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.

A quick google tells me that the UK has the fourth highest amount of annual leave already.

What do you propose OP?
Is it that we create an army of people to take on a couple of weeks work to provide more annual leave for existing employees?

Maybe go part time? But you want the same money though don't you?

I’ve worked a 9 day fortnight in the past with no change to workload. I honestly believe 4 day weeks are totally viable!

@WorldCuppa and therefore we should have government intervention through mandated extra leave so companies are forced to offer it even though it is more generous than what the free market would have given employees

In a country suffering from slow economic growth due largely to poor worker productivity, does anyone really think that more paid time off will lead in the long run to a good outcome?

https://www.economist.com/britain/2022/06/09/britains-productivity-problem-is-long-standing-and-getting-worse

I think for professional work it makes a lot of sense and encourages better productivity/efficiency with your work time but for retail, factories, cleaners etc current rules are fine because they would have to hire so many extra people to get the work done - can’t really be done otherwise.

Completely wrong

Many of the large city companies offer more annual leave, especially to their more senior or long term employees. Dh works for a city based global firm and he gets his birthday off plus 7 weeks. He can buy another 3 weeks. They also offer 1 year paid parental leave. Employees on the other hand are expected to work up to 24 hours/day if needed and regularly 100 hours/week if they are not on holiday.

I do think a 4 day week is much more likely than increasing statutory annual leave days

If there's slow economic growth and poor productivity then clearly something's not working, but instead of looking at how things could change and evolve- flexible working, 4 day weeks etc we just carry on with the same system except now it's not 9-5 its 9-6 for no more pay, its being expected to go 'above and beyond' and all the usual bullshit. Then people burn out and end up sick. The whole system is ridiculous. And yes, I understand that different industries would need different models of working but how will things ever change when so many seem willing to put up with the same old crap as it's what we've always done?

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.

So, you'd be okay if your child's Nursery had to close because some of the staff were taking all this extra leave ? Or if the operation you've been waiting two years for was postponed again because one of the team was taking more leave? Or the emergency services weren't able to get to you because they didn't have enough staff ? Or the court case you've been waiting for after the crime against you didn't happen for 4 years after the crime, because they never had enough staff to get through the cases ? etc etc etc.

@Theworried2 wow you really haven’t thought this through. ‘Government intervention’ rubbishing the ‘free market’. If your ‘idea’ was implemented, your would see SMEs fall off a cliff and unemployment would sky rocket. Well I suppose being unemployed would mean more time off. What a moronic idea. I assume your work in the public sector…

Right…so in the olden days leave of any kind wasn’t very good.

In the 21st century people expect more.

https://www.gov.uk/time-off-for-dependants

You can have time off for provide support for other family members & elderly

It's not just about children

I get 7 weeks, plus BHs and the days between Xmas and NY, personally I think that's alot and I struggle to use it all, certainly not complaining but working in a small, specialist team means someone is usually on leave, so the working day is filled with covering my own work and a portion of someone else's. My standard work day is 7.5 hour but it's realistically 8/8.5. I was on leave last week and went in twice to catch up on stuff. I didn't have to but it would only then add to my list when I got back

I live in a Scandinavian country where the mentality is totally different. We get a lot more leave, people leave work earlier, everyone is legally entitled to three weeks off in a row over summer. Hairdressers, some shops, cafes etc in many areas shut for a month or so over summer. Even the vending machines at work are not stocked in July! And if kids are sick there is a special different sort of leave you can take called "looking after children" which is on an as need basis and in addition to the generous parental leave. This summer most in our team took five weeks or more off in a row, a mixture of holiday and parental leave, both men and women. It is normal here - and seems to work fine, although I don't understand how!

I agree that the 4 day working week would be better. Virtually all studies done on this say that productivity increased and stress levels reduced, however it will take years and years for this to become acceptable. It took roughly a decade for the accepted working week to change from 6 days to 5 however it may be accelerated by the use of AI.

You've got the right to find a part time job, OP.

My company allows me to buy extra leave, I just can't afford to do it. I when I did the sums it just wasn't worth it financially for me. I think you'll find that most people are the same, otherwise they'd already be working part time.

If you are in the U.K. then you will get this time off. It’s the legal minimum.

I was self employed and used to get no more than 1 or 2 weeks holiday a year. As it was in high street retail, our customers expected us to be open 7 days a week. If we closed on a bank holiday we would get complaints. We employed 2 to 3 staff. It was difficult enough with 5 weeks holiday, if it was 13 weeks it would have been impossible to function without employing another member of staff. To afford their pay we would have had to increase our prices, as would every other business, which would lead to prices across the board rising. Some businesses could afford to give this amount of leave. Most couldn't.

Agree with this.

Low wage growth means we're all working a day a week for free by now. I'd rather have a 4 day week than extra holiday days.

A lot of objections seem to be based on "but you'd have to wait for..."

The people at the top are making millions of billions of pounds.

The people at the top have chosen not to staff customer service phone lines appropriately because they'd rather line their pockets than employ enough people to get rid of the "we are expecting a higher than usual volume of calls" message. It's a deliberate choice!

If a change to improve working conditions causes a substantial decline in service it's because the greedy people at the top are choosing to continue lining their pockets, not because a HCA, checkout staff, hospitality worker had annual leave.

People need to avoid a rush to the bottom on working conditions, stop workers fighting between themselves and start asking questions of the people at the top.

We all know who would be the people to take the fall of the unpaid leave if it was so easily accessible. It would be women, particularly women with children.

I own a small business, my employees work flexibly and remote. They get 25 days plus bank holidays. I try to do everything I can, but unpaid leave for parents would put me out of business (as odd as it sounds, but work just wouldn't get done). I don't know what the answer is though.

I think if conditions improved and cheap flexible childcare was available then that holiday allowance would be enough. FYI a lot of places in Denmark close for 3 weeks in July, so everyone can get their time off. You don't get any choice about when though.