lukesmith2

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

dbd33

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. .

scilly

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.

Piff Poff

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.

scrubbedexpat091

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.

BristolUK

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.

scrubbedexpat091

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.

scilly

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

scilly

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

scrubbedexpat091

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.

Siouxie

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

Phaedru5

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.

dbd33

The OP is in Etobicoke.

scrubbedexpat091

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.

CanadaJimmy

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.