oh to be in Britain, now that hols are here...

[winterbadger]

From the professional society I belong to:

The office will be closed from 12 noon on 24th Dec and will re-open at 9 a.m. on 4th January.
XXXXX would like to wish all of its members a very happy Christmas and New Year.

From the postgraduate programme I'm enrolled in, emailed this morning:

The XXXXX is now closed for the Christmas Holidays.
We will be back in the office on Wednesday 06 January,
Merry Christmas to you all.

Weekdays my current employer's office is closed in the next two weeks:

25 December and 1 January.

Comments

[tispity.livejournal.com]

Ah we don't all get it so lucky here in the UK. I'm only getting 3 days off and the library is only actually closed on the 25th and 1st. It's quite grim really :(

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could ever go back to the meagre holiday/vacation time in the US unless I *had* to. I enjoy the holidays much more here.

[gr-c17.livejournal.com]

Doesn't your employer have some grave responsibilities? It's not like your just selling trucks ;)

[winterbadger]

True, the All-Seeing Eye of Sauron the US Government never sleeps. And I imagine places like Thames House, Vauxhall Cross, and GCHQ are open 24 x 7 x 365, too. But I imagine that their staff get pretty liberal leave allowances to make up for their working through holidays and so on.

[wolfette]

Registers of Scotland are closed 25th and 27th Dec (Boxing Day is a Saturday so we get the Monday in lieu) and 1st and 4th Jan (2nd would be a holiday but again it's a Sat).

Any other days we take depend on our available annual leave and "business needs".

[silme.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, no post will be delivered this Friday, Saturday nor Monday, and the banks are similarly closed.

My husband's contractual work generally is nil this time of year, which means no income for him.

[winterbadger]

Yeah, that's always been one of the ironic things for me about the whole "moving to the UK" plan--if I end up doing what I plan to, I'll be a freelancer and so get no *paid* vacation at all. I can have whatever days off I want to take, but that will be that much less income...

[easy-living.livejournal.com]

I always tried to get off work from lunchtime on 12/24 through to the beginning of January (1/2 or 1/3), but typically you have to take three days out of your annual leave to achieve that. Of course, when your annual leave is 20 or more days plus sick leave, time-off-in-lieu and public holidays, three days is not such a huge chunk out of it as it would be for a lot of Americans.

[winterbadger]

Of course, when your annual leave is 20 or more days plus sick leave, time-off-in-lieu and public holidays, three days is not such a huge chunk out of it as it would be for a lot of Americans.

Yeah, I was having that conversation with a friend of mine last night. He's an attorney who works in the USG, and he was pretty appalled at my allowance of 17 days combined sick leave and vacation (only achieved after six years continuous employment for my Lords and Masters) plus 9 federal holidays. A good place to add my frequent observation that the US is in a "club " with Bolivia, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, and Suriname as the only countries in North, South, or Central America with *no* mandatory national requirement that employers offer *any* paid time off to their workers. The US is routiinely in the top ten countries ranked by per capita GDP; only two of the others are even (just barely) in the top 100...

[ban-leodhasach.livejournal.com]

Yeah holidays are not bad here - although my employer is currently trying to reduce my holidays to 30 from 32 (that' not including sick days or Bank Holidays!!!) so not too happy just now :-I .

The Uk is a bit odd when it comes to public holidays - England & Wales get 7 Bank Holidays, Scotland get 8 and Northern Ireland get 10!!! So if you want to get more holiday time head to Belfast :-)

[winterbadger]

Even 30 would seem princely to me! :-)

[NI] Will I get extra visa points if I settle there? For extra visa points I'll do almost anything. ;-)

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I can live with no mail on Saturdays for sure. Really, I can. And personally, I'm down with things being closed more. I don't think it's good for any society when things are open 24/7.

[azbound.livejournal.com]

Well, except stuff like hospitals. ;-)

[silme.livejournal.com]

Moving to Britain 9.5 years ago meant I needed to get used to not living in a 24/7 society any longer. I now am used to shops closing at 5.30pm and late Christmas openings meaning closing at 8pm. :)