Does your company force you to take leave at the end of the year? If so, how do you feel about it?
Do You Have to Take End of Year Leave?
Ghost47 on 22/12/2022 - 15:19
Last edited 22/12/2022 - 17:21 by 1 other user
Last edited 22/12/2022 - 17:21 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 67I love it
- 25I like it
- 365Meh, it’s ok, I don’t mind
- 111I don’t like it
- 138I hate it
Comments
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Hotels, flights, etc are cheaper at other times, and holiday places are more packed.
Some people like to work through the holiday season and then holiday when it's cheaper / less busy.And people from other cultures have different holiday times eg. Chinese New Year. They might want to travel home overseas for that instead.
Don't like what can you do?
They can’t if you don’t have leaves!
We have forced leave over Xmas. We also have unlimited leave. Works out pretty well.
Unlimited paid leave? How does that work.. and how does it not get abused?
Hire the right people and treat them like adults. The rest sorta takes care of itself.
I guess the control is it’s kinda hard to do your job if you’re abusing unlimited leave. Would sort itself out pretty quickly. That said, not had this issue yet.
Fair enough, what industry are you in?
How much leave do you typically take a year? I assume between 5-6 weeks..?
@buckethat: Have heard of US multinational IT companies doing this. I wonder how it works when you leave the company. How much do you get paid out? Maybe none.
If it concerns you that much, bank it and then take unpaid leave later 🤷
And how is this beneficial to the employee?
I don’t understand why anyone would want to work Christmas and new year if they didn’t have to, but I understand wanting to have some flexibility later
Where's the 'No' option?
Not forcing but encouraging
I'll take yours if you don't want it, life's not complicated.
Yes, but no. They only brought it in last year. Before that I used to not take leave over Christmas so people with young kids or real plans could take leave.
If we are saving our leave for something in particular, or have a low leave balance or have work that needs to be done during that period we can get an exemption. Also, if there was another reason you didn't want to take leave the managers can get it through as an exemption if they want to.
I like that I can now take leave without it taking away from anyone else being allowed to take leave. Most people where I work like having time off at this time of year. If there were too many exemptions I'm sure they'd get more strict about them - the only exemption they're strict about is the being required to work one. This is the 3rd financial year when we've been given 2 extra days leave too. So it's 5 days 'forced leave' + public holidays, but only really costs us 3.
I don't mind working for the sweet 2.5x pay rate on public holidays.
Yes employers need to be able to have closures in some industries where it is too hard to function with so many staff away, especially between Christmas and New Year - I'm okay with that concept - but they should have to keep the compulsory part tighter (e.g. 23rd Dec to 4th Jan… or maybe 6th Jan this year as a stretch). They shouldn't get to add the extra full week to both before Christmas and after new year - one or the other, because any more is unreasonable consumption of leave without choice.
However I know of some forced to take from last day of work on Friday 16th December and returning to work Monday 9th January this time around!
3 full weeks (less public holidays). Given you only get 4 weeks in a year, that removes free choice and should not be legal to be compulsory.If you have any plans throughout the year to take a decent far-away holiday at a particular time (such as to Europe - perhaps there are family events like a wedding over there during the year or a particular season to go) - it only makes sense to travel so far for 2-3 weeks min (especially with airfare prices as they are), then you wouldn't have the leave balance as you've been left with 1.5 weeks total for the whole rest of the year!
Christmas is also such a bad / busy / expensive time to take such big holiday so it can't substitute (just look at the weather in USA - terrible!) - especially if you have plenty of local/domestic Christmas family events to attend too in the middle of it - it doesn't make sense to be away.Compulsory leave exceeding approx ~7 leave days is not cool. Yes some people go "I'm okay with not working" … but they aren't really thinking about circumstances whereby there leave may become important at other times of the year - it removes flexibility and choice.
Yup. I am forced to take leaves between 16th and 9th Jan. Not happy. :(
Might be time to look for a new employer, where you aren’t forced to take leave, if it bothers you….
it's standard practice for real estate agents and their related conveyancing solicitors and businesses which tend to have minimal demand over the Xmas/New Year/School Holiday period.
coming out of a Woolworths this morning we saw the opening times display - essentially open every day except Xmas Day 25 December
and a new ice cream shop and a restaurant guy I know both said they would be open Xmas Day - I guess they're expecting more custom than usual then.
for organizations that work as a synergistic group of people, the absence of some may hinder the necessary work of others, so bosses may simply prefer to say everybody out for an enforced holiday - to 'enjoy' with your loved ones, if you have any
I love it because the compulsory time off doesn't get counted in annual leave. So it's just extra days off for me.
Christmas period I'm off and then another 20 days per year to spend on other periods.
that does not happen almost anywhere else - are you sure they don't dock you?
Same for me. Work for a UK software company. Force leave from 23rd Dec to 3rd jan this year, doesnt come out of annual leave either :)
Nope the offices are closed so noone can go in anyway. Our annual leave has to be approved by the system, if it's not approved it doesn't get deducted. And noone can apply for annual leave during this period anyway as from 25th to 1st working day after January is listed as 'Public Holiday' in the system.
We don't have to apply for this period you just don't rock up. And I've taken a month off every year outside of this period - usually go overseas during a quieter time of the year.
In reality it's just 1 or 2 extra days as most of it would be public holidays anyway Christmas and Boxing Day or weekends.
Just looking at the calendar it's just 3 extra days this year 28, 29 30, the rest are weekends or PH.
Because it is so ingrained in our workplace (Education) that being closed is paid leave, we're now 'open' on Friday 30th December. Almost everyone will take leave.
Unfortunately service areas must operate when the business is 'running' - so I (and I believe 3 others) will be present next Friday. I'd rather be 'forced' take a leave day.
work a 24/7 365 job, so I'm working Christmas day, not a big issue, I like the public holiday rates… so no one is forced to take leave, I was lucky to get a few days off between boxing day n new years.
Im my job its really annoying. We deal with AFCA financial disputes, therefore all our deadlines are set by AFCA, an external body. This time of year they close down for around 10 days as many organisations do, however they don't stop sending us new cases and do not extend the usual deadline periods to allow for their own shutdown or the public holidays. Similar happens at Easter every year although this is not as impactful.
Our company enforces leave at this time of year basically to minimise leave owing on the balance sheet. Now this is fine if you are able to adjust your project etc deadlines to allow for this. My team does not have that luxury. So we've basically been flogged up until yesterday getting submissions done in about a third of the normal timeframe because nobody is allowed to work next week and AFCA doesn't add extra time for the end of year shutdown. At a time of year where everyone else is winding down my team have been stressed out due to this nonsense, both from our own company and AFCA.
So no, I do not like it. If even a couple of people could work next week it would take a lot of the pressure off. Or if AFCA could just allow for the period they themselves are shut and factor this into submission deadlines. The most irritating part is after rushing to get all of this work done nobody at AFCA is likely to look at it until at least early February.
Depends on workplace. Some businesses allow working during with certain exceptions. It is what it is and be happy.
The way I see it, it's part of choosing a job. There are jobs that force this and jobs that don't. If it's that big of a deal to you, you could choose something else. If you don't like it but stay anyway, then that just means the positives in other aspects outweigh the negatives. Pros and cons to everything.
Besides, this isn't even an outright con, some people prefer this. I know people who can take leave whenever they want but struggle to get the Christmas/new year period off because it's competitive.
Wasn't in place when I started at my current company, it's a more recent thing they've introduced
We have to take about a week. I wasn’t thrilled at first, as my previous employer had Xmas shutdown leave on top of annual leave entitlements. That being said, I do enjoy having the company wide end of year break where there’s no work piling up in my absence, even if it does come out of my leave balance.
It's a double edged sword, most of your family/friends will also be on leave so you enjoy the time off together. However, this also means most places are booked out and everything is usually more expensive.
What's next? Taking sick leave when you're actually sick.
It's a common practice and it makes sense that most people are "Meh, it's ok", because that's what it is. Go to work and do nothing? Meh, ok. Take the A/L and do basically nothing with it because you have to spend time with family? Meh, ok. It always feels like it will be good value, XX days for the price of X days, but somehow it just isn't as long as you think.
2 weeks but with public holidays and a concession day, its only 4 days of leave.
I’m forced to take leave.
Hate it.
If they don’t have work on, it should be on them.
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In my experience they paid the public holidays as if you worker them