MarylandNed

My wife is a nurse. If you have vacation benefits (whether you are salaried like me or paid hourly like my wife) you're still going to feel the sting if you are losing vacation/sick time by moving from the UK to North America. Yes, my wife is able to juggle shifts to create chunks of time off but the cost is a heavy workload at a different time but she was able to do that in the UK too. You still take a hit if earned vacation time is reduced.

huddm

Maryland

We moved to Canada and in my first jobs only got 2 weeks vacation and after a few job changes in 8 years I was up to 3.5 weeks. We been back in the UK for 7 years now and I get 8 week leave now. I understand Canada has the lowest vacation entitlement in the developed world, which I found strange as most Canadians I worked with always talked about wanting a lot "free time".

We found a few weeks vacation hard with a young family in Canada as I had little time off to support my family.

Hudd

orly

Earn more here than I did in the UK. Work more by virtue of there actually being full time jobs here. "Less" holiday time but my job is enjoyable so it doesn't feel like work in a way.

15 minute commute is a bit excessive so before long I'd imagine we'll move into the city and get that cut down to about 5 minutes.

foreigngirl

I do the same job here as I did in the UK, but there I worked for a 'corporation', now I'm freelance. I work less, earn more. I've forgotten what stress is. I hated company politics, meetings, evaluations, etc. I have none of that now. Despite having 28 days holidays (and additional bank holidays) in the UK, I never had enough. Now I can have as many holidays as I want. I'm currently visiting family in Europe, but I'm still working when I need to. The joy of working online!
But...when we return to the UK, I'll remain being freelance, so nothing will change, So it doesn't really matter whether I'm in England or Canada, it's only how I'm doing my job (corporation vs freelance).
I hope this helps the op.

PS. I've also forgotten what unpaid overtime is! Used to do at least 20hrs per week of that! More if I also worked at the weekend.

bats

It's a two-way thing, you are expected to contribute something to the conversation as well as firing off all your questions.

scootb

I work the same hours I did back home,with only an 8mn drive to work versus 45mn drive to work back home.
I was offered overtime once in five years back home,over here I get offered between 8-15hours overtime per week,I choose to work the overtime just now as we are starting from scratch over here,but I have been allowed away early to sort out house rental,car buying/insurance/registration,etc..

Holiday wise,I get the same as I did back home 4 1/2 weeks plus public holidays.

Lifestyle for me is way better than back home,I have much better friends over here,and actually enjoy my work(can't believe I said that lol)

In the Uk I just could not afford to eat out much at all,while in my new life I can easily afford to eat out every week,that's with a family of 5!

jandro

I've found that while your on vacation your co-workers can use your absence to take on your workload and make themselves appear more valued to management.

We tend to use the word 'vacation' and not 'holiday' over here when someone uses their annual leave. To me 'holidays' for Brits and Europeans are more casually accepted whereas a 'vacation' for Canadians is more of a luxury - a rarer event. In Canada a 'holiday' refers more to the statutory days like New Years, Christmas etc. I've heard of a fair number of Canadians who rarely take vacation or have never done so.

haggis88

i work a hell of a lot more hours than i did in the UK, but that's through choice!

at my old place back home, there's been no overtime since the month before i left...here, i've been putting in 70 hour weeks quite regularly because there's plenty of work coming through the door!

still have time to go out and play hockey, get a beer or just blast around on the motorbike, but then again i'm young, free and single

i get the same number of days holiday as i had in the UK, but the difference is that in Scotland, there were only 4 days stat holiday over Xmas and New year which were "fixed days", everything else was optional and you could take them whenever you wanted so longer vacations were possible

Here, the 11 stat days have to be taken on that day (i don't know if this is company specific?), and everyone else in the city is off that day too, so its not like you can plan to get a bunch of stuff done because if the place isn't closed, then everyone else has the same idea so everywhere is mobbed!

helcat12

This is VERY true in my experience of jobs before getting back into teaching here, which were minimum wage level.

Canadians employed in such roles seem to think they are quite entitled to do very little just because the pay is low.

I have noticed that the higher incidence of smoking here also gives them a great excuse to skive.

Happily, it doesn't apply to the teachers I have met.

helcat12

I should have answered the question, shouldn't I?

I think my work-life balance is better, even though I travel further to work now than in the UK.

I also have less stress and a better standard of living compared to living in the UK.