How To Get The Most Annual Leave In 2020

Photo: Meg O'Donnell

January isn't just the month for trying to go vegan or temporarily giving up alcohol. It's also a time to plan your year ahead, including holidays, major family events and annual leave.

The average full-time employee in the UK is entitled to 33.5 days of paid holiday a year, which is around a week more than the 28 days we're guaranteed by law.

However, new research by Tombola has found that 44% of people in the UK don't use up all of their annual leave, and 38% say this is because they're too busy to take time off.

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In fact, according to the ONS, 23% of us are essentially working for free for a whole week every year because we don't take all the annual leave we're entitled to.

Given how beneficial holidays from staycations to solo trips can be to our mental health, it makes sense to be super-smart with your annual leave.

"The pace of work has increased quite dramatically. We are working much faster today than we were in the past," says economist Juliet Schur. "And that contributes to our sense of being overworked and frenzied and harried and stressed out and burned out by our jobs."

There's always one person in every office who seems to have more time off than everyone else because they've chosen their leave days cleverly, and this year, why shouldn't it be you?

With this in mind, Tombola have looked at where weekends fall in relation to public holidays, and worked out how full-time employees can enjoy the longest breaks possible.

At Easter, if you book a specific set of eight days off, you'll enjoy an epic 16-day break. from work. Those days are as follows:

Monday 6th April
Tuesday 7th April
Wednesday 8th April
Thursday 9th April.

Tuesday 14th April
Wednesday 15th April
Thursday 16th April
Friday 17th April

And over the festive period, if you book a particular seven days off, you'll enjoy another super-restorative 16 days off. Those days are as follows:

Monday 21st December
Tuesday 22nd December
Wednesday 23rd December
Thursday 24th December

Tuesday 29th December
Wednesday 30th December
Thursday 31st December

Is anyone else tempted to book a holiday now?

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