20 days annual leave is Dickensian

[Palacelife]

Most firms now start on 25. I think 20 just smacks of a mean firm and not a place you want to be. AIBU?

YANBU. 26 days at my work plus public holidays and option to buy 14 more days if you want them.

I agree. I never understand people who think we should be grateful when it isn't worse case scenario. I notice this in older colleagues a lot - commenting on the fact that my company now offer 8 weeks paid paternity leave as opposed to statutory 2 weeks "oh well in my day, we couldn't even take a year off for maternity". So what!? My husband also missed out on 8 weeks paternity but we are not bitter - just happy for younger colleagues.

I applied for a job that gave 20 days AL. Bank Holidays were included in the 20 days. You also had to take 3 days at Christmas..
I was offered the job but declined it mainly because of that.

A lot of people jumping on the "Dickensian" phrasing but I do think offering the absolute legal minimum is pretty shit unless accompanied by a host of other benefits and it's not the way to go unless you want to narrow your pool of potential recruits to people who don't value annual leave or desperate people. I know I'm just a number but I want to feel like a number who is valued.

Then again I have sympathy for small employers. A good friend of mine is a small business owner and she loses staff because she can't offer more than the minimum but it hits her productivity when people are off and she just can't offer more. I know she would if she could.

I'm lucky to work for an employer who offers unlimited paid leave. Only if workload allows and we'd be discouraged from taking more than 2 weeks at a time so I can't just book a month off when we're busy. My aim is to take about 30 days plus bank holidays until I see how it really works but what I love is not having to save a few days just in case of an unforseen emergency, and then having to use them up and take a shitty wet week in December off work just to use up my spare leave. One of their biggest headaches is making sure people take their 28 days because some don't want to.

YANBU. Full timers at my work place get 30 days plus bank Holidays plus 4 closure days at Christmas. I wouldn't move anywhere which had a lesser allowance. DH gets 25 plus BHs but he has to save 3 days to cover the days between Christmas and NY (he could technically work those days but he prefers not to) and it's always tricky coordinating leave - after a holiday or two (yes we are fortunate to be on this position) he has practically nothing left!

I guess you think your company should pay you for doing naff all. Americans get 2 weeks a year. My husband has folk coming to interviews talking about work/life balance,newsflash don't expect to get hired if you tell your interviewer you're bone bloody idle.
Sadly most British today have zero work ethic and a sense of self entitlement.

2 weeks per year is awful. Just because you're happy to have shit working conditions doesn't mean everyone else has to be. My work has a great work/life balance and I put in far more work for them than I did at my last job who didn't care about us as people.

is your only experience of the labour market based on hubby's anecdotes?

Wouldn't want to work for her husband, sounds like a shit employer.

he certainly does!

I'll stick with my 30 days annual leave.

I've always assumed it's easy to operate in the US as it's so much easier to fire people. You aren't going to relax lying on the beach for 50 days unless you are sure you are adding so much value to the organisation the rest of the time that they wouldn't risk getting rid.

I'm not sure I would enjoy unlimited annual leave when weighed against the ever present knowledge I had very few employment rights

Here in the UK where you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get rid of someone who isnt performing it would never work.

I get 32 days a/l plus 8 bank holidays, it feels a decent amount

My husband has folk coming to interviews talking about work/life balance,newsflash don't expect to get hired if you tell your interviewer you're bone bloody idle.
Sadly most British today have zero work ethic and a sense of self entitlement.

funny thing is she doesn’t realise that this isn’t a boast and everyone would despise being employed by her idiot of a gammon husband 😂

That’s a technicality and not how it actually works. TA’s don’t get paid for holidays. They get statutory minimum.
If you get £35k as a teacher that’s what you get, including having the 13 weeks off. If you give your notice by May 31st you get still get paid for the summer holiday because it counts as working a full year. Despite Autumn, Spring and Summer half term holidays plus the Christmas and Easter two week breaks adds up to more than 28 days.

I don't disagree that more leave would be nice, but I think you need to read Dickens again if you think four weeks of paid holiday is hardship!

I've never heard of that.
How does it work?

I would not apply for a job if it only had 20 days annual leave (plus bank hols). Even worse, some employers actually list this as a benefit. It's not a benefit, it's a legal requirement. Benefits are supposed to be things that are above and beyond the legal minimum. If you are listing 20 days hols as a benefit, you may as well also list drinking water, oxygen and use of a toilet.

20 is rubbish.

I get 34 plus bank holidays which is actually too much for me and I always lose some.

@Fabshab sorry I can see now that you and others have answered that.
I would love that but not going to happen in higher education!

I do roll my eyes when I see 5.6 weeks of annual leave (including BH) listed as one of the job 'benefits'. It's the legal minimum.

Ahhhh so when they say a teachers starting salary is 30k (for instance)....

Does that mean 30k is the pro rata amount and their actual FTE salary would be £33500? (Allowing 6 weeks "unpaid")

Or does it mean that they get paid £26,500 because 6 weeks are unpaid.

Or is this a technicality relating to notice etc and the actual starting package for a teacher is indeed £30k including all the school holidays off?

Bet you he is on Linkedin posting shite about that😂

I hope his employees are on Glassdoor giving their honest reviews of him as an employer!

Or is this a technicality relating to notice etc and the actual starting package for a teacher is indeed £30k including all the school holidays off?

Teachers are paid for 196 days from memory so a teacher in London starting out will be paid 36k ish for that number of days.

I get 35 days + bank holidays.

I don't work on Mondays of Fridays though, the days most bank holidays fall on, so I get pro rata hours added on to compensate for the BHs I don't get. It adds up to a few more days a year.

So their actual FTE equivalent salary would be higher?

So teachers are actually pretty well paid if we look at their actual FTE then