On the other hand, it will be FRUSTRATING, as there will be this whole new country (and the nearby US) to explore, and no time to do it.

Same goes for family/friend visits. If people are kind enough to come visit, it seemed to me very odd not to take at least some holiday time off to spend with them and show them around. Otherwise quite often they end up with more idea of whats good to do in the area than you do.

Ive been here more than 8 years now, and (as you can probably tell) it still grates. In fact now we have the two kids, it grates more than when we were footloose and fancy free.

You pretty much have to accept the two week vacation rule. If you do then you'll be pleasantly surprised if you get three weeks. I think more companies are offering three weeks. My partner just used her entire annual 3 weeks holidays to visit her family across the pond. In my last job I only got two weeks which you couldn't take for the first year. However I did take unpaid leave. When I used to work for the Federal Government, however, I probably had about 4 weeks altogether due to overtime taken as leave. It does suck but for us commuting times are less at least.

I dont for one min think it wont be frustrating, just have to weigh up the good and the bad dont you. But family understand once you have used all your hol entitlement up its been used up!! I mean at the moment I have all this entitlement in work in the UK and I cant use it as there are never any available days holiday to take them.

Watch out for the way holiday pay works too.

Most hourly paid jobs use holiday pay, and even one of my salaried jobs did.

They take a percentage (3 or 4% , if forget) every check for your "holiday account", then when you take the time, the holiday account covers your pay. Sounds OK, but in practice it means 2 things.

1. If you take your vacation time before you have been there a year, your account wont cover it, so you wont get the full time periods pay...might wreck your budget.

2. When you do finally get to the magic increase to 3 or 4 weeks...your take home pay goes down as the deduction % will increase to cover the longer holiday.

Remember, most holiday pay accounts do not carry over into the new year, it gets payed out automatically as a "bonus" when the year changes, so basically if you start mid year, you will get short pay for your vacation, and a payout in the new year.

That is kind of how our company in UK works it for people who do term time ... they get a reduced pay each month so that they can have all the school hols off and still get paid.
I think that is kind of what you mean with the hols isnt it?

I wonder why they are so strict about holiday pay in Canada? Hopefully things will change!

Iaink, I don't mean to be rude but I've noticed you're a little bitter about Canada and I was wondering what things there are about it that you do like?

What happens if New years day, Christmas day and boxing day land on a weekend..........do you automatically get the Monday off like in the UK(and the Tuesday if christmas day was on a Saturday)

LOL. You've totaly misread me! Ask around, or read some of my (many) posts.

If the "holiday" is on the weekend then its carried over to the start of the week.

If there is a spare day between the Xmas and NY holidays then its usually a "make up day". Some employers will give it gratis, but there is no firm rule about it.

Ah ok, I take it back then!

Sort of, its just something else to be aware of when you get into the whole way holidays are treated over here.
I never gave it any though, worked for the best part of a year, went to take a weeks holiday, only to find there was not a weeks worth of money to pay out.

A whole day for my wife to plaster her face with make up......she'll luv that....thats it were coming.

I worked for the govt in Canada and you got 6 sick days a year at full pay. After that you dropped to 75% and then 65% pay. After 6 years I ended with 36 sick days in total, so if I needed to have time off work i.e for surgery I would have those days available. I tended to use vacation for sick as it was looked on badly as a manager in the federal govt taking sick i.e going into hospital. My director would penalised you on your pay rise if you had any recorded time off sick ( messed up his performance statistics and assume his bonus as well).

If you are in a unionised position i.e under a "collective agreement" clauses may allow you to Bank Time which will help you holiday entailment. The engineers and technical staff who worked for me could Bank 75 hours, so that they could gain an extra 2 weeks holiday a year. Unfortunately you would most likely find that if you are in a Supervisory and Management role, even working for the govt, you would work long hours but not entitled to Banked time like your staff.

You can always get an extra day off here and there by ringing in and letting work know you are trapped in your house as there is a giant bear outside.

If there bear thing wears thin, try wolf, pack of coyotes, cougar...

They will just tell you to shoot it/them and get your arse in sharpish

What, you don't have a gun? Damned Limeys, why do we bother with them