Nearly 3 months after the offer was made, I've finally signed my contract for my new job in Switzerland. How exciting!

I did notice, however, that the annual leave's a little less than I'm used to. Does Switzerland have a load of bank holidays or something?!

No holidays. Get to work!

Congrats.

It might help if you told us how many holidays they gave you

*sob*

Have I just signed my life away?

One of the bigger shocks to my system was that If I came in at 8.45 I would be the last one in!

I find Switzerland EXTREMELY generous with annual leave. There are plenty of bank holidays too.

No need for sob . They do have lots of "something "

Whoops. Sorry.

They are giving me 20 days.

I'm used to 25 + bank holidays in the UK

In Switzerland the holidays are dependent on the Kanton.
This might help you: http://www.feiertagskalender.ch/inde...geo=2283&hl=en

I feel all lucky that I get 25 + bank holidays in CH

I've just started here in Basel and am also from the UK. I only got 20 days, too. It's the Swiss minimum and appears to be what most people get. It's a bit crap but that's the way it is.

Also, unlike the UK (thanks to our strong Unions in the 70s I guess) any public holiday which falls on a weekend is simply lost. So, Christmas day falls on a Saturday? No problem, see you at work on Monday. And 2010 is a really bad year. I think there are about 3 bank holidays this year. Oh well. At least I get a day off for the crazy Basel carnival - don't get that in London

Congratulations

Some companies you get 5 or 6 weeks holiday. You might also find that the whole place shuts down between Christmas and New Year, in addition to your annual leave.

Congrats btw

are you american??

i find fewer holidays. in the UK i had 30 days + bank holidays. now i have 20. plus this year, all the holidays seem to fall on the weekend and are 'lost'.

I heard that the Swiss were lobbying to get 6 weeks holiday as life is more stressful and they work harder / longer hours when when the standard 4 weeks was agreed

I heard this a while ago so I guess this got thrown out

That's also a fair point, the working week in CH is 40+ hrs, whereas in UK, it's what? 37.5?

Thanks Paddy, Steffie.

I'm very excited. This does mean, of course, that the EF forum will have to get used to my ramblings. Since I'm *officially* going to be an expat I might as well use and abuse this forum (in a nice, non-troll way!)

Technically yes but if you work for an investment bank then 45 hours is the 'standard', before you get the usual "whats this? Half day" sarcy comments.

Taking a lunch break is a thing of the past over here - its more like scoff and type

when discussing the holidays, are we talking about calendar days or working days here? Makes a big difference if you count the saturday and sunday in or not. The exact calculation scheme can be quite different depending on the country, so 25 days in one country can mean something totally different than 25 days in the other - in some even bank holidays are counted into your annual leave; in some saturdays and not sundays etc . My contract has 25 working days which I find quite reasonable.

Annual leave always refers to working days, in my experience. I'm very fortunate to have quite a lot more than 20 days per annum, but even at 20, imogen isn't doing badly -- most countries outside the UK offer around that level, and of course the US is notorious for its stingy leave provisions.

imogen, if you're lucky, your company will also offer "bridging days" -- an extra day's leave when a public holiday (they're only "bank" holidays in the UK and Ireland!) falls on a Tuesday or Thursday. And anyway, you'll be paid in CHF rather than pounds -- there's a big upside!