AzLar41

I know this is a tough thing to call out, but what is a typical office working week like?
How much holiday is standard?
Sick Pay?
School holiday cover if no holiday?
Does it all depend on the company ?

Thanks

Aviator

Depends on the job and the office. Mine is whatever I want it to be.

Minimum is 4% of pay (2 weeks) up to 5 years service then 6% (3 weeks).

Don't get sick. Some have extended health to cover this. Nothing mandated.

The employees problem.

Entirely. Large organisations and govt jobs offer more than the majority of employers.

AzLar41

Thanks

AzLar41

So with two weeks pay and 8 weeks off what do the majority do? take unpaid leave? just doesn't sound overly feasible?
thanks

R I C H

You'll get a huge variety of responses to questions like those. It'll depend on seniority, nature of the profession, how in demand the position is etc etc.

FWIW, my situation is this:

AzLar41

that great thanks

DandNHill

I agree with Aviator.

I've noticed though that there seem to be more companies offering three weeks holiday now than 6 years ago. But you're talking about an increase from maybe 0.25% to 0.5% of companies.

For the perks you need to be working for the big corporates. I worked for TD Insurance for a while. I hated the job but I got 4 weeks off (holiday and personal days combined). I got 2 weeks sick at full pay. Pension, free banking, 5% credit card, staff mortgage,massively discounted insurance and a few other things I can't even remember.
But it was soul destroying.

AzLar41

I agree with Aviator.

I've noticed though that there seem to be more companies offering three weeks holiday now than 6 years ago. But you're talking about an increase from maybe 0.25% to 0.5% of companies.

For the perks you need to be working for the big corporates. I worked for TD Insurance for a while. I hated the job but I got 4 weeks off (holiday and personal days combined). I got 2 weeks sick at full pay. Pension, free banking, 5% credit card, staff mortgage,massively discounted insurance and a few other things I can't even remember.
why so?

scrubbedexpat091

I work for a medium sized company but not an office job.

jandro

With the first job I had on return to Canada I got 2 weeks (the minimum by law) but you couldn't use them in the first year - you had to earn them first - so I took 1 week unpaid holiday that year. It was a small company. However with my last employer I had 25 days (including sick days). It was a much bigger company. 3 weeks is what I see normally with job offers but some bigger companies offer more.

Aviator

Employees don't in actuality get 2 weeks off, what they get is 4% of what they earn accrued as vacation pay. Until you have earned it you cannot be paid for vacation. Overtime and bonuses also attract vacation pay, so one can end up with more than the equivalent of 2 weeks.

Danny B

For me, the biggest work life balance is my 15 minute commute to and from work.

I now spend an extra 10hrs per week at home with the family compared to my old job in England. That makes a huge difference. It's like an additional 50 days holiday each year.

Vulcanoid

Pay for childcare. Leave them at home. Work in schools, or other jobs that have vacations timed to coincide with school vacations. Same as in Britain - four weeks holiday here still only covers half the summer break never mind half-term, Easter, Christmas, Inset days...

christmasoompa

Unpaid leave would be unlikely, a lot of companies wouldn't allow it. As said above, you'd do whatever you'd do in the UK, so put them in holiday clubs (camps are popular in Canada i.e. ship them off for a full week) or pay for a childminder type service.

And again as said above it really does depend on the job and seniority level, my husband got 5 weeks straight away, but he was transferring from the UK office so kept his UK holiday allowance, and he was at director level. Others in his office only got 2 weeks (and some didn't even get that, if they'd only just started).

If you can tell people what your job is, then those in the same industry might be able to tell you what the norm is.

And this Wiki article may be useful - Annual Leave-Canada : British Expat Wiki

HTH.

AzLar41

Thanks all!
Very useful.
I work in the IT industry, service management type roles.