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Do you take all of your holiday allowance?
11 February 2010
By Blanka Sengerová
What are people's experiences with allocated annual leave - do you take yours or do you end up not taking it because you're just too busy? Similarly, do you feel you have to work weekends or are you able to just switch off when you leave the lab?
During my PhD and now in my first postdoc I've heard plenty of people tell me that you can never take the allocated leave because you're just too busy in the lab and don't get projects finished if you take holiday. Many times, the holiday allowance includes forced departmental closures over the Christmas period, but even then that leaves plenty to play with.
As a PhD student, I was allowed 40 days of leave, and people told me I'd never take it because I simply wouldn't have the time. As I kept an approximate record I can tell you that most of my years as a PhD student, I did take that amount of leave. One summer I was away for 5 weeks in a row as I went on a summer camp as a leader and then for "my own" holiday. Some might think this was excessive, but on the other hand I was working accordingly hard during the time I was in the lab (when I saw plenty of others procrastinating, having very long lunch breaks and spending far too much time browsing the web aimlessly) and I feel that I deserved the break. I also managed to submit my thesis 3 years and 4 months after starting, which is not bad going, so I must have been doing something right. My thought is that the fact that I managed to switch off and relax properly meant that I was much more motivated and efficient when I was actually working - do people tend to agree or do you think I was a skiver?
As a postdoc, I am allowed 30 days plus bank holidays, which I think is generous. Again, people are telling me that they never manage to take all the holiday, but I can see how I can easily take that time off (2.5 weeks in the summer 1.5 weeks at Christmas, a break of about a week in the spring and the odd day here and there for long weekends). Do people feel that there is almost an expectation that people don't take all of their holiday as postdocs? If that is the case, why are they giving us the holiday on paper when they almost expect us not to take it?
What I'm getting at, I suppose, is that I wonder whether many people get frustrated with their academic jobs because they feel they are not able to take the time off properly and relax because there's always that one experiment/grant proposal/conference abstract/paper that needs doing? What do other people think about this?
Nick Dickens12 February 2010 at 09:34 AM
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Brilliant, thanks for bringing this up - it is one of my pet hates. Like you I try and take all of my holiday - why not, you've earned it and deserve it. Work hard, play hard is a good attitude. I get sick of people whining about not taking their holiday, working with lab scientist I can, under some circumstances, understand this but mostly it comes down to bad management - both by PIs and self-management. Projects should be better planned, you need a break - mentally and physically - and often taking time away you will come back refreshed and be more productive, not less. There may be time restrictions - often contractually you need specific permission to take more than 2 weeks together - but you also have a contract, which specifies what you are entitled to and you should use it. Over-bearing bosses are easily dealt with and it may be that you have to compromise on a time of year, but not on the holiday to which you are entitled. If people don't take holidays, they have no-one to blame but themselves.
Hannah Dee12 February 2010 at 09:51 AM
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I have so many side projects that I often take leave to do what might class as work were I not a contract researcher! For example, I set up and ran the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium - a one-day event for women computing undergraduates. This involved liaising with sponsors and with speakers, organising poster contest, lunch, social, networking opportunities etc. etc. but that's not research and I like to keep my work hours for what I'm actually paid for as much as possible (answering occasional emails, yeah sure, but organising an unrelated conference? not really). That took quite a chunk out of my leave. I was also lucky enough to get a British Council young researcher exchange grant, and lucky enough to have PIs who let me take the time out of the project to visit Brazil and be visited in return. However there's only so much you can get done in a 6 week exchange and taking even more time out of the project to write stuff up seemed like a cheat. So that took some more leave (and continues to do so - we had some good ideas, and I'm still working on it). Hopefully this extra activity will improve the CV and put me in good stead when I'm applying for lectureships or the next post-doc. It's certainly been useful in terms of networking and contacts. But it wasn't what I was paid for at the time, so it didn't get done during office hours.
Sarah Davies13 February 2010 at 01:41 AM
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I agree with you in theory, Nick - and I really really hate the fact that there can be an expectation, or unwritten rule, that we don't take all our leave - but I have to say that I'm my own worst enemy with regard to this. I'm constantly tempted to check my email, send that abstract in, or finish that writing, when I'm meant to be taking time off. Like you say, it's all about good planning - and *not* holidaying with a laptop...
Blanka Sengerová13 February 2010 at 09:47 PM
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I wonder whether one of the problems with academia and holidays is that people feel if they don't put in the excessive hours (late nights, weekends, not taking holidays), they won't get the paper/grant/project as quickly and therefore won't be as competitive as the next person who seems quite happy not to use up their holiday allowance (after all, in Europe, we're competing with the US-based postdocs who live on 10 days of holiday a year, which to me seems absolutely unfeasible). So the question is, can those of us who try to work 'normal' (9-5, or more like 8.30-6) hours in a lab-based environment compete who those who work much longer hours? >> Sarah I generally solve the problem of being constantly tempted to check email whilst on holiday by going to places without any internet (camping wild in the Scottish highlands or a week in the Icelandic countryside were amongst the favourites)! And if I am somewhere with internet and on holiday, I exclusively check my personal email account and never open the university one.
Elizabeth Dodson19 February 2010 at 10:16 AM
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I don't feel pressured not to take holiday but usually end up carrying some over into the next financial year - as I run out of time to take it. I'm reluctant to plan it all out in advance, because I appreciate the flexibility of being able to take days off at relatively short notice when there is something I need to attend to outside of work. I am guilty of using some holiday for professional pursuits rather than relaxation - such as attending the Vitae conference, going to UKRSA meetings and attending training (that which is important to me but perhaps not a priority within my department)... but then its a generous holiday allowance (compared to previous non-academic jobs I've had) so I'm happy to do this.
Blanka Sengerová19 February 2010 at 10:44 AM
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>> Elizabeth - I agree with you that it is often harder to take an afternoon off to attend a meeting not directly relevant to you work and justify not taking holiday. When a PhD student, I did this regularly without taking days off as I thought it was part of training. As a postdoc, I have taken an afternoon off to attend Sense about Science's annual lecture as a helper because I felt this wasn't part of my work and job description. On the other hand, I would think that the Vitae conference is part of your training and personal development and you shouldn't have to use annual leave for it, similar to other training. (The first link I found when googling UKRSA was "UK Racket Stringers Association" - I'm guessing you didn't mean that?). But I agree it is hard to convince your boss of this!
Tennie Videler19 February 2010 at 10:50 AM
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we really need to increase th google profile of the UKRSA once we get a website up... My leave taking changed dramatically once i had children, especially when they went to school and we use mine and my partner's leave as one of the childcare options- cheapest and most restful for the children... I have just done three days of the half term!
Blanka Sengerová19 February 2010 at 10:55 AM
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But what is the UKRSA?
Tennie Videler19 February 2010 at 11:18 AM
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UK Research Staff Association: check out: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/156431-206881/Introducing-the-UKRSA.html but you're right, we need to get going on a website!!! Work in progress...
Elizabeth Dodson19 February 2010 at 02:38 PM
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Sorry i should have clarified that - the UK Research Staff Association is very new, and not to be confused with racket stringing :-) I had already noted that we share the acronym! I agree that everyone should be allowed some personal development within work hours, However I've been lucky to have a lot of opportunities this year and it would be unfair to expect all the time to be covered by my employers. I've completed 3 professional qualifications and attended 3 conferences on top of all the usual internal stuff like attending my university research staff forum and spending a day on media training. If it is something my PI asks me to attend or something that is necessary for my job then I expect to use work time. If the balance is more towards my own development then the time is up for negotiation - depending on what opportunities I have already had that year...
Elizabeth Dodson19 February 2010 at 02:41 PM
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(by 'this year' I mean the current financial/leave year - ending in April)
Matthew Salois22 February 2010 at 01:30 PM
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Wow, I am surprised to hear about the contrasting experiences regarding holiday time and annual leave. My situation must be atypical as my PI has told me he "measures outputs not inputs," so any time off is usually granted as long as the work is getting done. I recently told him I would like to take off a week in September and his reply was "Just a week? I think you'll be quite lonley since most people around here take off for most of the month of September." There also do not seem to be "official" leave days, at least in my experience here. There is no paperwork or adding up of time taken off. I just send an email to my PI and if he is ok with it, I just do not show up to work! To me, this is the sort of experience that endears the academic lifestyle.
Blanka Sengerová22 February 2010 at 02:08 PM
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Matthew - the way you describe how you take holiday is generally how I worked when I was a PhD student. Tell my boss when I would be away, but no one made me do any counting up. As a postdoc, I have a holiday form that I should have signed off before I take holiday. Some people put in halfdays, some don't, because often people come in at weekends to seed cells/set up overnight cultures/etc. No one is doing any hour counting though and if you leave early to catch a train, then your boss knows you'll get the work done.