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?

I think taking two weeks in a row is somewhat unusual in the US. I don't know if that's where you are, OP. But of course, in the UK people tend to get more annual leave.

oh wow, what a blast from the past. He was the most famous man in the world for a few weeks. Had forgotten all about him.

2 weeks, I work with plenty of Europeans who take 4-6 weeks, some local offices close of the whole of August. The world still turns OP!

My job offers extra days for “slow travel” ie getting to a far-flung destination by train not plane, so you often get people off for more than two weeks: two weeks plus X days travel tagged on either end.

Two weeks is a standard holiday. Annual leave is also a right, not a perk, and any company that can’t cope with its employees exercising that right is failing.

In many jobs (especially financial) 14 days in one go is mandatory in any one calendar year. It's based on the theory that if anyone is 'fiddling the books', it would be exposed if they're not there for two weeks.

Obviously, in reality, that may not be the case all the time, but in my DP's profession that's the reason why they must all take 14 days (10 working days) in one go every single year.

I'm amazed you think this is unusual, OP!

Depends on the job. As long as my patients are covered and have someone to contact should they need to then I think 2 weeks is perfectly fine.

Two weeks is standard. Of course it's a first-world issue and we're lucky to be in a position to book holidays but I sometimes feel like a week is a bit short - you get into the swing of it by Wednesday and then you get a bit sad about going home! Are you a manager who is annoyed at someone requesting annual leave?

I am having three weeks off this summer, which I feel really really thankful for.

If your business can’t cope with a single employee being off for a 2 week stretch then there something wrong with the business not the employee.

It's not walking out on a job though. It's taking annual leave you're legally entitled to. YABU. Even more so if you're an employer. If a company can't survive for two weeks because one employee takes leave then it's not up to much anyway.

Totally normal - if an organisation can't do without a particular person for 2 weeks, they haven't got their staffing and/or training right.

Perfectly normal.

I see the OP hasn't been back.

Weird to Americans, totally normal in Europe.

In fact, in the continent a lot of people take the whole month of August off.

in Norway every worker have the right to take three straight weeks off in the summer (you might not get your first choice of weeks of course). It’s considered important for health/wellbeing to get a proper break where your brain manages to switch off from work.

How does that work?

Would you prefer people didn't get any annual leave??
Two weeks is pretty standard tbh

Completely normal, as others have said. We had almost three weeks once.

Its very normal in UK.

I'd assume a two week break is fairly usual
If someone took three weeks then I'd say unusual
We take a week if UK but always do two weeks if flying ...one week abroad never seems enough with travel time and getting unpacked and relaxed..etc

Take 1 week off and you just have far more work to do before your holiday and after your holiday as nobody covers for your leave. Take 2 weeks off and somebody has to either cover the most urgent aspects of your job or they take your holiday into account when planning your workload.

Take a week off several times a year instead of at least one fortnight and you end up doing yourself out of an actual holiday.

Completely normal!

It’s pretty sad and capitalist that the two weeks is the norm/acceptable to prevent fraud, rather than it being seen as good and necessary for employees mental health to take a proper break.

I always found it bizaarely long for a non honeymoon holiday (that said our honeymoon was 5 days).

longest holiday we ever had was 10 days and without kids then (we sat around for a lot of it wondering what to do as we where rural so had done everything on day 1), most our 'long' are probably 5 days and its always been plenty (a holiday with kids is stressful) and more often than not we only go places for 2 days.

People who do 2 weeks where they do nothing but sit on a beach or by a pool baffle me, I would be bored shitless.

I’m not in the UK but we have 7 weeks paid holiday so usually take 6 weeks during summer then the rest during the rest of the year when I feel like I need a day off.

Two weeks is normal, I often take 3 weeks.

I take 2 weeks every year. We have a policy that leave longer than 2 weeks needs special permission