Is 20 days annual leave enough for you?

[Rainydays55]

For those if you who have 20 days annual leave plus bank hols - is that enough for you or do you find yourself needing more?

Would be no where near enough for me.

Nope. I had jobs very early in my career with 20 days, always found it miserable. I have 33 now which is just about OK.

It wouldn’t be enough for me. I’m another with unlimited annual leave, I don’t make enough use out of it, but definitely more than 20 days.

I get 35 days inclusive of BH (so 27 days exclusive), but have had to work up to that - I started on 28 days, and needed to be at the company for 5 years to get 35 days.

I've not been able to take all my holiday the last couple of years, and that's quite common where I work, I don't know how some of you manage to take all your holiday!

I have 25 plus bank holidays and Christmas. It suits me as DH is a teacher and so covers all holidays, plus my job is full on and so the less time off the better! ie less pressure when I get back

@Rainydays55

For those of you that work from home does that counteract the lower holiday allowance at all?

No, it’s the same for everyone. It’s the minimum they can get alway with. We also shut down over Xmas and you to save you leave for that. My previous job also private sector was the same.

Weirdly they pay quite well and there’s usually loads of treats and things that the directors pay for. You do a good job at something they may send you some wine, flowers Amazon vouchers. I got a case of champagne on my birthday.

I’ve never heard of unlimited leave.

I am self employed. One of the main attractions of self employment for me as a working parent (despite no sick pay, only SMP, no holiday pay, no occupation pension) is that I can take as much holiday as I can afford to take. I book most of the school holidays off each year (take about 10 - 12 weeks). To earn what I need to earn I then have to work “flat out” during the remaining 40 or so weeks of the year. It works for us as a family. 20 days would not be sufficient holiday for me.

Heck no. I have 35 +8 and use them all easily

I'm self employed. Work 2 jobs and get eight days in the year, I work Bank Holidays as well.

Nope it's not enough but I am able to buy up to 10 more so I just do that, I'm lucky that is an option I can afford though.

No it's the bare minimum and is not a lot of holidays at all. U take 2 weeks off in summer it only leaves 19 days for the whole year, pretty rubbish. I have been ok it when I first started working but only for a year or 2 when I moved to companies more generous. I now wld never even consider a job if they only offered 20+8.

I get 28 plus 8 and it's a decent amount but I also get flexi so it feels like I walkways have lots of time to take off. Probably in last year had another 5/6 days off in flexi at lest. I also only work 3 days a week so sometimes feels like I'm not there a lot. Result! 😂

Nowhere near enough.

Not at all.

I only work 14 hours a week over 3 days, and even I get more annual leave than that.

@EmmaStone

I get 35 days inclusive of BH (so 27 days exclusive), but have had to work up to that - I started on 28 days, and needed to be at the company for 5 years to get 35 days.

I've not been able to take all my holiday the last couple of years, and that's quite common where I work, I don't know how some of you manage to take all your holiday!

Same. I’ve not used my entire holiday allowance in 7 years. Mind you I’ve no childcare needs and so I’m bottom of the priority list for leave (I’ve not had a Christmas/NY off in that time and it’s really tough to get more than a week in the summer unless you have kids) so that might explain it.

I get 34 + 6 public holidays (pro rata) and its not enough. 20 days would be awful.

In Australia it’s 4 weeks as standard, so 20 days if you are full time. Plus public holidays. My employer also gives us a few extra bonus days as we shut down over Christmas but we have very generous conditions.

More would be lovely but when everyone gets the same you don’t fuss about it since the grass isn’t greener elsewhere.

We can also take paid careers leave (if a dependant is sick) so we aren’t always using up annual leave for children. Plus there’s long service leave.

Unlimitted paid leave is not just about being 'an adult about your work targets'.as stated.
Numerous studies have shown people offered this actually take less days than the norm. Why? Because the work targets are so stringent and micro managed that you can not do it and the culture in the companies actually frowns on it. They don't make allowances for time off so you actually don't have the space to take the time. It's not like AL in UK where somein covers it's basically projects that have to be done and you can take time off around them. But the projects are so demanding and monitored so closely it is very difficult to take extended time. Many studies have shown anyone who does extended time off loses all sorts of opportunities and are always first in line to go
Also because you have no contracted leave specified they don't have to pay up holiday owed when you leave, and these companies have high churn. It actually saves them money.
Obviously not all companies and if you are more indespensible then the better to do it, but you would find it hard to read positive things about it from ordinary workers.

The latest study has shown the median number of days taken by employees on unlimited pto is 13. There is a reason for that and a clear difference between males, women and minorities which is becoming a significant issue around equality. It's not women taking more time for child care etc, but women not having the confidence to take the time away from a competitive environment.

I get 20 days, and no its not enough. Also in my company we get minimum wage, you don't get a break if you work 6 hours a day, are not allowed to drink anything but plain water while working, no sick pay, only allowed 2 colours of nail polish to choose from, hair has to be tied up at all times... The list goes on.

When I worked f/t I don’t think I ever had more than 20 days

Clareblue that’s really interesting about unlimited leave.

Absolutely no way. I went from a 30+ hol job to a 20+ hol job thinking I could hack it.

I could not.

I now have been self employed for years and am glad to be rid of all that

Those saying they can’t take all their holiday time…I get that you can’t take it at busy times… but can’t you just take a Friday or Monday or even any day for along weekend or relaxation day every now and then to use them up. It doesn’t have to always be a big holiday

@WoodenReindeer

Why dont they require 2 x as much work then? Why are they paying ft wages for something that can be done in half the time?

You're paid for your expertise and ability to get the job done, not paid by the hour. We'd still get the salary if we delivered a year long project in two weeks. That'd be deemed their failure to plan.

Gosh
20 straight off at a job is a dream. 10 days is standard here. I was thrilled when after 5 years I got 15