sydney

I agree with trasjohno-children or not you should be able to take your holidays when you require them. I have children and wouldnt expect to have preferential treatment over a person who doesnt have children. My job is in retail so we do have a few restrictions where holidays are concerned but we work around those.

Other than the two weeks before Christmas, between Christmas and New Year and the week before Easter and over Easter, I can take my holidays as and when I wish providing not too many staff are off. This results in me being able to take my holidays virtually whenever I want them
Mark

I work in a University and we get a generous 39 days a year but understandably it's difficult to take more than a week of this during term time. The Uni works to a two semester rather than 3 term structure and it feels like a really long hard haul from late August through to Christmas. Thankfully the Programme Directors I work for have always tiemtabled a non-teaching week in early October which provides an opportunity to take a week off then - but as it conincides with the schools being off up here it can be expensive to go away then.

The University closes down over Christmas and New Year and we all have to take a minimum of 5 days from our annual leave then. This really causes a lot of resentment because academics can find themselve still working at this time on research or marking but are officially on 'holiday'.

What causes me far more problems is the difference between the academic year up here in Scotland and the school year down in England. Trying to coordinate things with my brother who is a school teacher in England is a big headache. For example, regardless of when Easter is the local schools to me always take the first two weeks in April off, as does the Uni so the Easter weekend can be just like any other and I have often been teaching on both Good Friday and easter Monday. Unless Easter falls in early April a family holiday or get together then is impossible.

And the summer vacation starts at the end of June up here but my brother doesn't finish until 3, somtimes 4 weeks later at the end of July. But I usually had to be back at work by mid-August for study blocks for PT Postgrad students. So we'd end up with at most 2 week window to juggle things around. And then my non-teaching week would be in the first half of October (to coincide with half-term in the schools who would also have started back in mid-August) but his would be in the second half of October.

And all this could be further compicated by the fact that he taught in different county to where he lived and hence his term dates didn't always coincide with his daughters'. I'm a amazed that we ever managed to go away as an extended family with my Mum and Dad but manage it we did though not every year.

But light at the end of the tunnel - I'm going part-time from the start of this academic year having accepted a partial voluntary severance deal in anticipation of early retirement in a couple of years! I am SO looking forward to a) having more time to do the things I want and b) not being tied to the Uni holiday periods to go away. Cuba in February/March rather than in the hurrican season - BLISS!

SM

I think that many of us accept what we can and often have differing views of what would be ideal holiday times. Some resent the fact that they can't have school holiday times as others with children book them first and others that work in schools (like myself) complain that that's the only time we can go and it's soo expensive then.

I'm lucky in that I have a lot of holidays but unlucky that each time I book to go away I'm paying top prices. So far, hubby has been able to book his hols when he wants, provided he gets the dates in early enough. He works for the maintenance department of our local council and was told at one time that it was impossible for him to have any time off during the summer holidays as he was needed to do work in schools whilst they were closed. He did manage to get away though and thankfully he hasn't had any issues since.

I work in a supermarket, and you would think it would be easy to get time of, not really, if you want to take of July for holidays

In my store, we have upwards of 150 checkout operators, including my self. They only allow 4 operator to be of on holiday at any time, so if like me you want July 2012 of, you have to book your holiday, and get them place into the holiday book, and come Dec, July is fully booked up

Im only just started a new job as a receptionist for a very well known company in manchester city centre, and my entitlement is 23 days plus the bank hols..but Ive had to leave it late this year...as I have been out of work till yesterday so my normal time to fly to malaga is around now aug 3rd for 2 weeks..so as funds were low we are now booked for october 9th which I have to say Im dreading as I know weather is very changable and also it will be alot quieter..Im used to hot weather busy atmopshere in peak season and infact love it...so Im hoping and praying we do not get rain in fuengirola this year...and also still got another 8 weeks to go...

I get 30 days off, 8 of which are bank holidays. Included in this is the shut down we have over the Christmas period from say 23rd December or however it falls right they way through to New Year, coming back say 2nd or 3rd Jan..depending on how it falls. I have 3 days deducted from my total leaving me a remaining 19 to pick and choose as I wish.

I try to be considerate to other people but pretty much get to go when I like...as long as all the wages get sorted out still I dont think anyone cares whether I am there or not.

i get 25 days, plus bank holidays plus any flexi days i can accumulate. i can build up and take 3 days per month working longer hours some days.i normally end up carrying holidays over from one year to the next.
this holiday year, which started last month i had 20 days to carry over, and have 5 flexi days to take!
i can take my holidays any time i want as long as they can get someone to cover for me -which is getting more difficult due to staffing cuts - except
they don't like me being off on mondays or tuesdays(the chair and the CEO are in)
nor when they have the monthly board meetings
nor when they have monthly Senior Management meetings(different weeks)
nor when other Senior managers are on site
nor, as my boss says, when the particular days i want have a "d" in them

this calendar year i have had 2 holidays cancelled as they could not get cover for me, and also had to curtail 2 breaks so instead of going from thursday to tuesday i went from friday to sunday.

Another one here who has problems, 3.6 in the team and they like to always have at least one person in. We aren't working in a school but our services are offered to schools, so we need to tale the majority of our leave during the 13 school holiday weeks. We get 30 days each.

It's a nightmare trying to co-ordinate it.

I loved going on holiday in June & September before we had kids, but bizarrely now they are almost grown up I have got so used to going in July/August, I dont want to go back to June & September as I'm worried it will be too quiet & boring for us with no atmosphere

We like a quiet apartment or hotel for sleeping, but restaurants & bars to have a buzz about them & don't want to be the only ones the waiters have to concentrate on.

We all try and work around each others needs if practical.

When both hubby and I worked it was a night mare trying to get our holidays together! It was not my hubby's company but mine. Lord there were a nightmare. It used to be I ended up with a week in February and then a week in October so we would have to take our family holidays abroad in those two weeks Throughout the six weeks holiday well it always seemed to be the same people that got it off year after year, so one year I clearly stated on my holiday request forms that if i could not have a week off then when my children were off school I would just take it off as unpaid and I did not care if they sacked me Well it worked as I got my two weeks off in the summer that year.

Now that I do not work it does not really matter as hubby can tend to take his as and when like I have already said above