KPMG - Enforced Leave

[Bee]

Just heard that they're enforcing leave over Xmas.

Last day Friday 16th December 2016, back Tuesday 3rd January 2017.

Affects both contractors and permies.

Christmas present for the permies, they will be the next contractors in the market.

[LondonManc]

Christmas present for the permies, they will be the next contractors in the market.

Why?

It doesn't say that the permies aren't getting paid, so surely the thought of two weeks unpaid as a contractor would put them off?

[nozmeister]

Reasonably common in consultancies that they expect you to use your holiday when it suits the company and not necessarily yourself in order to minimise their bench costs - this applies to perm as well as contractors.

Also common for financials services to enforce breaks for contractors for up to 3 weeks. I have heard of "take December off and come back in January" before.

[SueEllen]

Reasonably common in consultancies that they expect you to use your holiday when it suits the company and not necessarily yourself in order to minimise their bench costs - this applies to perm as well as contractors.

It's actually legal for all employers to make you take some of your leave when they like though they need to warn you before hand and put in in your T&Cs.

Some of my previous clients haven't been consultancies and they made permies have an enforced holiday between Christmas and New Year, which came out of their leave. Most companies find that nothing gets done between that time and so apart from the people who need to keep servers running, which most can do from home, everyone else may as well be on holiday.

[adubya]

Three week Christmas furlough at my place for contractors.

[Bee]

Why?

It doesn't say that the permies aren't getting paid, so surely the thought of two weeks unpaid as a contractor would put them off?

I miss understood the words enforced leave, I was thinking in other kind of “leave”.

[Bee]

Reasonably common in consultancies that they expect you to use your holiday when it suits the company and not necessarily yourself in order to minimise their bench costs - this applies to perm as well as contractors.

Also common for financials services to enforce breaks for contractors for up to 3 weeks. I have heard of "take December off and come back in January" before.

It's true if there is no work to do in the office and it's not a good sign. I had to do proposals, RFIs, etc...

Christmas enforced leave is applied depending on the country and yes it's normal.

[northernladuk]

It's true if there is no work to do in the office and it's not a good sign. I had to do proposals, RFIs, etc...

Not really. All large consultancies have a number of people on the bench at anyone time due to some work finishing and some starting.

Christmas enforced leave is applied depending on the country and yes it's normal.

Bit ambiguous this isn't it? Xmas leave isn't at a country level and what's normal? Some work, some don't. It also depends on where in the business you work. That statement as it stands means sod all.

[missinggreenfields]

It's actually legal for all employers to make you take some of your leave when they like though they need to warn you before hand and put in in your T&Cs.

Some of my previous clients haven't been consultancies and they made permies have an enforced holiday between Christmas and New Year, which came out of their leave. Most companies find that nothing gets done between that time and so apart from the people who need to keep servers running, which most can do from home, everyone else may as well be on holiday.

The consultancy I used to work for would find work for people to do if they said they were working between Christmas and New Year because they knew nothing would get done. My last permie place used to close between Christmas and New Year because the warehouse was closed and there was no point in being open selling stuff if they couldn't ship it anywhere (plus the chances of any of their clients wanting to buy from us in that period was negligible).

[Montyuk]

Given a lot of you are developers and companies tend to have code freezes over Christmas period its not surprising that they asked for those dates to be taken as holiday.