On Leave Taking

The so-called ‘clear leave’ season had just passed, that’s December. Why do working people have to clear leave in December? Well, that’s because most of them didn’t plan their leaves ahead of time and had to clear all their annual leaves before they get forfeited at the end of the year.

So, what I’m going to share (with my limited working experience) in this post is, my personal opinion on what the best times to take leaves are. And it is definitely not in December.

How many leaves in a year?

First, let’s take a look at the total number of leaves/holidays a hypothetical working person in Singapore has. Let’s assume that this person has 21 days of annual leave and 14 days of medical leave. This person also has carried forward a maximum of 7 days of annual from the year before. Let’s further assume that this person is a parent and hence is eligible for 6 days of childcare leave. This person also takes an exam which the company supports and grants 2 days of exam leave. Finally, there’s 11 days of public holidays in Singapore.

So, in total, this person has a total of 21+7+14+6+2+11=61 days of leave/holiday per year! That’s like about 2 days per month.

Some notes. First, 11 days of public holidays are fixed, so our person don’t get a choice of which days to take a break. Second, he (I assumed it’s a he) probably want to reserve 7 days to bring forward to the next year. Third, exam leaves are tied to exam dates so that can’t be arranged. Lastly, it is a little hard to choose which day our person will fall sick to take a medical leave, but, there are ways to arrange this. ;P Let’s assume medical leave *can* be arranged.

So, our total number of arrange-able leaves is 61-11-7-2=41 days. This is what we’ll be working with.

Never ‘clear’ leave

First rule, do not ever fall into the category of clearing leave. This will mean not having control over which days to take leave, which will most likely fall on the last 2 weeks of December.

You do not want to take leave in December for several reasons. First, travel fares are expensive during December as it is considered peak season, so it either means that you will be spending more than usual on traveling or you won’t be traveling at all. Second, it’s school holidays so everywhere will be more crowded than usual. This will include public transports, shopping malls, restaurants, etc. Third, the office will be most empty during this period of time as most other working folks will be clearing their leave. Instead, you should stay in office during December as the office environment will be quieter, you can focus better and be more productive. There will also be less meetings and your boss will probably clearing his leave.

Now, for similar reasons, try not to take block leave for traveling during school holidays (1 week in March, whole of June, 1 week in September), because traveling costs are high. You should always travel during off peak periods. That is, avoid school holidays and public holidays of *both* Singapore and your destination city.

4.5 days work week

Let’s assume you want 2 travel holidays per year, each using 7 days of leave. I will not elaborate on how these 7 days should be utilized. So we’re left with 41-7-7=27 days. Let’s further assume another 5 days will be used for genuine emergency needs. So we’re left with 27-5=22 days.

Now, since we’re not taking leaves in December, let’s spread the remaining 22 days over the remaining 11 months. Wow, we’re looking at 2 days of leave per month. That’s 1 rest day every 2 weeks. Or 0.5 rest day every week, implying a 4.5 days work week. Cool, isn’t it.

Best day of a week to leave

Let’s see what the best times to take leave during the week are. Again, these are my opinions.

Over the course of the week, people generally feel moody-er early on in the week and happier later in the week. Therefore, the leave should be taken to offset such moody effects. As such, Mondays are good choices for leaves. And never take leave on Friday because it is going to be a relatively relaxing day at work.

However, there are some disadvantages with taking a Monday leave. One is that you have to work for 4 consecutive days (Tue-Fri) after the Monday. Personally, I don’t like that. I prefer to take a leave on a Wednesday to break the 5 day week into 2 smaller chunks of 2 days.

By taking a leave on a Wednesday, there will be something to look forward to on a Monday. So the Monday starts ‘feeling’ like a Thursday because of the anticipation of the upcoming midweek break. Similarly, the Tuesday will ‘feel’ like a Friday. This way, the happy mood can be maintained throughout the week.

AM or PM?

On to half day leaves. Is it better to take an AM leave or a PM leave? For AM leave, the pro is that you get to sleep in late and not squeeze with the morning rush hour crowd while the con is that most shops are not opened in the morning so there is limited entertainment options. For PM leave, the pro is that you get to knock off after lunch and it is easier to coordinate gatherings with friends during this time while the con is waking up early and morning rush hour.

Sleep is a luxury. Personally, I prefer taking the AM leave. The reason being I can sleep in, and upon arriving at work after lunch, knock off time is just a few emails away. Yay!

If the intention is to take a half day leave every week to create the year long 4.5 day work week, my preference will be Wednesday AM.

General tips

You may have noticed that my preferences with leave taking involve maximizing happiness. I like to organize my leaves in such a way that allow myself to feel happy or to create a happy and pleasing environment. This includes being about to do my work in peace without distractions. So here are some general tips towards to happier work environment.

Always try to find out when the boss is going on leave. The rule is, always be around when the boss isn’t, and take leave when the boss is in office. This minimizes the chances of seeing the boss in the office and hence reduces distractions => higher productivity.

Take leave on the day of the meeting if it is going to be a boring one. More often than not, you can guess the agenda of a meeting and predict whether it is going to be a constructive one or not. Schedule a half day leave on the un-constructive meeting days so that you can go take a break instead of sitting through a mindless boring round-and-round conclusion-less weekly 3 hour meeting.

Take a look at the calendar for the whole year. If there are days where a 4 day super long weekend is possible with just 1 day of leave, avoid taking leave on those dates. Same reasoning. Most people will take leave on those dates, the office will be quiet, lesser distractions, feel happier, more work gets done.

That’s all for now. Sure hope someone will find these tips useful. If I do get more ideas on leaving taking, I’ll append this post. Cya!

-Dear1