We’re so close to Australia Day I can almost taste the sweet, suburban mix of Aldi prawns and Jim Beam.
Regardless of your political persuasion, it’s hard not to appreciate the day off work. This year, we’re gifted the public holiday on a Thursday; basically begging us to take a sickie Friday. Employers are bracing for your 8:00am food poisoning excuses, too – the loss of productivity will cost the Aussie economy a whopping $50 million dollarydoos.
that’sa one pricey hangover!
But if you’re not a complete deadhead, you’ll know there’s a craftier way to milk these serendipitously-landing public holidays and effectively double your annual leave.
With an ounce of forward planning and an unthinking boss, you can create upwards of four solid breaks throughout your work year. Here’s how, you dirty dingo.
So, according to fairwork.gov.au, if you’re a full-time worker and you’re on the job for a year, you should accumulate at least a months paid annual leave.
“An employee (other than a casual employee) accumulates four weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service with the employer. An employee’s entitlement to annual leave accumulates continuously based on the number of ordinary hours they work.”
That’s a total of 20 days to play with. And play with them, we shall.
AUSTRALIA DAY
It’s probably a little late to be plugging in annual leave skirting the borders of the public holiday on Thursday, January 26th, but if you live life on the edge, log onto the system and ask for Friday 27th and Monday 30th off. Sure, the mammoth Christmas break may have only just ended, but it’s never too early to recuperate yourself.
RESULT: 5 full fucken days for the price of two.
EASTER
The government lets us off the hook on Good Friday (Friday, April 14th).
Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday sadly don’t count for much (unless you’re a weekend worker, in that case, congrats), but we get Easter Monday (the 17th of April) off as well.
Make it a quarter-year celebration and take the four days after holy holiday off (Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th, Thursday 20th and Friday 21st).
RESULT: Ten straight days full of pure hot cross bun-ness. (Really. Never underestimate the joy of hot cross bun sales on Tuesday 18th.)
QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY
God, she’s got a lot of gas in her tank.
90 whole years of life on earth got me like
And for that, we thank her, ’cause it means we enjoy a totally irrelevant holiday – one we usually forget about. One that pleasantly surprises us when it rears its head come June.*
This year, we’re celebrating on Monday, June 12th. Tell your boss you’re taking the next four days off.
RESULT: Nine days of crowning glory.
*Except for WA and QLD, who oddly enough celebrate this day on September 25th and October 2nd, respectively.
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS
It feels almost sacrilegious to already be planning the December/January break when we’re just come off the back of it, but hear me out – the earlier you book stuff in, the cheaper it is, and the more money you have for festive cheer (pots and parmas).
While work might force you to take your leave over Xmas, if you’ve got a bit more leeway, you can wrangle it like a boss for max holiday pleasure.
Take Friday 22nd off, as well as Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th and Friday 29th.
RESULT: 10 days of sunning your bloated ass in a santa hat, babey.
Photo: Billy Madison.
