How do you spread your annual leave to make it last?

[Gamechanger12e3]

Hello everyone!

Recently changed departments and i work full time. Work 1 in 4 weekends.

At my place of work our leave is April - April. We dont get bank holidays off but have it given to us ontop of our leave to take as and when.

I've noticed over the years that a few other full timers seem have loads of time off!! I think they must work it logistically through the year to make it stretch! I'm wondering how to make mine stretch further?

How does everyone else spread their leave through the year?

The school holidays take all mine and DHs leave.

How many days leave in total do you get?

Rather than taking a full week off at a time, I think using 2 or 3 days around a weekend that you're not due to be working gives just as nice a break and obviously this way you get more of them.
So if you get 30 days a year you could take 1 full week every second month or you could take a long weekend (a mixture of 4 or 5 days using a combination of Thursday Friday Monday so only booking 2 or 3 days leave) every month? Hope that makes sense.

At lots of places you accrue additional annual leave after so many years service; so some of your colleagues may actually get more leave than you.

Other than that you can take your leave on the weeks you don't work Saturdays and also take long weekends sometimes instead.

We work in hours April to March but it equates to just over 8 weeks.

I do a spring week, two weeks in summer, a week in autumn and a week somewhere between January and March. I leave a week free for Christmas/New Year incase of last minute annual leave which takes me to 6 weeks. For the last 2 weeks I put one in if there's a long gap between any other weeks and the final week is for random days here and there.

I work 12 hour shifts three weeks of three and a week of four. To stretch out time ill work say Mon, Tue, Wed, the remainder of that week will be days off, followed by a week's annual leave. Sometimes I'll come back the end of the next week so Fri, Sat, Sun. End up with 15 days off for a weeks annual leave (3 days).

I get quite a bit which is why it lasts. I work in a college and I think to try not to be too dissimilar to schools otherwise there is no reason not to go into school teaching for many.
Nothing strategic about it other than taking a couple of half days occasionally instead of full.

We always try to save the maximum to carry over in case someone is properly ill. We get loads of leave as I get bank hols prorated and dh has been a civil servant for years so he has a generous entitlement.

I have all half terms off, 3 weeks in summer and a week at Easter. Dh has Xmas, the nanny's holidays and 3 weeks in summer and a week at Easter. (nanny only does 1 or 2 days a week now so not that much to cover and I work 3 days)

I try to have one week per quarter and a few odd days. I book the longer periods when there are no bank holidays, so I try not to have longer than a month without at least one extra day off (I work Mon - Fri).

Is it all annual leave. If someone is going on a special holiday they might use mostly annual leave and s little unpaid leave.

Now I don't have small DC's I don't take leave at Christmas or Easter other than Bank Holidays which my service doesn't open for anyway.

I take 2 weeks around mid March and 3 weeks Summer and then 1 week mid November.

I rarely take more than 1 week off at a time. I work flexi so I can build up enough hours for an extra day a month so when I book leave I usually do 1 x flexi 4 x leave.

We get 25 days but as it is a university we get extra leave in between Xmas and new year and at Easter we get the Tuesday after Easter Sunday off. I tend to tag my leave on to the bank hold so I get a week off but only use 4 days. I have booked the wed, thurs, Fri off after easter and got over a week off but only used 3 days holiday. I try to have a week off every 2 months.

I can buy extra leave too

We always try to book Easter as you end up with loads of days if you’re savvy - got about 18 days off by booking 9 odd this year

I know shift workers who will book holiday in the middle of their 'short weeks' so when combined with their rest days, so it feels like an extra long break.

Accrue TOIL and when you have enough, take a day off.

Other shift workers will swap shifts with colleagues for appointments and other commitments rather than using annual leave.

Do you have children under 18? If so you’re entitled to 18 weeks per child until they’re 18, using a maximum of 4 weeks in a year. I have 2 weeks of unpaid leave booked to cover May and October half term, then use annual leave for Christmas and 2 weeks in the summer holidays, one week leave at Easter and that still leaves me with enough days to take off sporadically.

Oh yeah and in our work you can buy additional leave. Any chance your colleagues are doing this?

I get 33 days (plus 8bh) I take a week at Easter, 2 during summer hols, a week in October, 5 days Al plus 4bhs gives me 2 weeks at Christmas. And that leaves me with a few "just in case days" which I usually take February /March.

In my new department get 36 days including bank holidays and I'm carrying 5 days over so will get 41 days this year.

I think my problem has been ive been using my leave for specific reasons e.g booked holiday abroad for 2 weeks, moving 1 week, christmas 2 weeks etc. So there could be 2-3months before my next leave.

So it feels like i don't actually get a 'break' if that makes sense. I'm determined to book half my leave for specific plans such as holidays and seeing family, but then use the other half in between to try and give myself some down time.

As weird as it sounds i could have work for 2 months then have a 2 week holiday abroad and come back then have no leave for another 3 months. Yet usually i feel knackered after a holiday from traveling and doing stuff. It would be nice to just have time off to potter around at home!!

Whats "buying annual leave"? Do you pay your employer?

We have the option to buy A/L - it just gets deducted from your monthly salary.

I am lucky enough to get 6 weeks

I usually use 1 week during Easter or May half term, 2 weeks during school summer hols, 1 week in Feb half term and the remainder I usually take in smaller chunks

Majority gets used up during school hols

Its always nice when you get to March and realise you have a day or two left but that doesn't happen often!

I get about 25 days' leave, including bank holidays. I also work one weekend in four. I try to break it up evenly throughout the year and aim for a week a quarter with some random days left over. I personally would rather take more leave in autumn/winter than in summer. That's purely because I've got a long commute and I don't mind going to work in summer as much because it's light morning and evening, but I seriously struggle in winter because it's dark and grim outside. I work a shift pattern and it's more economical to take certain weeks off than others - eg, one week a month, I work four days a week, another week I work six days a week. So it's better for me to take the four days a week off and then I get the extra day, plus the weekend either side, which gives nine days off in a row. So I always aim to take that week off, if possible.

I get 30 days and buy another five. I keep a spreadsheet where I note down what days the kids are going to be off and then try and work it out accordingly.

I find the summer really hard as DS2 has SN and can't go to clubs etc.

Also try to work it round bank holidays so at Easter I can take three days AL but as there are two BH (Monday and Tuesday) I get a week off.

I only work tues-thurs and get 24 days off which works out to 8 weeks but I never take more than a week off and I’ll quite often just book the Tuesday or Thursday off because it’ll still work out as 5 days off. Or sometimes I’ll move my working days to the start of the week and take the Tuesday off the week after so I get 6 days off with only one days leave. It’s harder to flex your leave when you work full time though.