Planning Your Annual Leave

[BrickingIt44]

A few weeks ago someone commented on another post either here on AIBU about how they plan their annual leave. It was something like they take one week every quarter, I can't remember the details. Does anyone remember that and know where the post might be, please? I'm currently burned out from not planning any leave for months so I think it would be good to plan it all out in advance next year. Thanks!

Here or* AIBU mean

Our organisation has a policy that leave must be spread evenly except for exceptional circumstances (which should be approved in advance by line manager). The year is split into quarters April to June July to Sept, Oct to December, Jan to March.
Most people start by planning their main holiday e.g. 2 weeks in summer then working backwards/forwards. So if you have 5 weeks, then 1 week first quarter, 2 weeks summer, the 1 week each other quarter.
I usually do something like this but reserve a few days for long weekends/emergencies.

I have a weeks leave every 3 months with the extra days used over Christmas and a couple of days in feb.

I like to print off a year’s calendar on a sheet of A4 when I’m planning leave.

Colour in the bank holidays and the weekends they’re around. That helps you see when you’re going to get short breaks anyway.

Colour (in a different colour!) any especially busy periods that you know you can’t take off.

Then try to look strategically at the year and work out when you’ll need a break.

If you have 4 weeks annual leave, I’d try to take one solid chunk of 2 weeks, then space the rest out.

I copied it!

Suggestions for spacing annual leave for good rest and relaxation -

Book time off. I don’t mean your next time off I mean look at the next twelve months and plan it out.

It doesn’t have to be a lot of long holidays, but it does need to be regular.

So every month you have a long weekend. You take a Friday or a Monday off. Monday is easier to manage than Friday usually in terms of workload. If you’re off Monday you can catch up by Friday. It can be difficult to leave a day early though especially if something comes up. If there are any public holidays use those.

Once a quarter you have a week off. In the calendar month you have a week off you don’t need to have a day off.

Once a year you have a a fortnight off. You don’t need to have a day off in those calendar months or a week off in those quarters. Best way to do this is to take a fortnight off that straddles two months and two quarters. So for example a fortnight off last week of June and first week of July.

I his means you have a fortnight off, two weeks off and eight long weekends. You can also do it as two fortnights off and eight long weekends. Space it as evenly as you can.

So you could have something like this:

Jan- long weekend after New Year
Feb- long weekend close to Valentines Day
March- week off
April- long weekend around Easter
May-long weekend around Bank Holiday
June- last week off
July-first week off
August- long weekend round Bank Holiday
September- long weekend
October-week off
November- long weekend
December- week off round Xmas

Another way to do it it a fortnight off in summer and a fortnight off at Xmas with long weekends every other month.

Thanks all! Well done @Fullyhuman for copying it, I should have done that. I definitely need to plan my a/l out in advance rather than just grabbing a few days here and there. I need something to look forward to get me through!

How much annual leave is the standard for jobs to give? Do you all find what you have enough or do you have a policy where you can buy more if needed?

@Rainydays55

How much annual leave is the standard for jobs to give? Do you all find what you have enough or do you have a policy where you can buy more if needed?

My firm does not allow us to buy more, but as a result of being in post for 26 years, and a big promotion early in 2020 I now have 31 days plus 8 bank holidays, my problem is being able to take it all, rather than not having enough!

I have a week in March to start planting seeds. Week in July to hopefully enjoy the summer weather, a week in September to bring in the harvest and make preserves. Week end November beginning of December to get sorted for Christmas.

I dont plan. I take it when i want it.
I can text my boss on the morning.

In my workplace, no more than one person can be off at any one time, so most people booked their big chunks of leave for 2022 by last December. I find it very annoying, because I often want to save time for things like school events, or friends' parties, but I end up having to miss them because someone has already managed to book the time off.

I’m NHS community team....We get 33 days plus bank holidays ( 9 of them this year!) ....they like you to have taken 2/3rd by Christmas .....but it’s never enforced....it’s fine to have up to 3 weeks together for long haul hols...any longer then you need to request higher management ( I’ve had 3 lots of 6 weeks off over the years to visit family in Australia) ....we can buy up to 2 weeks extra every year.....you can book in yourself any holiday outside of school hols...with school hols there is a rota .....there needs to be at least 2 qualified staff in each day ( out of 12)....I have never had my leave requests denied in the 10 years I have been in this team ..... we just all work it out round each other......we can request leave short notice if something crops up ( I’m aged to get Wimbledon tickets last year at a weekend, the tickets were for a Monday....I texted my manager and she agreed it ......I tend to add a day onto a BH for a long weekends.....we can work flexi/time owing so we don’t need to take AL time off for personal Appointments/school events

I’ve just changed jobs. 25 days basic plus BHs, carried 2 days from last year and bought another 5. So 32 + BH. (Basic entitlement increases by 1 day per year to max of 30.)

This year I have (so far):

2 days for a long weekend in Feb
1 day off in March
3 days off in half term in May (plus 2 BHs makes a week)
2 days off for a concert in June
Week off in July for a holiday
Week off in August for a holiday

And another 14 left. Plus any TOIL accrued. (I tend to use that for half days to get my hair done etc).