“Let me take you far away
You’d like a holiday
Let me take you far away
You’d like a holiday
Exchange the cold days for the sun
A good time and fun…”
So sang The Scorpions back in the 1970’s, but holidays were very different back then, weren’t they?
Given that the schools have just broken up, this week’s BLT meeting looked at the issue of holidays, and what they look like for 2018.
1. What is a holiday?
[noun]: “an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling.”
Having said that, when attendees from around the BLT table were asked how they spent their holidays in 2017, it turned out that one person’s definition of a holiday was another’s one of hell!
From around the table: Holidays, 2017
• Only 1 person took an uninterrupted 2-week break;
• 1 person would never take any more than 3 days off;
• Long weekends were popular amongst the entire table.
So, it was clear that the ‘traditional’ (read: in our parents’ time) definition of a 2-week summer break has become increasingly outmoded, especially for those without younger children.
With the advent of cheaper travel and internet innovations (AirBnB) the choice now lies with the consumer rather than the provider, the overriding need being one of flexibility.
2. How many days holiday a year do you take?
“Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.”
Source: UK Gov
Therefore everybody who is in paid employment is entitled to 28 days a year – that’s well over 2 x 2-week holidays, with 8 days left over to spare. So, how do we choose to spend them?
ABTA: Holiday Habits Report 2017
According to this ABTA report:
• 3.8 holidays taken per person per year: 2.1 UK, 1.7 abroad (2013: 1.9 UK, 1.2 abroad)
• 83% booked online – most of these were via PC’s, although there was a significant jump in people using mobile phones only to 2-% (2016: 13%). Note that only 17% of people physically booked their holidays; e.g. in-store.
• As to where people spent their holidays:
• 13% (2016: 14%): No holidays
• 30% (30%): UK only
• 15% (15%): Abroad only
• 42% (41%): Both UK & abroad
Additionally, according to a separate BA survey of 2,000 people:
- 1/3rd of working Brits did not use up their annual leave in 2017, losing an average of four days each;
- 69% of Brits did not take a two-week holiday.
- 16% of respondents said they felt guilty for using all their holiday allowance.
Thoughts from around the table
- A number of US firms have taken to introducing ‘unlimited holidays’, with the upshot that most people feel guilty taking them, and end up taking less than the statutory minimum [see 3. ].
- Spain was by far the most popular foreign destination in 2017, accounting for 12m trips (France 6m, Italy 3m) – could this become an important bargaining tool in BREXIT negotiations at some point?
3. Reasons for NOT taking holiday
(Official) reasons why should you take holidays:
• Improve job performance & productivity
• Promote health
• Prevent accidents/mistakes – ill cos overworked
• Improve relationships
• Work-life balance
From around the table: excuses for NOT taking a holiday:
Lack of:
• Planning
• Money
• Connectabilty
• Cover/too much work upon return
Delving a bit deeper into the psychological theory behind not taking holidays, threw up two separate theories
i. Organisational culture
“The psychological contract consists of the unwritten rules that we create for ourselves as employees and employers – what we deem to be reasonable in our workplace. We all have those sets of rules in our head, which we may be more or less aware of.”
– Julia Knight, organisational psychologist
Put simply, we feel guilty taking our full holiday entitlement, either owing to our own values or those foisted upon us by the company we work for; i.e. if nobody else takes their full entitlement, then why should you…and if you do do, then might it harm your job prospects?
ii. Thinking errors
“Thinking errors” are exhibited by those employees who say they can’t take holidays because “they’re too busy”.
These employees get into a mindset of thinking everything will fall apart without them.
In truth, it rarely does.
From around the table: Tips
- “Give your clients homework to do whilst you’re away” – ensure they are busy preparing stuff and hence don’t need to bother you.
- “Set boundaries” – whether this means only checking your phone for 30 mins first thing in the morning, or dispensing with it altogether (rather more difficult – see below.
- Set your own agenda – make it clear what your organisational culture is, be it not emails after 6pm or not responding at weekends.
- “Manage expectations” – leading on from the points above, make sure both your clients and your colleagues understand your definition of a holiday [see below: Organisational Culture].
- “Take holidays when it suits your business” – every business sector has natural peaks and troughs, so chose the troughs when everybody else is away wherever possible; e.g. for most service industries, Xmas is always a fallow time.
- “Don’t rely on Out of Office” – have a back-up plan, or a point person who can take care of matters for you
Conclusion
Holidays are an entitlement for the employees (albeit one that many apparently feel conflicted about) but a right that has to earned (and funded!) by the self-employed.
Luckily, what the modern world taketh away, it also giveth; hence we now enjoy unparalleled flexibility in our holidays, meaning that we are not ‘locked in’ to a 2-week break, as was often the case in the 1970s.
In short, holidays are now whatever works for you – there is no ‘1 size fits all‘, so individuals can fit it in with their lifestyle.
The only caveat here is the psychological pressure that some employees may feel, to be seen to NOT be taking their holidays as evidence of their commitment to the job…but luckily, all of us around the BLT table were long enough in the tooth to be past that particular point of our careers!
