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Do you have to use up holiday over the Xmas week?

I've never, ever worked anywhere that wasn't open the whole period except the actual bank holidays. I've even worked somewhere that was open 24/7 so someone had to work Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

I had two weeks off last year, out of my holiday allowance. Can't be arsed this year, working Christmas week and have taken NYE and the three days after New Year's Day as holiday.

I'd rather take the holiday in the summer and tbh I don't see that it's a God given right to have the whole period off.
 
I don't think many people think it's a god given right, tis just a bit harsh to be told you have to use your annual leave when you don't have the option to work ;)
 
My workplace (or soon-to-be workplace anyway) is closed between Christmas and New Year and we get paid for up to three of the non-public holidays which by my calculations means that I'll have to take a day of my holiday to get paid for the full period. Although I haven't yet ascertained the status of Christmas Eve.
 
BiddlyBee said:
I don't think many people think it's a god given right, tis just a bit harsh to be told you have to use your annual leave when you don't have the option to work ;)
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no, I agree. I'm just constantly surprised by the numbers of people who are shocked that I have to work between Christmas and New Year.

It's a little rantette independent of the main thrust of this thread :)
 
I am now self-employed and will have no work, and no pay at all, for almost two weeks over Christmas. I have no idea how I'm going to survive that. Really, how do self-employed people cope with that sort of thing?

Seems to me, though, that for salaried employees, obligatory leave should always be on top of normal annual leave.
 
Well I only get christmas, boxing day and new years day off by rights the rest has to be booked as annual leave................i work in a hospital and it never shuts !


:)
 
We only get the statutory xmas day and boxing day, we can come into work over the rest of the period. I've got loads of leave left so I'm finishing work on 21st December and coming back on 7th Jan. Xmas is a great time of year for maximising your leave :)

I have to think of something to do with my time off now.
 
Why dont you all deliberately use up all of your holiday before xmas? Just dont mention it til xmas comes - they'll have a go at you but fuck it, you'll get 3 days off free :confused:
 
Yetman said:
Why dont you all deliberately use up all of your holiday before xmas? Just dont mention it til xmas comes - they'll have a go at you but fuck it, you'll get 3 days off free :confused:
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That's kind of what happened with me two or three years in a row - but accidentally. It was never spelt out to us that we were expected to keep back holiday for Xmas week, but no one's come and said to me 'Where were you on the 27th, 28th and 29th?' Anyone there's just going to assume you've got the week off booked.
 
Here at my current place yes. We get off whatever is classed as holiday or bank holiday depending when Boxing Day is but the rest has to come out of our allowance. But I leave here on 6th December :D and in my new place I'm not gonna have much time off anyway. And I've just checked and it looks like I'll have to be in on Boxing Day. I need special hangover milkshakes on the go that day I think.
 
Our offices aren't shut over Christmas and if we want to take the time off, yes we have to take annual leave if you want to be off work, same as any other time of year.

Our only oddity is that we are forced to take the afternoon of 24th December as annual leave. Which is a bit scroogish.
 
My company always shuts down for a week over Xmas - you have to save 3 days of holiday allowance for it, says so in the employment contract.

It's a bit annoying not having the choice, but at the same time I'm mindful of the fact that it's a very small company (less than 20 people), so having 2 or 3 people come in on the odd day over the xmas week would be pointless - they'd get nothing done cos the company's as a whole isn't functioning.

On the plus side, there's no chance of being asked to work over Xmas when you don't want to.
 
Our office shuts over Christmas and we don't need to book leave for it. Where I work is fantastically generous with staff entitlements (certainly compared to anywhere else I've been, anyway), and in addition to our usual leave allocation we get 8 'grace days' a year, which are days when the office is shut and everyone gets the day off for free. Most of these cover the Christmas/New Year period, the rest tend to be tacked on the day after Bank Holidays :D

I honestly can't wait for the year to wind down.
 
We were given an additional 3 days leave a couple of years ago, but they have to be taken between Xmas and New Year - seems fair enough to me as we did get the days added in :)
 
last year i had set holidays (ie school holidays) so i was off anyway. this year i'm on a different contract with 8 leiu days off for bank hols etc so i can choose not to work xmas eve ,day and ny day without taking leave. if i work them, i'd get time and a half, plus the leiu day. ive chosen to take a couple days leave though, so i leave on the 22nd and come back new years eve. i will also be on call new years eve (D'OH!)
 
Cloo said:
In theory, we're supposed to keep back 3 days or so of holiday for the Xmas week if we want to take it off, but I'm sure in my current job I've not come in during that week when I've not had holiday left.

My feeling is: no one's going to check; there's not anything to do; most of your other contacts are away/offices shut; it's only one week in the whole year and we should all act as though we're entitled to take it off or else sooner or later everyone will be forbidden from doing so.

What's your workplace's attitude on this?
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i work in 24/7/365 environment that really doesn't shut ( NHS emergency and unscheduled care) so not really best places to comment on this

it depends on the job - genrally those employers who shut the process down over the christmas priod should be giving people time off ( and making it worththe while of those who are needed to come in to maintain systems and man the gateetc0

if the process continues over the christmas period then youneed to provide staffign to do whatever your 'team' does whether this is lots of people or just a few of the team depends o nthe process
 
rubbershoes said:
so how am i going to do that?:confused:
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Are you allowed to carry it over then ?


At my work if you haven't taken all your holiday by the end of december you lose it !
 
It's the end of March for me - we get loads (6 weeks plus extra days) but often get leave denied or cancelled, so it's difficult to take it.
 
rubbershoes said:
so how am i going to do that?:confused:
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It is up to your employer to make sure you do. Holidays cannot be added to the next year or paid for instead of taken.
(There is still a thread about the new holidays regulations with references in this forum somewhere, posted the day the rules came into force.)
 
Someone better tell my work. When Gordon Brown signs this new EU employment charter thing, they'll also be breaking the law over overtime and night work.
Having said that, it's not always practical to be so rigid when it comes to leave - it depends on the nature of the business
 
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