Holiday policy - does this sound ok?

[nocampinghere]

I'm sitting on a contract for a new job, close to accepting but i have a niggle about the holiday policy.
Annual allowance is 6 weeks - great! Though offset by a long 8-6 working day.
Also the policy says (and they mentioned it at interview), that holiday dates need to be agreed before any holiday is booked and time taken off has to be sensitive to the "needs of the business". They want a long break taken over christmas & NY, 2 (or even 3) weeks in the quiet July/August summer months.
Does this sound reasonable? Seems a bit prescriptive to me but would appreciate your thoughts. TIA.

Sounds fine to me, specific businesses have specific needs
For example, in the large multi-national I work for, there's a vacation freeze for a partcular group in October and March as these are peak volume months. Our order management staff also can't take vacation in the 2 weeks ahead of Quarter end

Sounds absolutely fine and normal. Presumably you wouldn't expect to be able to booked holiday before having an annual leave request agreed anyway, and most people have times at work where the business is particularly busy and they wouldn't expect to be able to take annual leave beyond perhaps a couple of occasional days, or even in some businesses a complete ban during peak times.

thanks, quite different to my old job where the boss had an attitude of "i can't tell you when to take your hoiday but it would be great if...."

maybe that was just lucky!

I've always had embargoed periods in every jobs, not unusual at all. I'd say you've been lucky so far!

I used to work in a bank and had to take at least 2 weeks off in one go every year.

It sounds like you have a generous annual leave entitlement because they are a little prescriptive about when you have to take it. Having to take 2 or 3 weeks in July/ August would sting a bit cost-wise unless you have to anyway because it's the school holidays.

Policy doesn't always mean practise, but if they mentioned it at the interview it sounds like it's adhered to.

Some industries still dictate the majority of when annual leave can be taken in order to manage business requirements. Most of the jobs I’ve worked in have had some restrictions on when I could or couldn’t book time off, and I’d always recommend holiday be booked and approved in writing before paying for any travel etc.

Similar to ours and I work for a local authority

8-6 a long working dy[ confused] again pretty normal. We do shifts such as 12/11(pm) followed by 7/ 4. This is the preferred shift pattern as we get more days off in the week. If anyone doesn't want to work this they can have a shorter day and more days in.

Of course holidays have to be agreed before they re booked off! You are working with other people who may also need the same week or have already had it authorised. I had wanted two days leave in September but it was declined . I had forgotten I was already booked on mandatory training.

In my last job I could only take 5 days annual leave in the summer holidays as this was our busiest time. There's no point in offering services at a time when it's needed most and you haven't got the staff to deliver it. ( it was young people based). I have a bit more flexibility in my current job though

Over Christmas and NY 3 days wii be Banker's anyway. You might as well roll with it and know that you are only using a couple of leave days to get a reasonable break.

We can take up to 3 weeks off without special permission, any longer and it has to go to a director with an approval from our manager. I've never had a long haul declined though.

8-6 a long working day [ confused] again pretty normal

really? I thought 9-5.30 was standard office hours x 5 days. ?

anyway thanks for the input, just wanted to check before i pushed back but based on the comments i'll just accept it as standard practice.

had to take at least 2 weeks off in one go every year

What was their reasoning for that?

I never take more than a week off at a time. I prefer to take short breaks than have one big holiday.

really? I thought 9-5.30 was standard office hours x 5 days.
Ah, I suppose it depends on your line of work.
I work a long shift but do a 37 hour week, Well some weeks I may work 42 hours but the next I may work 32hrs as long as over a 4 week period it balances to 148hrs work done.

That's similar to me.

I have to take 10 days at Christmas & 5 days in the summer (but summer isn't quiet for us).

had to take at least 2 weeks off in one go every year

What was their reasoning for that?

That used to be common in Northern towns but has largely died out as the manufacturing industry declined. It's known as Wakes Weeks.
The factories often shut for maintence and everyone went to Blackpool!! ( well maybe not everyone but that was the seaside of choice for people from Glasgow and the North West back in the day)

Had to take at least 2 weeks off in one go every year. What was their reasoning for that?
That used to be common in Northern towns but has largely died out as the manufacturing industry declined. It's known as Wakes Weeks.

Actually no, the two weeks mandatory leave policy enforced by many companies is nothing to do with wakes weeks.There are a couple of reasons for it:

1. Audit & Compliance.

Best practice in this area requires employees to be given 2 consecutive weeks break as this is long enough that another employee would need to look after some of their work. A high percentage of employees committing fraud won't take long breaks as they don't want anyone else doing part of their job thus risking being exposed. Employees not taking breaks is suspicious. This is mandatory in financial services, some employers insist on a mandatory 10 working days (so bank hols don't count).

1. Occupational Health & Safety. Best practice in this area says that all employees should have at least one 2 week break each year. If not enforced, the company will have little or no defence to any future claims in the event of an employee having health problems.

The approving leave in advance is standard. I would ask about the summer / christmas policy though and what amount of time off then is mandatory. It could potentially use up a fair proportion of your leave allowance, eg if 3 weeks in summer and 2 at christmas were compulsory that’d only leave a week to take when you chose.

Are bank holidays counted as a/l? Some employers do that.

I find 8-6 disturbing. Are they trying to wring every lady drop of blood from you? How long is dinner hour? Hmmmm let me guess? 1/2 an hour?

8-6 isn't really a long day. 6 weeks is great! And the holiday policy is sensible business practice for meeting business needs. Congrats on the new job.

The two weeks mandatory was going long before H and S regulations. This was still a 'thing' when I moved to Lancashire a couple of decades ago. As I said it has largely died out now.

Sounds great, any jobs going?

I find 8-6 disturbing. Are they trying to wring every lady drop of blood from you? How long is dinner hour? Hmmmm let me guess? 1/2 an hour?
how long is your dinner guess what? We don't get an official dinner break. The hours are inclusive but we can take our break when ever it is suitable and we aren't clock watched.

As I said in a post before as long as our hours add up to 148 hour over a 4 week period, ( an average of 37 hour week) Al's good!

8-6 is a 10 hour day
assuming an hour (max for lunch) is at least 45 hours.
we're not talking aobut shifts notacooldad but office mon-fri 9-5 (but not) job

Holiday terms seem fine/normal to me but the working day is too long, I think 7 hours a day (9-5 incl 1 hour for lunch), totalling 35 is normal.

I work 8 hour days (7-4). I wouldn't want to do 9 if just normal office work. I understand if you're a lawyer/doctor etc.

The holiday thing is fairly normal, especially forced Christmas leave, but it's never something that's affected me as I've always worked in sectors that are busy at Christmas.

I'd be annoyed at having to take most of my leave at the most expensive times of year. I'm an off-peak traveller and actively avoid school holidays.

we're not talking aobut shifts notacooldad but office mon-fri 9-5 (but not) job
Yeah, you didn't mention it being an office job until your third post.

I was commenting on someone finding that shift 'disturbing' and go on about them trying to wring 'every last lady drop of blood out of you' (wtf does that even mean. and assuming that you would only get half an hour dinner when the reality is somewhat different - as I said those hours are inclusive and we take our dinner break any time that works as well as have fag breaks if we want, as many brews as we want etc

I work in a News driven industry and have had to work every Christmas (bar the bank holiday days) for 13 years. I would bloody love all of Christmas and New Year off! It's almost impossible for me to get a week off in Summer as everyone else is away. I would jump at this if I were you!

Plus it sounds like you'll still have a week or so to use for appointments and any other days you fancy. Go for it!

When you say 6 weeks, do you mean 30 days? Is this in addition to or inclusive of the eight bank holidays? Because if its the latter then it's not really all that generous seeing as the legal minimum is 28 days.