How many days holiday do you get per year?

[jk2447]

Going by our little poll it seems a majority (28.57%) that voted get 20 days holiday per year. Not quite the amazing deal some people would believe we IT workers get. Second highest was 25 days (22.86%). This is more what I'd expect to see "out in the wild" and a reasonable average IMHO. 20, 21, 30 and 31+ days all coming joint third in the poll (8.57%). I think certainly the 30 or more days stems back from the glory times in IT. I myself get 30 but am pretty confident had I not joined my company in the manner that I did, this would be much lower.

I think a reduction in the average holiday allowance could be a result of the recession and the need for businesses to work us all harder, what do you think?

Just a bit of Trivia but in Japan, its considered good if you are found asleep at your desk for 10 minutes because you are obviously working so hard, the only chance you get to rest is on your break at work! True!

**Edit: I realise not many have answered on the polls and the results won't reflect IT as a whole but I wanted to discuss it anyway

[zebulebu]

Originally Posted by jk2447

Going by our little poll it seems a majority (28.57%) that voted get 20 days holiday per year. Not quite the amazing deal some people would believe we IT workers get.

Does anyone think IT workers get an amazing deal regarding annual leave? I've never met anyone who thought we got more leave than the average worker. I've met plenty of people who think my job involves turning things off and on again, or that I'm paid a ridiculous amount of money for somethign a ten year old kid could do - but never come across the particular brand of ignorance that suggests we get more leave than the average Joe.

[Josiahb]

Can't say I have either zeb, in fact the only profession that I know of which causes people to bang on about holiday amounts is teaching. Which considering the number of teachers I know who spend most of their 'holidays' working is a fairly screwed up complaint.

[Arroryn]

Agreed. People assume teachers get the same time off as the kids they teach - ie, start at 9am, finish at 3:30pm and about 3 months of a year, which is wildly inaccurate.

Also, I've never known people to think we get wildly more time off than other professions. In fact, at my place most of the IT department are considered bonkers for the amount of hours put in (despite today being a lieu day off for me ). I do however encounter people that think I get paid a huge amount (also wildly inaccurate) also for turning things off and on again.

I once had a secretary at my place tell me she could do my job in her sleep. It's one of the few times I have genuinely laughed in someone's face.

[westernkings]

Originally Posted by Arroryn

Agreed. People assume teachers get the same time off as the kids they teach - ie, start at 9am, finish at 3:30pm and about 3 months of a year, which is wildly inaccurate.

Also, I've never known people to think we get wildly more time off than other professions. In fact, at my place most of the IT department are considered bonkers for the amount of hours put in (despite today being a lieu day off for me ). I do however encounter people that think I get paid a huge amount (also wildly inaccurate) also for turning things off and on again.

I once had a secretary at my place tell me she could do my job in her sleep. It's one of the few times I have genuinely laughed in someone's face.

When I worked at a High School, the teachers (at least the majority) did start at 8am and finish at half 3, apart from when they had meetings, and they did get every term holiday off, apart from the training days. During the 6 weeks holiday, I think they came in for the last week for about 3 hours a day lol.

[zebulebu]

Originally Posted by Arroryn

I once had a secretary at my place tell me she could do my job in her sleep. It's one of the few times I have genuinely laughed in someone's face.

LMFAO @ this. I've had that a couple of times - usually when I've ended up going to a lUser's workstation that they've f***ed up somehow with malware (back in my security days). It's always the utter bellends who think that, because they know how to defrag a drive on a workstation, that automatically puts them up there with Mark Russinovich. I hate them more than I hate the imbeciles who won't listen to basic instructions because 'it's about computers - I don't do computers'. They're the reason I could never, ever do user or desktop support as a job. In fact, if I'd had to start at the coalface like most people today, I'd have probably not stuck at IT in the first place - it's soul-destroying.

I once worked DBA at a legal appeals tribunal (yonks ago - back in the days of SQL Server 7.0!) and because the contract was outsourced, we also had to support the lawyers. One of them was so f***ing stupid he couldn't tell the difference between the 'on' switch on the monitor and the one on the PC. I was fixing something to do with his machine for the umpteenth time (I think he'd brought a USB stick in from home with a Word doc on which had a virus embedded in it. After putting up with his usual tirade of abuse about 'the systems being rubbish' (they weren't), his PC being old and slow (it wasn't) and Macs being better anyway (they're not), he moved onto the old chestnut about us 'just turning things off and on again' and 'anyone being able to do our jobs'. I'd got sick of it - and told him that, since what he did as a job amounted to 'arguing for a living' I knew damn well I could do his job, but that because he couldn't work out the difference between storing files on a server and storing them locally on his machine, he didn't have a hope in hell of doing mine. Swear to God, if I ever see that pr1ck in the street I'm f***ing him up on sight.

[Nelix]

25 days plus the 8 public holidays (bank holidays etc) so thats 33. plus lieu days for extra time worked.