flipping holidays, who needs em?!

[White Noise]

Rubbish, there will always be work out there to do. I've spent every year since I started tree work thinking along these lines, going without holidays and the such like, working 6.5 day weeks, funny thing is there is always more work about. All you'll do is make yourself ill, end up divorced and miss your kids growing up. Take the holidays, you'll come back refreshed and better focussed, and work harder cos of all the money you've lost not working:001_smile:

 

Work to live not live to work

[Kev Stephenson]

work to live, don't live to work.

 

I know this type of work is more of a calling than a choice but surely you are working to have the good things in life, including time off.

 

If you were employed you would get a minimum of 4 weeks off per year and your employer should plan the work and earnings around this. As self employed you should be running a business not just working hand to mouth and not being able to afford time off.

 

I fully understand the make hay while the sun shines principle and in some aspects of farming this is essential and unavoidable however in most cases the tree/hedge can wait a week. If you are so busy you can't find time for a week or 2 off then why not employ someone to reduce the load?

 

I would much rather have some time off with the kids in the summer sun and risk working an extra week in the peeing down rain then have it the other way around.

[Andy Collins]

Shame I don't listen to my own advice sometimes though:001_rolleyes:

[agg221]

When I first started work (employed) I was on a six month fixed term contract with 12 days associated paid leave. Any unused leave would be paid off at the end. It was during a previous recession, so jobs were hard to get, and I thought to myself well I might as well not use the holiday, as I would rather have the money when the job stopped, and then I'd probably have more free time than I wanted anyway.

 

At the end of the contract it got renewed for another six months, and then another and another... After two and a half years with no days off, I went to see Personnel (this was before the invention of HR) and asked just how long I could keep rolling days forward. They were staggered by the amount of holiday I had built up (effectively I had the right to take 72 days), and we agreed I would take a week off and they paid off the rest.

 

I'd gone straight from education to the job without a break, so hadn't actually had a holiday in three years. At the end of it, I realised why I had felt so run-down, tired and negative about everything. I was doing a job in a field I was really interested in, but it had become a millstone. I woke up, went to work, came home, went to bed. I spent weekends trying to get my head above water on sleep, I just seemed to need more and more sleep. I realised I hadn't been out in years and didn't know anyone socially in the area after living there for two and a half years!

 

In the six months after I'd been off, I took the leave that built up during that period. I felt much better, went out, got to know people and actually met my now wife of 10yrs.

 

Certainly for me, I proved I could keep going indefinitely, but doing so really didn't make me better at my job, or at anything else. There's a reason holidays are a statutory requirement, and it's not all about 'workers' rights'.

 

Alec

[Stephen Blair]

Brilliant post Alec!

I can relate to it, I started at 7am yesterday and got home at 9 pm.

I am going to have a day watching telly and films with the kids

[skyhuck]

Work should be something you fit into your life to pay the bill, you don't want to be fitting your life in around your work, IMO.

[Johny Walker]

we only have 5, familay hols a yr ,should make time for more realy ,but then thers that school thing ,

[Adam Bourne]

To be honest I have not had a proper holiday since I was 18, but had the odd week end away and stuff, and chill out on occasions when work is low and slow, but on the whole I could really do with a nice holiday......think I might have a trip to the highlands before the year is out, and nip across to fort william and see my old mate Ben Nevis .....

[Matthew Storrs]

To be honest I have not had a proper holiday since I was 18, but had the odd week end away and stuff, and chill out on occasions when work is low and slow, but on the whole I could really do with a nice holiday......think I might have a trip to the highlands before the year is out, and nip across to fort william and see my old mate Ben Nevis .....

 

We did that a few weeks ago devon to fortwilliam 14 hr drive for 2 weeks, it rained hard the whole time we were up there but the day we climbed Ben nevis the sun came out and it was glorious- flippin freezin at the top tho!

 

gotta love Scotland

[bob]

just had a week off this week at center parcs, and as much as I like spending time with the wife, I would rather be at work earning money!

 

got so much to catch up on now!!

 

who else is a work aholic like me?!

 

you work and i will go off on hol with your wife.

Maybe thats a way to get different work

taking folks wifes on hol while they stop at home working:confused1:proper job