This is my case and petition for UK employers to consider adding a 2 week summer holiday to the employment contracts. If you disagree, please reply and let me know your thoughts.
It’s the first week of the summer holidays here in the UK. The kids get roughly 6 weeks off school, which is already crazy for the poor parents in our society. Now we all know I am not a parent, but I do feel for them, since most employers give us 6 weeks of leave per year, and the school year has 14 weeks of holidays. How do they deal with child care?
I don’t know. But that’s not the question for those of us who don’t have kids (yet). My question is: Why don’t we get 2 weeks of summer holidays?
Now most employers in the UK give the employees a Christmas break. That could be a week or 2. The whole country is not overly religious, but the Christmas break is a big one to look forward to. Now when summer comes, we have spent 6 months since Christmas working really hard, and this is the half way mark, so why isn’t there a 2 week break here?
Also, since it’s summer, and there are several weeks to pick from during a kids summer holiday, companies have the option to stagger employee holidays over the summer, to then mean they don’t have to fully shut down during the summer for 6 weeks, they can work at a reduced capacity.
And do you know what the benefits are of this arrangement:
Employees have better morale, since they have an extra 2 week break to look forward to, half way through the year
If employees have better morale, they will work more efficiently
Summer holidays normally do get less productivity, because of the working population who have children, that need caring for. Having staggered 2 weeks breaks during the summer months, means that companies can reduce that loss in productivity
Since global warming/climate change is a thing, we actually are having hot summers, and people would love to be able to take advantage of those, since Life is Short!
To add to my case, these 2 weeks should not be subtracted from the already abysmal annual leave allowance that is given to employees. If employers prefer it to come from the allowance, they have to add an extra 10 days (5 working days x 2) to that leave allowance. I think the minimum allowed to offer on full time contracts is 25 days (which is crazy when you subtract the days over Christmas), so it means minimum contracts should offer is 35 days. I understand companies will think that is too much, so it would work in your favour to just make it part of the terms and conditions.
In conclusion, it would be a positive outcome if an extra 2 weeks annual leave was granted for employees to take during the summer months. It would benefit the parental group of employees, since that reduces concerns about child care, for some of those weeks. And for those employees who do not have children, don’t feel obligated or punished for not having kids, and thus not getting to have a summer holiday. Also, with climate change, the temperatures are only getting higher, and surely the paperwork and legislation changes to “Appropriate working conditions” will be harder to implement, with people fainting from heat stroke in the office, than if you give them 2 weeks off to enjoy the heat. Which puts less pressure on older AC units to keep the buildings in operation cool enough.
Thank you for reading my TEDtext.
Weekly reflection
Karma is your type B best friend. She always pulls through, even if she might be a little late.
Have a lovely weekend,😊😊
Rue
Adulting For Life
