It’s time to whip those 2020 calendars out, print off the annual leave request forms and listen up! Here’s how to maximise your annual leave 2020. Yep, we’re talking LOTS more holiday days for your annual leave buck.
A little forward planning is all it takes to maximise annual leave, turning a short getaway into an epic holiday.
The nitty-gritty of annual leave
Most of us who are employed on a permanent basis are entitled to four weeks of annual leave every year.
If you’re not sure how many days you’re entitled to, the Fair Work Ombudsman website has a super easy annual leave information guide, PLUS a handy leave calculator tool to see how many sweet annual leave days you’ve racked up. I strongly advise you check both of these out before you commit to a four-week European summer vacay. Just in case #heartbreak ensues.
The calendar sweet spots
The first thing to look out for when you want to maximise annual leave 2020, is public holiday dates. If you can work in a public holiday, together with a weekend (if you don’t normally work weekends), you can get ‘free’ extra days to add on to your annual leave ‘spend’. Genius.
While public holidays do vary a little from state to state, Easter time is a red-hot favourite for anyone planning a holiday. Have a look below to see how you can get 16 blissful days off using just eight days of annual leave. #WINNING
The best 16 day Easter break EVER
Here’s a break-down of how you can score yourself a 16-day break using eight annual leave days in April next year. Be quick to lock it in with your employer though, when word gets around there’s likely to be a mass exodus in your workplace – and you want to be at the front of that stampede!
April 2020:
- Saturday 4 (Weekend)
- Sunday 5 (Weekend)
- Monday 6 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 1)
- Tuesday 7 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 2)
- Wednesday 8 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 3)
- Thursday 9 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 4)
- Friday 10 (Public Holiday – Good Friday)
- Saturday 11 (Weekend)
- Sunday 12 (Weekend)
- Monday 13 (Public Holiday – Easter Monday)
- Tuesday 14 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 5)
- Wednesday 15 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 6)
- Thursday 16 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 7)
- Friday 17 (ANNUAL LEAVE DAY 8)
- Saturday 18 (Weekend)
- Sunday 19 (Weekend)
That’s 16 days for the price of eight annual leave days. Talk about double the Aperol Spritz fun! Look out for Christmas time too next year, you can wrangle a huge 16 days off there too with some clever planning, taking you into the New Year of 2021. So go on, book in that cruising holiday!
More weekend getaways and short stays await!
Of course, there’s plenty on offer throughout the year if it’s a mini-break or weekend getaway you’re after. Or perhaps you don’t have many annual leave days left up your sleeve so you want to spend them wisely.
Look out for Jan 1, 2020 New Years Day. The New Years Day public holiday falls on a Wednesday. If you were to use two days of annual leave you could take a five-day break through to Sunday, Jan 5, 2020. SWEET.
Finder has also done the research from state to state, revealing:
- Each state offers enough time to get away for mini breaks or lengthy holidays at least six times a year.
- Western Australians, Victorians and ACT residents are the real winners – they get the MOST public holidays every year. (I mean, c’mon a public holiday for the AFL footy grand final?)
- As for who gets the LEAST amount of public holidays? That award goes to those living in New South Wales and Queensland. Boo.
This kind of forward-thinking to maximise annual leave 2020 also gives you oodles of time to start saving for that family holiday, so as to not bust the budget on a spontaneous trip.
And if you can’t afford to travel far, an extended staycation can be just as relaxing. Pizza deliveries, marathon Netflix viewing and all the swimwear-clad days in between sounds like my kind of budget-friendly bliss too. BRING. IT. ON. Happy planning Mum Centralers!
