in Canada that has gone above the minimum. So jobs with more vacation do exist, they're just difficult to find.

This is something I would expect the federal NDP to propose but they've never mentioned it, kind of missing an opportunity there.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Don't start me on this subject, I love living in Canada, but this is probably my biggest pet hate.....its almost inhumane in this day and age!! Even Canadians think it crap and complain about it!!

Personally I think the worst part is when you have worked with a company long enough to accrue a reasonable level of vacation and then get laid of through no fault of your own and lose it all! I was almost up to 4 weeks....I had no intention of going to work anywhere else, but then the company laid a bunch of us off....so back down to zero weeks for first year of new employment at another company (which rubs salt further into the wounds) then after a year, I get 2 weeks!! whoopie doo!! lol Its tough and I find it hard to deal with, IMO vacation is the key to quality of life, and its just not availabe here. However I knew this before I came here, so I try to deal with it, and factor in the salary I want, so it includes the cost of the unpaid time I will be taking....and also factor the cost of an additional unpaid week in the event of emergencies like your grandfather (whcih I was sorry to hear - I also had a similar experience with a family member) Planning it out, calculating the cost and adding it to your salary is the only way to do it. So yes I can fully empathise.....

I also add a day to stat holidays sometimes to make a longer weekend.....another way of trying to stretch the pittance we get. lol

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Become self employed. Then you can have as much vacation time as you wish.

Also, when first starting a position, tell them how much vacation time you want and inform them that you are willing to be paid less than your colleagues to obtain it. I have never had a problem with adopting such a position.

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Honestly, the worst part for me is that nobody back in Europe gets this. I spend all my vacation every year going to visit them and end up sitting on my parents' sofa, with visiting relatives. I do love seeing them all but is it really a vacation? Nobody comes over to visit me because it's too inconvenient, while they sit on 6 weeks of vacation. But god forbid I skip one year, I am the worst person ever.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

The best way is not to get them used to you visiting every year ......

........ we left in 1967, I went back in 1970 because my father died, but our first holiday was in 1973.

We then went back in 1975 on our way to Australia (grandparents hadn't yet seen our child, and we wanted to go to Russia). OH took child back in 1980 when she was still in Kindergarten. I think we had 1 trip some time in the 1980s. Then it was 1995, 2001, and 2008 (the last trip). We had a trip to Europe in 2005 during which we originally had no intention of stopping in England (all parents dead by then), but finally went for 3 days at the end of the trip because a cousin was undergoing chemo for breast cancer.

OH was on an International Committee in the 1980s and went to Europe at least once a year forfr 5 or 6 years, so he would add on 3 or 4 days to visit his mother but no-one else. We added 3 days in England.

My father made 1 trip over here in 1970, the year before he died. In-laws came roughly every 2 years through the '70s and '80s, but their daughter was also over here.

Every single time bar one we went back for at least 4 weeks, sometimes 6 weeks (we had longer holidays than most), and every single time until the 1990s everyone wanted us to visit them. Not one relative or friend was willing to compromise by meeting us half way or coming to us when we thought we might rent a cottage by the sea.

The best trips back were the last 3. In 1995 we had booked 4 weeks, but not told anyone when I was suddenly diagnosed with breast cancer. Within 6 weeks I had been diagnosed and had 2 operations with the last being a mastectomy. One week after that operation I was declared free, and given permission to go on our trip, leaving within 3 weeks.

At that point we told 3 important family members and 1 friend, and otherwise did our own thing. We stayed with a niece living in Scotland, drove along Hadrian's Wall, stayed in Scarborough (where I spent all my childhood holidays), and went down to the friend in Devon .............. almost the whole time bar about 10 days was our own. It was blissful!

In 2001, we wen back for 2 weeks on a business trip, leaving here just after 9/11 ....... saw a couple of relations and a couple of friends for brief periods of time. The trip in 2008 was 6 weeks long (retired), and we did our own thing, saw a couple of friends and a couple of relations but basically had over 4 weeks on our own ............. just like tourists.


The major factor for us was that we were NOT desperate to see the UK or the relations ...... there are too many other places in Canada and the world to see. We have spent holidays in all provinces in this country, including almost every part of BC. The only places we have not been are NWT, Nunavut and Labrador. We've been to several states in the US, but never Hawaii.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

This is gold. My brother visits every 10 years and yet he is treated like a god. I go almost every year and yet it's never enough.

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Perhaps you're seen as deserting them.
I've never been back - nearly 15 years now. I paid for my mum to visit after we settled in the house and again for Christmas in the first year but no visits in either direction since.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

As CanadaJimmy and Bristol have said, this is more of a family situation you are in.

My OH and his sister were in a somewhat similar situation .............. his parents never complained when he said he was emigrating, in fact, "we'd have done it if we were younger".

3 years later his sister decided to leave the UK, she first considered Australia but then thought it might be nice to have a relation on the same continent, so opted for Canada and BC.

She was 8 years younger than OH, and had always been her mother's favourite. Unfortunately, she told her parents that she was coming for 2 years, as that was the visa she got.

She then met "the one", went home on a visit after the 2 years ........ but it was to break the news that she was getting married at Christmas and staying in BC.

Neither OH nor his sister got pressure to visit more often, but the parents did ensure that they came out every 2 years until f-i-l became ill. After he died, m-i-l made a couple of trips by herself, but with the intention of emigrating to live with her daughter up north. Unfortunately there were a lot of major problems with that, not least that she had major health problems that the families here would have had to cover (at around $50,000 a year), and my brother-in-law had died leaving his wife with 3 children under the age of 13.

But what you do have to be wary of is when they start blaming you for leaving them ........... the guilt trip is a big one to lay on anyone.

In our case, it was laid on ME ....... I was the cause of OH emigrating even though we didn't even get involved as more than "just friends" until after he had made all the decisions and got his visa. By extension, I was therefore the cause of his sister emigrating.

Over 25 years after m-i-l died, I still cannot follow her logic!

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Look for a job with a British/European HQ-d company. I do and get 5 weeks paid vacation time, plus stats and need not use any of that time for medical/other appointments because my employer is flexible with that. Also flexible/remote working is encouraged. This company it seems is stuck with me now for the foreseeable.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Wow lucky! I have not heard of this. My friends who work for international companies for sure don't get that much. Well done. :thumbsup:

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

What's vacation or holiday pay / time off? The nearest I come to that as a remote worker is time and a half if I work Christmas Day. I don't get holiday pay, stat days paid, sick pay or time off in lieu. Whilst in theory I can take time off at will the reality is that if I don't work I don't get paid and there's no guarantee that there will be any work for me when I return.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

I mentioned to my employer that I need 3 weeks unpaid leave next year and they basically told me they would have to let me go if I did as it wouldn't be fair on everyone else, I'm also used to 5 weeks and really struggling with 2 weeks as I have two children on the other side of
Canada, one in Australia and my elderly Mum in the u.k

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

I'm afraid that is what it is in Canada, as you must realise if you have read this thread.

It's a different country with different customs.

If it is any consolation at all, many Americans get even fewer holidays!

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Some employers in Canada like to stay fair and keep all employees on a level field.

Can be the same with raises, I have worked in some places where everyone got the same exact raise so the company couldn't be accused of favoritism, does suck as the worst performing gets the same as the best performer when companies do that.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

That sucks, sorry to hear about your situation.

Some companies do offer more vacation. At my work, we do get 4 weeks paid, and one of my co-workers takes a 4 week block off every year to visit family in Asia.

Maybe time to start job hunting. There are some employers who understand the importance of work/life balance, typically larger corporations are better.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

Skill level and job title matters too, I worked for a company who offered top notch benefits to all the white collar workers at head office, even non-management but the front line employees out doing the work/dealing with the customers, got bare minimum.

If I found a place giving 4 weeks vacation and letting you take the full time in one big block, I don't think I would ever leave lol.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

I've said to my wife multiple times I'll happily retire at this company. It's great being able to tell recruiters just to leave me alone, I'm not leaving a good thing!

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My last company we got the bare minimum, and it was like pulling teeth to actually get the time off, no way anyone could get 2 weeks in a row, black outs during certain times of year, they would cave and find a week here and a week there to use it, but it was a pain, mostly due to them not being able to fully staff so anyone on vacation just made everything worse for those working lol

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I dont know what companies you work for but i get the same holidays as i did in the UK..I get 5 weeks plus stat hols on top ..plus a week shut down at Chrimbo..again its about knowing you're own worth and not just blindly accepting what is first offered.

Re: Vacation/Holiday time issue
 

your, ffs

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It doesn't have to be. When I go home to Canada I let people know where I'm staying and that considering I just flew 24 (or more) hours to get there if they want to catch up then the least they can do is drive a few km.

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We tried that when we went back to the UK with a 15 month old ............... come see us 'cos it's easier.

Nope ............ all of them refused point blank.

Which meant that we had to drive around the North of England visiting all the oldies who would have made our lives miserable for years to come if we had missed them out.

Then, they didn't want to know anything about us or even our daughter ....... all they wanted to do was to complain about how Britain was going to the dogs .................. because of all the immigrants who had been thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin!

We were so lucky that we had a very adaptable toddler who fitted in with everything, fell asleep as soon as the car started or on someone's carpet.

The best trip we had was in 1995, we had only told one person that we were going back before I discovered that I had to have an operation. Then everything was up in the air until I was given permission by the surgeon to fly just 3 weeks after that operation (with certain conditions) so still in full recovery mode, taking 2 Tylenol 3s 4 times a day. We told 2 more people, and that was it. The rest of the time we drove around by ourselves, went where we wanted to go, and had a lovely time.

It really helped us to recover from what had been a very fraught 6 weeks.

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Other then my parents, I don't go out of my way to see anyone else, my parents live in different parts of California so a fair amount of travel just to see them since they don't live in the same area, I figure if I am important enough to someone they can manage to drive a few minutes to my dads to see me (everyone I know lives within 15 mins of my dads house except my mom and sister.) but I don't have or easy ability to venture to go see everyone, and frankly if they are not willing to come to see me without me going to them, not sure they really care much to begin with.