I am in partial work mode today, as Smallsteps is home ill. Technically, she isn't that sick, but we wanted to keep her home to observe a little and save her some unnecessary discomfort. This means that I am a bit back and forth between her and the desk, which disrupts both sides of the equation. Lately, I have been taking the "day off" when she has been ill, but she isn't sick enough to do that today, so I will do a partial shift instead.
I have a lot of holidays and extra hours owing, with 58 holiday days in total, and over a week of time in lieu from overtime owing also. Weirdly, our annual leave holidays are not counted on a 5 day week like we work, it is on a 6 day week, so Saturday is included. This is some left over law from times past or something like that, so the total vacation days are a bit misleading.
The reason I have so many though is that since 2021, each year I take my summer holidays, I am actually using the previous year allocation, leaving the current year intact. This is because I had a stroke just before summer holidays started, which meant that it was taken as sick leave, not annual leave.
The only benefit of having a stroke?
Because we have some shared responsibilities as a team, we have to arrange our holidays so there is always at least someone available, just in case. This can be hard if everyone is in Finland, because the holiday month is generally all of July, or a week either side, because this is also about the only chance for decent weather. However, we have one person in the UK and one in the US also now, so it is a bit easier to organize, as they take different periods off.
However, one of the challenges is that the summer school holidays are crazy long here, with Smallsteps only having a couple weeks left before starting, and not going back until mid-August. Even if my wife and I staggered our holidays with no overlap, we wouldn't be able to cover the 10 weeks under normal circumstances. There is some holiday care for the first few weeks however, so that she will spend time there for a bit, but I will probably have to take extra holidays from my bank in August to cover the end of it.
I guess normally, it would come down to grandparents doing some baby sitting, and that is likely possible for a few days. But Smallsteps' are approaching eighty now and they don't have the energy they had when they looked after her cousins in the past. They also used to have a summer cottage where they would spend the summers and would take the kids there, but they gave it up a few years ago because they just couldn't maintain it anymore, as it was just too much work.
For the first fifteen years I was in Finland, I didn't have annual leave, as I was either a freelancer or a business owner. This meant that I would either work through when I could, or be on "forced holiday" because there was no work. The first couple years, the forced holiday was almost ten weeks long, which was completely unpaid, and it was terrible. So, holidays weren't the most relaxing part of the year for me.
Now, things are a bit different as even though I still have a small business, I don't have that much work to do throughout the summer, and I get paid normally from my work as well. This has taken a lot of the stress off holidays, as I can live a normal life, without having to plan many months ahead on how I will survive it.
We aren't travelling outside of Finland this year though, as we don't have the money available to spend on it. However, an overnight beach trip to the coast for a couple days is possible pending the weather, and we want to do a few day trips to see some sights we haven't visited before. My plan is to have more relaxed days where when we are at home we are in the garden or chilling somewhere, and when we are away from the home, maximizing time as a family doing something different.
One benefit of travelling in Finland is, there is always something for Smallsteps to eat on a menu.
I assume it isn't just me, but getting locked into plans is never really comfortable, and as someone who doesn't like to plan free time, booking holiday slots a couple months in advance feels like I am planning ahead too far for it. However, it has to be done so others can plan their holidays too and we can work out the schedules. My wife has a smaller team all in Finland though, and that makes it hard for them to plan and generally means that no one gets quite what they want.
But, it'll be fine.
My wife and I try to roll with the punches, so not getting the exact holidays we want, has never been too much of a drama in the past. However, both of us have experienced some pretty big dummy spits in our time, because people expect that they should always get what they want, even if others don't. More entitlement.
Do you have holiday plans?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
It still just baffles me that the whole country basically shuts down when everyone is on holiday. Here in the US more people travel during the summer, but it's kind of all spread out.
It is slowly spreading a bit further as people are travelling in other parts of Europe now. Southern and central Europe take their in August.
There are pros to the solid break though, as it means that young people can get trainee experience positions in their summer break.
I have 10 weeks that I'll be away doing a research internship starting at the beginning of June. It's going to be weird to be away from the wife and kids that long. We're hoping to have a week for whatever after that. No plans yet, but I'm sure they'll materialize before the date.
10 weeks is a long time to be away these days. I know a ship's captain that travels like those times quite regularly, and he said it is pretty challenging, as his wife is essentially a single mother 50% of the time.
But, it sounds like the opportunity is worth it.
As a teacher I will go on 6 weeks summer break very soon. I don’t even know what I will do yet, but something will come up before then. I know however, that I will definitely travel to another city to unwind. It’s been a hectic academic year.
What do you teach?
Computer science, to junior high schoolers.
Dear @tarazkp !
A famous East Asian proverb says that parents must be healthy first, and then their children will be healthy!
I hope her parents get healthy first!
And I hope she recovers!
Too late for her parents to be healthy.
Dear my bro @tarazkp !
I hope you pray to Jesus to give you health!
I hope you don't give up hope!😦
Really wishing her speedy recovery bruv... that's a lot of holidays 😁 however summer holidays are one of the best.. you deserve rest to bruv... Here's some healing juju for her😂 good luck with partial work bruv🫡
I used to watch Bewitched a lot as a kid.
Me quickly going to YouTube to search for Bewitched...😂😂😂
Did you find it?
Absolutely man is it this one?😂😂😂
It’s good that Smallsteps always have someone to stay with when she’s I’ll. I’m glad you could put her at home to monitor her health instead of going to school
You have a reasonable number of off days unlike some companies or workplaces
A holiday? what is that?I hope that in the future I will be able to continue working on Hive and my art daily without breaks be it the holidays or weekends. Last time I had a holiday(my pc needed to be fixed) it was awful. I hope that it will not happen again.I also use the off-days from the previous years and Saturday is not included :) If one has more than 100 days, the company might offer money for those days, which is not for the benefit of an employee.
Sir, as far as I can recollect you are from Law background, right? So I guess Law will not leave you stress-free......😀
That is the innate "state of nature" of Humans.....and none of us are an exception.
So basically July is that month when most of the Europeans plan for Holidays...right? I hope you get a rejuvenating break.
Thank you.
Have a great day.
🙏🙏🙏
It's awesome that you seem to have a really good vacation system over there. In most companies I've been in the Philippines, employees need to use their vacation leaves that year, or they get forfeited. The better ones convert them to cash. I think being in Europe makes vacationing easier as well. It usually takes just a train ride to visit other countries and see wonderful views.
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