Looking to gather some feedback on how holiday is managed in terms of maximum time off.
Everywhere I have worked to date, including financial and hospitality companies, have had a two week policy. Does anyone allow more than this and how do you manage it?
Likewise, mostly 2 weeks, but I did get a 4 week holiday agreed, as my Husband worked for a famous chicken restaurant chain and after 5 years was given an extra 4 weeks sabatical in addition to his AL. My employer was reluctant at first, until I broached the fairness of some members who were taking 4 weeks or more to visit family abroad. As far as I was concerned fair and equal was all I was asking for. I did ask if they wanted a formal breakdown own the employees who had been able to book and be paid for 4 weeks. At this point it was approved!
Hi Jonathan, like Peter previous organisations have allowed up to 2 weeks at any time with requests for longer periods to be submitted in good time for consideration and planning, these were generally for exceptional/special occasions such as time off for getting married.
Like Keith, I prefer not to be prescriptive. In practice, people rarely seek to take off more than two weeks in a single block and, when they do, it can be discussed as and when.
However, when I worked in an organization that did place restrictions on the amount of holiday that could be taken in a block, it was a max of two weeks for the first two years of employment, and then a max of three weeks after that. However, there was a specific paragraph that, for major life events, longer periods of holiday that were permitted by the policy would be considered as long as plenty of notice was given. This came in handy a couple of times: the first was when a long-serving employee was getting married and she was allowed a week off before the wedding to supervise the preparations and three weeks for a big, exciting honeymoon; the second was when another employee had spent years saving up to take his whole family on the Hajj to Mecca and we gave him the whole month.
When it's for events like this, giving the extra holiday felt like the the whole business got to participate in these life-changing experiences by proxy.
We have 'Extended holiday guidance' on our intranet internally on taking leave in excess of 3 weeks. This covers required notice periods, length of leave that will be considered, use of annual leave, use of unpaid leave, consideration of how to cover absence, impact of absence, approval process and pension and other benefits.
