Why is the NHS so generous with their employee leave

[Ionlywentandbloodydidit]

Maybe I’m just jealous plain and simple.
I work really hard in a patient facing private sector clinical role ( not transferable to NHS) , long hours, huge amounts of stress and responsibility just like NHS workers . Four weeks holiday , no sick pay , no time off for GP, dentist appointments etc . Not just me , this is completely normal in my industry.
The NHS is on its knees , I see it every day , I’m privately employed but am also registered with NHS as a performer ( it’s complicated ) .
I have several friends who work within the NHS as nurses, midwife’s etc . They are all mostly on eight weeks holiday per annum , regularly on leave for months at a time on full pay for various reasons such as two months for a miscarriage, six months for the death of a very elderly parent or a bad back or stress etc.
They will all receive a good pension .
I’m so intrigued ( and envious I admit ) at how the NHS can be so generous with tax payers money.
Im ashamed to say I’m beginning to resent my NHS friends some of whom are quite brazen with it, especially when I also see first hand how long waiting lists are for consultations / ops for my own patients / family etc .

Well that would depend on the person and circumstances wouldn’t it. Just because someone is entitled to six months full pay, it doesn’t mean they will take it all..

The NHS is a toxic organisation and their annual leave is the bare minimum and awful minimal lunch breaks.

I work in the private sector (not medical) and get top tier private health for me and my family, life insurance, dental insurance, 15% non contributory pension, share equity, and a 20% bonus.

I have no idea where the myth comes from about the NHS being great to work for.

The sick pay is also related to infection control. You can’t have unwell staff looking after immunocompromised patients……

You do understand that the 2 months leave after miscarriage isn't an automatic right? If someone has had 2 months off, it will be because they have been signed off by their doctor. Had you needed to, you could have spoken to your doctor and been signed off for longer than a week. The length of time is no-one's business except the person, their doctor and their employer.

Nope honestly. I have access to TRS and it’s looking bleak. I’ll admit I don’t understand it and even after discussing with NHS pensions I still don’t understand.

Not sure which side you're coming from here but my experience is that workers in the public sector take significantly more sick time off than private sector workers because it is not as tightly policed. This doesn't mean that they are sicker, just that it is a cultural norm to take sick leave rather than soldier on.

I used to work for a not for profit organisation where 8 of the 16 employees were on secondment from the city council. The rest of us were employed privately and from private sector backgrounds. It was eye opening to see how much sick time the council employees took off. My opposite number on secondment used to tell me in advance when she would be taking her 'sick' days. Conversations were had openly among the seconded staff about how many sick days they had left to take that year and when they were going to use them up - I'm assuming there was a number above which further investigation would take place.

The rest of us from the private sector couldn't quite believe what we were seeing.

I'm not saying that dragging yourself in when you're really sick is right either, just that letting me know that you'll be off Thursday and Friday next week as you're feeling a bit stressed is very much not acceptable and explains why in the public sector sickness is recorded at much higher levels than in the private sector.

Prior to working in the NHS I worked for a retail bank, final salary pension, 12 months fully paid sick leave. After a few years in the NHS I moved to a private healthcare provider, again 12 months full pay sick leave, private healthcare for me and my family, family friendly working hours, better pay and a fantastic pension.

I have several professional friends who work for private companies, all with good annual leave/benefits/sick pay.

Which, depending on your GP, can be easily obtained.

6 months on full pay while you are signed off is ridiculously generous.

Don't look at university annual leave (especially for academics) that will blow your mind!

Yabvu

If you want to help the country by working for the NHS, then please do so, it is on its knees.

🥰

Usually its because the salary is often quite a bit lower in the public sector, so if they removed the perks that are cheaper for them to provide (like flexibility and annual leave), they would lose staff in droves to private sector roles.

This is the case in other public sector roles too. Take HMRC for example. It pays its senior staff as little as 50- 60% what they could command in the private sector, but they stay because its generally better hours, more annual leave, and an excellent pension.

@HighLadyofTheNightCourtprey do tell because I’m an academic and I’m looking at my leave planner and don’t see anything mind blowing !

Taxpayers pay a hell of a lot to keep the NHS running, and, far from being the envy of the world, it is unfortunately an example of how not to run an efficient healthcare system. It should be completely open to scrutiny and criticism, not this ridiculous sacred cow that it has become.

As soon as I saw your thread title, I knew you didn’t work there. Just get a job there if you’re that jealous! The only reason I’m a lifelong public sector worker (former NHS, current Civil Servant) is for the leave and pension. We all work the same 40 hours, don’t make it any harder than it needs to be 🤷‍♀️

I once got all the way to job offer stage with a company who then casually dropped in that their holiday policy was 24 days a year. So it was a non-starter as that’s dire in my industry. It was my choice to take the job or not, and I decided not. I suggest you look for another role OP if you are unhappy with the conditions in your current one.

My former trust was 27 days on joining, 29 days after 5 years and 33 after 10 years. Plus the 8 bank holidays. Maximum 41 paid days a year. So 8 weeks is right.

I get more leave because if I did my job in the private sector I’d be paid a good 10k more.
and also the cost of recruitment/retention is a good few grand so it’s an incentive to stay.
when you started in my year it was 28 days which is only 3 days more than a lot of the private companies. So it’s not exactly wild.

i don’t think your toxic workplace should be the measuring stick we go by! I’d suggest all joining a union and stop working for free!

Get a grip on ur jealousy. The pension u seem to think is all given for free does off wages every single month. Sick day are just that. Days, not months. Long term has to be covered by gp letters and still get hassled to get back. Annual leave, yes we get it, not when we want/need but whenever it can be fitted in. Pay rises, weekly working time directives pay reviews, all have to be fought tooth and nail for with unions. You are painting a very unrealistic picture here and simple put shit stirring. You need to fix your jealousy or get a new nhs job, good luck with that with your attitude tho. Which stinks.

The OP said she gets 4 weeks, legally she's entitled to 5.6 minimum so it's misleading.

Agree @LoveItaly I really don't get this attitude that you are not allowed to criticise the sainted NHS and all the angels who work there.

When you have millions of people employed, there are going to be a percentage who take the piss and take full advantage of their 6 months off on full pay when "sick". Every single one of us will have stories about NHS inefficiency.

Why do you resent your NHS friends if you yourself won't apply for those roles?

Presumably because overall uou think youre better off where you are.

So what's you're problem?

And the taxpayer thing is bollocks. If the taxpayer wasn't paying for the NHS, it would be private and you'd be paying a lot more. Case in point, how many American practitioners do you find immigrating to work for the NHS? So the overall remuneration package isn't that good then, is it?

We get 37 days annual leave plus bank holidays. We also get the Christmas shut down as additional days which is an extra 7 days this year meaning we have a full two week break.

I think that's very generous! When I worked in industry I got 22 days plus b/h.

NHS employees of old negotiated our terms and conditions of employment using Unions and occasionally industrial action. It’s not a race to the bottom by the way.

I work in an NHS adjacent role in the private sector. I got 8 weeks off for a miscarriage (6 of those were literally the miscarriage and 2 were recovery from the surgery I eventually needed because of the 6 weeks of miscarriage not completing). I also got 10 months off full salary when I was going through cancer treatment. Maybe you need a new job?

It’s toxic as f, bullying is rife and the pay is shit.