Working UK Style
In most of the UK annual holiday (vacation) is 4-5 weeks and goes up with time, while most of you already know the US vacation scheme is nothing like that. Public holiday are a bit different (or so I'm told as this still confuses me a bit). According to the US, which public holiday is given as a paid holiday is largely determined by the employer (apparently some only give 5 days, but the federal ones are New years day, Martin L King's Birthday, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labour Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) In the UK all public holidays are given as paid, but a reasonable average is 8 public holidays a year (New years day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May bank holiday, Spring Bank holiday, Summer Bank holiday, Christmas, Boxing day (26th Dec))Over here companies contribute 100% and more of what the employee pays for pension plans, while in the US it's rather variable & according to stats I've seen the average is 5-15% contributions from the company.
Salaries are a bit different as well with the USA normally getting paid every two weeks, while over here in the UK most workers are paid monthly. Another minor detail is that I'm use to the US term of a salary increase in the USA being called a pay "raise", while in the UK it's apparently called getting a "rise".
And this last part is according to what I've been told, but in the UK employees can only be "fired" for provable dishonesty. Being let go for bad work/inefficiency has to be supported by a lots of verbal and several written warnings (all relating to a similar offences in a specific time period). AND, the kicker is that even then this can be overturned with the help of a labor attorney (if changed you can get back pay and even return to work).
Labels: differences in the UK, NaBloPoMo, work
posted by Sara @ 7:00 am
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