On Sat, 8 Oct 2005 18:40:26 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...
On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 20:02:39 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:

IME most people have 2 weeks off at Xmas because their
employer gives them no choice.

Absolutely no people I know - and that cover a wide variety of jobs -
gets that. Just about the closest would be employers who shutdown
from XmD to NYD, which is only 8-10 days depending on when the
weekends fall, although of course 5-7 of those days are weekends or
bank holidays.

This is exactly right. I did not say they had to use 10 days
leave, but that they had a period of 2 weeks when the did
not go to work.

Even the maximum of 10 is not "2 weeks." Most years it's only 8 days -
i.e. one week and one day - as it is this year. However, hardly anyone
I know gets that.

No-one is sensibly going to buy a monthly season on the 4th
of December as they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st

You mean "... _if_ they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st."
Those days which fall on a weekend excepted, Dec 27-31 have always
been working days for me, and for most people that I know, some of
whom would be working the weekends, anyway. Just about the only
exceptions are those in teaching.

(and in many cases longer).

You keep claiming this; I - and a number of other posters, it seems -
dispute it.

And most people take 2 (or more) weeks holiday in the
summer/easter when the kids are off school.

It may have escaped your notice, but there are more households in the
country _without_ children than those with.

They still take holidays in 'chunks'.

Think again. "Most people" do not have school-age children, so why
would they be taking their holidays "when the kids are off school."
You're claiming a majority where no such majority actually exists in
the population.

Also, not everyone takes
two-week holidays, kids or not.

Most do IME.

Well, in mine, most _don't_.

I guess if you work in retail (or hospitality) it's different, but
I would be suprised if almost every one else didn't fit the above.

I would suggest that if you work in just about every sector it's
different., and that you're just wrong.

I work in an 'office' environment and have done so for
20 years. Almost everone in the office takes a consecutive
holiday break.

Purely subjective. My subjective view is that the vast majority of
people I know take one or two separate weeks off, and/or a combination
of that and lost weekends dotted around the year. Personally, in 19
years of working I've only ever taken one two-week holiday.
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War, and in Films & TV:
http://www.nickcooper.org.uk/