We should get more legal annual leave.

[Theworried2]

Even though we currently get 5.6 weeks leave as a minimum for full time employees plus weekends, this still means we spend 64% of days in our working lives in work.

Surely to ensure better mental and physical health, this amount should be raised (perhaps closer to the 13 weeks children get at school).
it doesn’t make sense that as soon as you leave education, your free time dramatically reduces.

At the very least, to reduce additional costs for employers, everyone should have a legal minimum weeks (e.g.5 per annum) of unpaid leave if they want it. This shouldn’t just be confined to parents.

if people are properly rested, productivity may rise which could help solve the UK’s productivity puzzle.

Honestly, I’d rather a 4-day week, or shorter days. An hour a day less would be blissful. I don’t want to spend my life exhausted, just lurching from annual leave to annual leave. I’d quite like to have a functioning life outside of work. And tbh I don’t think an hour less a day would have any effect on my productivity.
(And yes, I could apply for flexible working for these now - but it’s dicey whether I’d get it, and I couldn’t afford it anyway).

I can only dream 😆 unfortunately the bills need paying. and we don't have a universal income, mores the pity

Maybe that's the answer 🤔

As other posters have mentioned already you are entitled to 4 weeks of (unpaid) parental leave per child per year - to be taken in blocks of 1 or 2 weeks at a time
You also have the right to request flexible working and businesses can only refuse for genuine legitimate reasons (will need to employ someone else, hours you want aren’t needed etc)
i think there’s enough options

25 days plus bank holidays for me. We're made to take three of those days between Christmas and New Year. Prior to this job I worked in schools and god I miss the time off, even if I wasn't paid for it. Like pp most of this year's leave is already gone on things other than actual holiday. It's utterly depressing spending so much of your finite time on earth working to increase the profits of businesses. I hate the whole system and am moving to a much cheaper area with the aim of working less as life's too bloody short

It's really not enough especially as wages haven't gone up in fifteen years. Feels like a fucking treadmill.

Sadly I'm productivity is low already. So more holiday equals lower productivity, leading to reduced supply, then inflation.

Up thread someone mentioned more people would have to be employed...that's more cost to business...inflationary. Plus we have a labour shortage already

Businesses who pre-pandemic simply wouldn’t allow home working due “to business needs” magically do now.

Businesses could cope with giving more generous leave. Especially those who entirely fail to pay generous salaries.

The Mon-Fri 9-5 is outdated, designed to suit a different era entirely and will cease to be the norm soon enough, along with presenteeism of any kind be it physical or on teams.

I would like to see more of a right to parental leave. I’m really short this year thanks to the teachers strikes. Scotland in an area targeted for extra strikes so I had about ten days off for that alone.

As there was advance notice it was not an emergency and I had to book it off via annual leave. I have to keep 2 weeks for Christmas (mandatory) so there is a squeeze.

Productivity isn't really to do with hours worked

It's interesting how many people assume that being in more means higher productivity. The model we currently have wasn't arrived at as a consequence of evidence about productivity maximisation.

@Elvis1956 Wouldn't more holiday incentivise some recently retired people to come back to the labour force so there wouldn’t be as much of a labour shortage.

also if the leave was unpaid, people would demand fewer goods and services (they have less money) so inflation wouldn’t rise?

Also parents get unpaid leave but surely this legal right to unpaid leave could be increased and given to everyone regardless of if they are a parent or not.

And this may have been mentioned but productivity is how much we produce in a fixed period of time (i.e. per hour). it is not to do with how much leave we take.
If people are more refreshed through more leave, they could produce more per hour so productivity would increase.

Years ago, I’m sure four weeks was standard. I recall getting five weeks after working somewhere for five years. So I feel the holuday entitlement has already increased.

Also maternity leave has got longer.

I would rather have proper paid special leave for things like childcare that isn't an emergency (thanks school strikes) and essential appointments that can be booked ahead of time like GP. Even if we lost a month off maternity so you had 20 days to use over the first 11 years of a child's life.

@sleepyscientist Special leave would be good definitely but surely everyone including those without children should be legally entitled to more leave.

But not everyone's work is measured in productivity like that.
Mine is measured in time. I have to look after the babies in my nursery for all the hours they are there. I can't do it quicker because I am more rested. So my productivity would not change, I can't work harder and faster to go home early, I'm not sure the parents would appreciate me explaining to them that I've been more productive today so I'm leaving at 3 and thier babies will be unsupervised for 3 hours cos I'm "more productive" after my restful holiday.

My current & previous employer allowed staff to buy up to 5 days extra holiday per year

I currently work shifts
I can swap shifts with my colleague & gain more time off work. It means that I work the same amount of time, but just in a different pattern to the norm

Some people take time off sick too

I was shocked to learn that people in the NHS get 4 weeks paid parental leave PER CHILD!

I actually agree with the sentiment of this. DH gets 20 days plus bank hols, and must keep 3 for Xmas. So he gets 17 days for the year to use as he pleases. And he can only be off when no one else is off, so gets very little leeway. It’s shit and he’s on his knees. Most of his colleagues end up off sick with stress at some point in the year.

I think it should be 25 days minimum plus bank hols personally.

@Stopthatknocking Yes it would be difficult in your profession. However wouldn’t demand for nurseries reduce correspondingly if legal leave was increased as parents need fewer hours of childcare. Therefore staff could take more holiday without additional staff needing to be employed.

I was shocked to learn that people in the NHS get 4 weeks paid parental leave PER CHILD!

No they don't 🤦🏻‍♀️

Luckily you don’t speak for all childless woman. As I approach peri-menopause I would definitely be grateful for more days to rest

On the topic of unpaid leave, any company I have worked for has offered this to all staff not just parents. In fact one of my, child free, colleagues is currently on 3 months unpaid leave and has went travelling. He was completely burned out after going through cancer treatment just before the pandemic and then didn’t really have a chance to “live again” once it was done as we went straight into lockdown

You are entitled to unpaid parental leave, up to 4 weeks per year.

I assume you don’t run your own business OP? Most companies aren’t floated on the stock market, so certainly don’t have CEOs and shareholders with turnovers of billions of dollars.
Jobs don’t exist for your benefit, it’s your services in exchange for payment. You don’t get one workout the others. You don’t like the conditions find another that offers you those that you do.