To think 2 weeks is an unusually long summer holiday?

[PrettyLittleCryer]

How long do you take off on holiday if you go away over summer - particularly if you work full time?

I think half a month is a long time to expect to just walk out of a job and them to carry on without you.

But is that what most people take?

A fortnight is the norm where I work

Translated. 'I don't go on long holidays and don't see why anyone else should'

I usually take 3 weeks over the 7 week school summer holiday period - in 2 blocks (1 week and 2 weeks), but I also take may half term off as well at the end of may / beginning of June, and I take a week in mid September usually too. 2 weeks at a time is perfectly normal I would say :-)

Surely 2 weeks is the norm here in the UK. I’m from Norway originally and there the norm is 4-6 weeks so when I first moved here I found 2 weeks ridiculously short

Of course it’s totally normal, especially if you’re holidaying outside of Europe. It’s odd that you think it’s unusual. Unless you’re a pissed off (and unreasonable) employer?

Completelyyyyyy normal :)
2 weeks for a summer holiday, or 2 separate weeks or some long weekend throughout the year.

That sounds like a dreadful place to work!

I’ve worked in the private and public sectors in various jobs and it’s never been unusual to take a fortnight’s holiday in any of them.

Also, it’s pretty bad business planning if work can’t be handed over or managed at all when someone’s not there. Should be contingency plans for that. What would happen if someone had to spend three months in hospital or something?

I’m going to Cyprus for 3 weeks in August (I’m a teacher), but my other half works in distribution and he didn’t think twice about booking 3 weeks off work.

It’s standard in the UK. We don’t just walk out. You put in a request to your manager, usually weeks before the date you want to go. If the manager agrees, it gives them time to make arrangements to cover you.

I would only take 2 weeks together if I was actually going away somewhere.

But I don't just "walk out" of my job. I finish up the tasks I have on the go & anything I can't clear I leave extensive notes & have a handover meeting with the team before I go so they know how to deal with it if it crops up while I'm away. My handover notes are also emailed to all partners along with my holiday sign off "I will be uncontactable during my holiday" but my team know they can call/text in an emergency or if there's a particularly juicy piece of office gossip

I have worked for American, Canadian and Japanese companies (as well as English ones) and it was completely normal to take two, but more than that you would have to have a pretty good reason. The Canadian company had an "only in exceptional circumstances" rule. If you planned to go anywhere that took a long time to get to and from, then a week isn't really enough

Surely 2 weeks is standard?

It's normal in the UK.

Yes, this certainly happens in the Finance Industry for compliance checking etc.

It's a legal requirement in the finance industry for compliance reasons.

it's been explained before, but I realize that not everybody reads the full thread. I have several family members who work in the financial sector in the US. It's harder to maintain a fraud scheme when the fraudster is not there to manipulate whatever needs to be manipulated to keep the fraud going. It's very common in the financial sector to require people to be away from work for a certain period of time.

Assume you’re not in UK. It’s the norm here. Holiday allowance was hard fought for by workers. Be careful to preserve our rights!

We nearly always take 2 weeks in summer as do most of my colleagues, although we don't always go away for all of it. Sometimes for a week in the middle or 10 days. If we are going to see family abroad it's not worth going for less as it's a long drive.

In the finance/ banking world it is mandatory as otherwise someone can cover up fraudulent activity. Tow weeks is probably the minimum people should take

Not 7 - 14 days in one place but I don’t think it’s old fashioned to take 7 -21 days touring a country/seeing more than just its capital/having a road trip/generally exploring. Although if people want 7+ days chilling on a beach then that’s fine to.

I'm taking 3.5 weeks for a long haul trip next month.

I would love to but no one would do my job whilst I was gone so I would come back to an absolute ton of shit.

😄teehee.
Question obviously posted by an employer or a government bot testing the water for a reduction in annual leave.

A mini break is not as good to relax and recharge than a full week or better 2 week holiday.

I went only one week to Tenerife in April and definitely felt a "will be over soon". vibe compared to when I am off for two full weeks. You don't have to stay in one place all the time if you don't want, road trips or 2 center holidays can be great as well.

Too often a mini/city break is just running around and spending too much time on the actual journey to give your body time to go in vaccation mode.

I can empathise with you.
I’m retired now but in the past I had worked for a couple of very small companies where it was the same for me, come back from a a lovely two week holiday almost wishing I hadn’t bothered to take time off because of the crap that had piled up & the stress caused thereafter.☹️
After those experiences I made sure that I only worked for larger companies where as others have mentioned there is a hand over to a team & I didn’t have a pile of work to come back to.🙂
In the larger companies I would have my holidays in the autumn, winter or spring (no children) & book the time off 8-12 months in advance. On one occasion I was away from work for a month because I was called for jury service for the two weeks immediately preceding my (already booked months in advance) fortnight holiday. My employer didn’t have any issues with that at all thank goodness.🙂