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Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Old Apr 16th 2018, 3:18 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by dbd33
People living in Canada do not usually see Canada. They use half their vacation time to visit an all inclusive resort in Cuba or the DR and the rest taking kids to doctors.
Scary but true.

Many Canadians who do get 3 or 4 weeks off rarely take off for more than a 2 week block as they fear their office/work location would grind to a halt w/o them. Many in the private sector remind their co-workers 'I'll have my cell phone with me'. Public sector don't tend to let their co-workers know how to get hold of them.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 4:14 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by BlueScottyGirl
One thing that's concerning us about life in Canada is the two weeks holiday. Compared to other countries, Canada has a very low annual leave, 2 weeks being the norm, along with a small handful of public holidays. This leave appears to only be applied AFTER you have worked for a year.

My question is, how do people manage? Living in a beautiful country, how do you find time to explore, take up hobbies, visit your home country? Not to mention we're not getting any younger Canada comes out in polls as having a really good quality of life but nothing in the working side of that appears to benefit the average working person

I agree....it is a massive downside of Canada. It gets to be ok when you have been in a job for a while as your vacation entitlement goes up. At my last company I was up to three weeks and could bank time for another week, which I was happy with, however if you move on from that job, or worse still are laid off...you end up with crappy 2 weeks again and as you say NOTHING in your first year! I find it utterly preposterous. Some companies will accomodate unpaid leave....which is a start if you budget for it, and this is not so bad.

The terrible vacation allowance is a strange mindset, and one that I will never understand, I am a big believer in working to live, life is too short, and the world is a big place to explore.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 4:27 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by Partially discharged
Scary but true.

Many Canadians who do get 3 or 4 weeks off rarely take off for more than a 2 week block as they fear their office/work location would grind to a halt w/o them. Many in the private sector remind their co-workers 'I'll have my cell phone with me'. Public sector don't tend to let their co-workers know how to get hold of them.
It's interesting the difference in working culture between countries. (to generalise from my own experience which I know is dangerous...). On our team call this morning, the boss, in London, reminded us that she'd be on vacation from tomorrow night for 10 days and wouldn't be taking her cellphone or laptop with her. That's a refreshing and entirely correct approach which I try to mimic although since I use my work cellphone as a personal phone as well it's a little difficult to unplug.

One area in my personal experience that my working life in Canada is improved over the UK is that I have a much easier commute to work. Either 15 minutes in the car or 30 seconds to my dining table. My colleagues with their 90 minute commutes into London are rather jealous. Of course, if I worked in the GTA etc I'd have the same or worse.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 4:43 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Often times its cheaper to go somewhere other then Canada and well if your from Canada it may not be deemed the most exciting place to spend vacation.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 5:42 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

That holiday accrual thing was new on me as well. I also found I had to inform my HR system that I had taken a holiday, even though I had requested it through the same system. I only found this out when I bothered to look at a payslip a notice there was no entry for holiday pay, nor had my accrued balance reduced.

In the "Why Canada?" thread I said I would not move here if I had to do it again. The main reason is that travelling to different places is what me and the wife like to do. To try and get some of that back, I have gone self-employed and will try to grow my business enough to take on the wife at least part time.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 5:57 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by Tumbling_Dice
I also found I had to inform my HR system that I had taken a holiday...
You had to let them know you weren't in?
Next time, keep quiet and see if they still pay you.
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Old Apr 16th 2018, 7:23 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by BristolUK
You had to let them know you weren't in?
Next time, keep quiet and see if they still pay you.
Yeah... I got paid for days I wasn't there but had to instruct payroll to offset against my accrued holiday time. Quite a faff.

This occurred when I was working at the bank, so utmost good faith and integrity etc.
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 9:12 am
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Thanks for all your posts, there was so much that I wanted to respond to directly but I don't want to clutter the thread.

It's certainly food for thought, we're used to UK conditions, in our current country overtime is expected and conference calls in the evening, taken at home, are pretty much the norm. That said, paid holidays and sick days are much in line with the UK. My husband is expected to have his work phone on 24/7 including holidays.

Having lived and worked in numerous countries over the years, I knew to ask that question and I appreciate the time everyone took to give me some insight into how things are. So far that is the only negative thing we have found from a country that generally shouts "Come and stay, we'd love to have you". It's a big consideration for us and possibly a deal breaker :-(
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 11:59 am
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by BlueScottyGirl
So far that is the only negative thing we have found from a country that generally shouts "Come and stay, we'd love to have you". It's a big consideration for us and possibly a deal breaker :-(
Have you considered the weather?
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 1:27 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Parents in Canada don't seem to have a life of their own it's all taking the kids to hockey/football/soccer/baseball/gymnastics/scouts/cadets/swimming/rugby/horse riding/basketball and so on. No wonder the children get sent away to camp for a week or two. Those two weeks vacation spent getting blotto in the Dominican are well earned.

It's probably better to divorce then you can be childless week in week about,
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 1:42 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by bats
Parents in Canada don't seem to have a life of their own it's all taking the kids to hockey/football/soccer/baseball/gymnastics/scouts/cadets/swimming/rugby/horse riding/basketball and so on. No wonder the children get sent away to camp for a week or two. Those two weeks vacation spent getting blotto in the Dominican are well earned.

It's probably better to divorce then you can be childless week in week about,
And this is why I feel guilty sometimes. Neither of my kids want to be involved in sports in this way, thank God. The youngest wants to traipse around in the woods taking "artsy" photos with her BFF and the oldest wants to hang out with our horse at times or swim. Both are in swimming lessons, as I deem that a life skill, especially in a place full of lakes. I have a horse that I enjoy more than when I had small children, I now have time again to ride. This fills me with guilt at times when I swan into the house at 7.30 at night or midday at the weekend, having disappeared at 9am.
I am not sure I would ever be the quintessential Canadian sports parent. I want to ride and read and chill too much. Maybe I am selfish.
Kids seem ok though, they dont strike me as massively miserable. And we all go down South together. I get the cocktails at dinner and they get the little plastic gecko that adorns it (we have quite the collection now).
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 1:46 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by bats

It's probably better to divorce then you can be childless week in week about,
I don't think that holds, I lived apart from the mother of my children from when they were quite small and we still both had ferrying to do most days. We used an early shared spreadsheet application to keep track of it all. I don't imagine this is specific to Canada though. Children are going to need similar resumes when they apply to university no matter where they're from and they are never going to win at maths or music so the rest of it has to be super solid. If you don't want to join that merry-go-round the answer isn't avoiding Canada but avoiding children.
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 1:58 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by dbd33
Have you considered the weather?
Yup! While I don't think growing up in Scotland will even begin to prepare us for a Canadian winter, the changing seasons are a huge attraction. I never realised how much I would miss UK weather until I lived somewhere that only does hot and humid or hot and humid with a bit of rain.
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 2:02 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by bats
Parents in Canada don't seem to have a life of their own it's all taking the kids to hockey/football/soccer/baseball/gymnastics/scouts/cadets/swimming/rugby/horse riding/basketball and so on. No wonder the children get sent away to camp for a week or two. Those two weeks vacation spent getting blotto in the Dominican are well earned.

It's probably better to divorce then you can be childless week in week about,
I think its a generational change....but it seems even more emphasised in Canada. Im 47 when I was a kid, it was all about the adults enjoying themselves, and as kids we were told to be seen and not heard and that included any sports. sleep overs etc we wanted to do, it was, no.....too exspensive, or no....too far to go....or no....havent got time to take you there. Now its all about the kids and the adults have no life!
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Old Apr 17th 2018, 2:21 pm
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Default Re: Work/life balance with only two weeks holiday

Originally Posted by Paul_Shepherd
I think its a generational change....but it seems even more emphasised in Canada. Im 47 when I was a kid, it was all about the adults enjoying themselves, and as kids we were told to be seen and not heard and that included any sports. sleep overs etc we wanted to do, it was, no.....too exspensive, or no....too far to go....or no....havent got time to take you there. Now its all about the kids and the adults have no life!
I think your timing is a bit off, for here anyway. My era of whizzing them to swimming and night classes and sailing was long enough ago that one now has two small children of her own. What's different between my experience and that of my daughter isn't the need to cart the children about but the mechanics of doing so. Economics then meant that my ex hasn't worked full time outside the home since the children were born, economics now are such that it makes sense for my daughter to have a full time job and a live-in nanny to do some of the ferrying.

What hasn't changed is that young fathers don't see their children awake more than fortnightly whether the family lives in the same house or not.
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