Society & Culture Workplace Leave

[Keys]

If you can't work 40 hours a week there is something wrong. Find a new job.

But what if the new job is 40 hours a week as well? Then what

 

[Stratton_Gun]

But what if the new job is 40 hours a week as well? Then what

I meant find something you enjoy doing more

 

[Scotland]

I've taken leave without pay a few times and recommend it highly.

The 'work 9-5 Monday to Friday 48 weeks a year, take 4 weeks off to go on holiday and a few days when you're sick' thing is restrictive and outdated.

 

[the_interloper]

I meant find something you enjoy doing more

What about if something you enjoy more is 80 hours a week?

 

[raskolnikov]

Teacher here and what is this thread?

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I average out at 54 hours a week, I do 48 one week and 60 the next, a 4/2, 5/3 roster. It sucks balls, just as well I really like what I do. I'm moving the family back to Victoria at the end of next year and at this stage, they've said they're happy to re-negotiate my roster. About half the site do 7/7, a handful do 9/5 and the rest do my roster.

There's 2 o 3 of us that drive in an out of Leinster which is only 90km away but everyone else is fifo, quite a few fly back into Perth and then take off to other parts of Australia with a couple flying in and out of Bali.

For those of on the 4/2, 5/3 roster and doing fifo, I can really notice the toll it's taking on them. If they need to get stuff done during normal business hours at places like banks and Government departments, they only have 1 opportunity per fortnight to get it done.

I share a building with 4 others, 2 of them are in debt up to their eyeballs. Both have non working wives that are bleeding them dry and very demanding financially. One of them is married to a Chinese woman and I reckon her family is in a the 'bleeding dry' part of it too.

One takes holidays that he can't afford all the time and the other never takes leave. He has the required hours in the bank and everything else he cashes in each Christmas. I used to feel sorry for him but not so much anymore. He's basically a doormat. I guess some people are just wired that way but he won't take a stand. He cops it at home and then comes to work and gets micro managed to the enth degree by his manager (he's a supervisor himself). He'll keel over before he stands up for himself.

All during my working life, I could never understand people who would take holidays, go away and come back from where ever it was they went, the afternoon or night before they have to come back into work and spend all their time complaining about how exhausted they are.

Two roles ago with my current employer, I worked in very arduous environmental conditions and a lot of the time it was very physical. For those of you working in an office, imagine sitting at your computer and typing, having to wear an ice vest so that you didn't overheat and collapse.

One thing I've always noticed from my personal perspective is that if I have a hard, mentally challenging day, I'm a lot more tired than if it's just a hard day physically. I do however sleep better and wake up better when I'm mentally worn out.

I have 300hrs of annual leave in the bank, just in case. I spent 18 months building it up and it really took it out of me. I only took leave when I absolutely had to. Now, with those hours in the bank, I use up all new leave that I accumulate.

When I worked at Barwon Prison, I was on night shift one night and another bloke and I pulled out our EBA and gave it a thorough going through. We saw in there, that with Manager's approval, you could work for 4 years at 80% pay and then take the 5th year off at 80% pay. The other bloke that I was with, was single, in his 40s and with no commitments. He lodged his application before we left the next morning. It was approved and then management sent around an email saying that no more of these applications would be approved.

 

[Damon_3388]

As a single, unattached bloke, I find drip-feeding with 2-3 days of leave (either side of a weekend) periodically is the best way to recharge and stay fresh, rather than saving it up and taking a big 3-4 week block once a year.

Having a 9-5-ish job without nights, weekends and public holiday work is a big step towards feeling "normal" and happy I find, ahead of leave. Hard to find that these days, though, as most jobs seem to demand something extra of your time.

 

[stmookeyj]

4 weeks annual leave, but if you work 10 Sunday shifts you are entitled to a 5th. Fortunately some shift swapping can help me as rather than take full weeks off or a block of weeks off as many do, I often take 3 full weeks off (usually the last 2 weeks in November plus the week that Australia Day falls in) and 4-5 long weekends for my running commitments (2-3 days in Canberra in April, 2 days in Sydney for City2Surf, 2-3 days in Melbourne for Melbourne Marathon, an extra day for Perth trips given I've tried working straight off the plane after a red eye flight and a connection). I try not to use rec leave days for events in SE Qld (an hour's flight isn't that hard on me) unless I need the Friday before for transportation purposes, I'll even use a sick leave day for this purpose if necessary (5 days without a certificate on a rolling basis, meaning you don't get that day back for 365 days. Some use way too much sick leave).

Personally I am at a stage where I probably need to use leave rather than store it, but I do become eligible for long service in 2018. Now that I have a passport though I may look to use some more in 2017 given I've allocated 4 full weeks rather than my normal 3.

 

[crownie]

My current job which I've been at for 7 years allows you to take annual leave whenever you want as long as its approved by your manager. 4 weeks a year to use and if you don't use it then it just adds onto the next year but once you are over 300 hours they force you to use it.

I use 8 weeks at a time every second year which is good to on a nice long holiday.

Other jobs before made us take 2 weeks off at xmas time and 2 weeks off during the year which i didnt like as it wasn't enough time off.

 

[PoppedCorn]

I average out at 54 hours a week, I do 48 one week and 60 the next, a 4/2, 5/3 roster. It sucks balls, just as well I really like what I do. I'm moving the family back to Victoria at the end of next year and at this stage, they've said they're happy to re-negotiate my roster. About half the site do 7/7, a handful do 9/5 and the rest do my roster.

There's 2 o 3 of us that drive in an out of Leinster which is only 90km away but everyone else is fifo, quite a few fly back into Perth and then take off to other parts of Australia with a couple flying in and out of Bali.

For those of on the 4/2, 5/3 roster and doing fifo, I can really notice the toll it's taking on them. If they need to get stuff done during normal business hours at places like banks and Government departments, they only have 1 opportunity per fortnight to get it done.

I share a building with 4 others, 2 of them are in debt up to their eyeballs. Both have non working wives that are bleeding them dry and very demanding financially. One of them is married to a Chinese woman and I reckon her family is in a the 'bleeding dry' part of it too.

One takes holidays that he can't afford all the time and the other never takes leave. He has the required hours in the bank and everything else he cashes in each Christmas. I used to feel sorry for him but not so much anymore. He's basically a doormat. I guess some people are just wired that way but he won't take a stand. He cops it at home and then comes to work and gets micro managed to the enth degree by his manager (he's a supervisor himself). He'll keel over before he stands up for himself.

All during my working life, I could never understand people who would take holidays, go away and come back from where ever it was they went, the afternoon or night before they have to come back into work and spend all their time complaining about how exhausted they are.

Two roles ago with my current employer, I worked in very arduous environmental conditions and a lot of the time it was very physical. For those of you working in an office, imagine sitting at your computer and typing, having to wear an ice vest so that you didn't overheat and collapse.

One thing I've always noticed from my personal perspective is that if I have a hard, mentally challenging day, I'm a lot more tired than if it's just a hard day physically. I do however sleep better and wake up better when I'm mentally worn out.

I have 300hrs of annual leave in the bank, just in case. I spent 18 months building it up and it really took it out of me. I only took leave when I absolutely had to. Now, with those hours in the bank, I use up all new leave that I accumulate.

When I worked at Barwon Prison, I was on night shift one night and another bloke and I pulled out our EBA and gave it a thorough going through. We saw in there, that with Manager's approval, you could work for 4 years at 80% pay and then take the 5th year off at 80% pay. The other bloke that I was with, was single, in his 40s and with no commitments. He lodged his application before we left the next morning. It was approved and then management sent around an email saying that no more of these applications would be approved.

Even though it's in the eba lol
Ours says we can take single lsl days at the companies digression....they now have decide to stop doing it after 2.5 years into a 3 year agreement
Do you reckon they will bring it up when we go in to talk about a new eba deal in April lol....
Another stupid thing they wanted last eba deal was once we get 8 weeks of annual leave up our sleeve we have to take a minimum of 4 to cut it back....but I can sit there with seven weeks accumulated and nothing gets said
Its a good time negotiating.....they want to take away everything the first week, we laugh get up and walk out happy to keep everything the way it is but talk about pay rises only.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Even though it's in the eba lol
Ours says we can take single lsl days at the companies digression....they now have decide to stop doing it after 2.5 years into a 3 year agreement
Do you reckon they will bring it up when we go in to talk about a new eba deal in April lol....
Another stupid thing they wanted last eba deal was once we get 8 weeks of annual leave up our sleeve we have to take a minimum of 4 to cut it back....but I can sit there with seven weeks accumulated and nothing gets said
Its a good time negotiating.....they want to take away everything the first week, we laugh get up and walk out happy to keep everything the way it is but talk about pay rises only.

To be fair, it did say in the eba that it was at management's discretion whether or not they would approve it.

As for pay rises, pfffft. Haven't had one of those for a few years.

Our LSL has to be taken in 1 week blocks but can't be refused.

 

[PoppedCorn]

Our lsl is meant to be 10 day blocks
**** that...

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

As a single, unattached bloke, I find drip-feeding with 2-3 days of leave (either side of a weekend) periodically is the best way to recharge and stay fresh, rather than saving it up and taking a big 3-4 week block once a year.

Having a 9-5-ish job without nights, weekends and public holiday work is a big step towards feeling "normal" and happy I find, ahead of leave. Hard to find that these days, though, as most jobs seem to demand something extra of your time.

Taking days either side of a weekend is a good idea, I'm tending to do that now on my current roster.

 

[PastiesPeake]

My $0.02

That annoys me

 

[Run n Spread]

I meant find something you enjoy doing more

40 hours is a lot.

By that I mean the nature of work has changed. While even as recent as 20 years a go it was 1 hour lunches, across town for meetings and knock off early if you had to now work generally is unpaid overtime and you are expected to be on 24-7.

It is work after all. Hell even if you were a pr0n star you'd probably get tired of the 40 hour grind after a while.

 

[Catfish Alley]

Depends if you enjoy it I guess. 8 hours a day doesn't seem that much to be honest. If they are making you do unpaid overtime and hassling you 24/7 probably worth looking around.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

40 hours is a lot.

By that I mean the nature of work has changed. While even as recent as 20 years a go it was 1 hour lunches, across town for meetings and knock off early if you had to now work generally is unpaid overtime and you are expected to be on 24-7.

It is work after all. Hell even if you were a pr0n star you'd probably get tired of the 40 hour grind after a while.

Last year, I applied for and won a position with my current employer which was a promotion. At the time it was on an 8/6 roster. Within 6 months it had changed to 7/7, no problems, it was great. It cost me X amount of dollars from my site allowance but it was well worth it.

The whole organisation was restructured within 6 weeks of going 7/7 and all of the rosters were changed (I went to a 4/2, 5/3). Who I reported to changed. My first meeting with my new superintendent and also with my back-to-back and my outgoing SI who'd been made redundant happened that day, at which, he presented myself and my back-to-back with our new conditions. It went something like this.

SI : Here's your new official rosters with all of your new conditions.

I have a read of it, just one page. All previous conditions of my existing contract remain in place, these are my new days and here's the adjustment in your site allowance.

Me : Where's the rest of site allowance? (they were giving me back 2/3s of what they'd taken off me 6 weeks prior)

SI : That's all you get, it's nothing to do with me, it comes from the top. Because rosters have been reset for the whole organisation, these are what everyone gets.

Me : That's for new starters, or new positions. I've been with the organisation for 4 years, it's not a new position, you are forcing me to change rosters.

SI : Well, that's all you're getting.

I'm not happy, but he continues on.

SI : When you are on break, I expect you both to have your phone on you at all times and turned on.

Me : Is the company going to provide me with a phone for this?

SI : No, use your own phone.

Me : Since you've changed my roster, I will be spending 2 less days a fortnight at home with my family, don't call me, I will be drunk.(I barely drink)

SI : Looks at me like an idiot, says nothing and moves onto his next point.

SI : When we have a major shut, you will be expected to stay back at short notice for the duration of the shut. (probably means doing 11-13 days straight)

Me : Are you going to pay me for the extra days.

SI : No, your position doesn't get paid, it's company policy. You will receive days in lieu and we'll tell you when you can take your days off.

Me : Don't bother asking me to stay back because I won't. Now that you've change my roster, my time is much more valuable to me. If you want me working then you'll be paying me or I'll be going home.

Two days later, the GM of our organisation comes into the office on a tour, included in the group walking around with him is my new SI and manager. The GM who I had worked with previously and was reasonably friendly with, asked me how things were going. He asked me if, apart from the new roster, I had any dramas. I said yes. I mentioned my site allowance and how I hadn't received all of it back with the roster change. I assumed that he knew but he was genuinely embarrassed. My SI was standing behind him boiling and going beetroot red. The GM said it probably wasn't the time to bring it up, I said that I knew but since he was there and he asked I thought I'd use the opportunity to raise my displeasure.

Two days later my phone rings. The GM is on the line, he apologised and said that my site allowance had been fixed. He's a good bloke.

I am still with the company but had changed positions within 3 months of that happening. I love my role and don't have to report to a dick anymore.