Annual leave policy in Switzerland

Life Hacking
1

Hi folks,

Like the title says, maybe this will help when someone is considering a new employment offer.

If you wish to contribute with certain details about how many days off your employer offers, what sector does the company activates in, size - number of employees etc.

I’ll start
I should technically be 9 hours a day in the office ( 1 hours is lunch break) , 5 days a week.
I have 35 days per year not counting bank holidays ( very pleasant surprise, having had 26 days back in Ireland)
Company sector is FMCG
Company size is about 150k employees worldwide

2

30 days of holidays, 10 days in addition for Christmas. Yes, this is very nice. I work in an international organization.

3
  • 8 hours of mandatory presence each day ( or remote working) - additional hours can be accumulated and recovered as holiday ( no expiration)
  • 28 days per year + ~3 extra days as bank closing
  • Banking sector
4
  • Minimum of 8 work hours a day, extra hours cannot be taken back
  • 25 PTO Days per year and all Fribourg holidays (about 10/year)
  • IT
5
  • Minimum of 8 work hours a day,
  • extra hours cannot be taken back unless the extra after 10h a day (so smart from employer: you’re free for him between 8 and 10 and those hours are legion… Because they do not advice you to work more than 10 hours a day)
  • 25 PTO Days per year and all Geneva holidays (about 10/year)
  • Private banking
6

  • Min of 40 hours per week, max of 50 hours. Any hours above 50 (only on Sundays) are given as comp-off hours to be availed within 1 month, otherwise they lapse with no compensation.

  • 22 PTO Days per year and all Basel holidays (about 10/year)

  • 1 day paternity leave (extremely generous)

  • IT

8
  • Min. 8.80 work hours / day (44 h/week)
  • 25 days/year + TI holidays
  • Civil engineering
9

My previous employer:

  • IT
  • 40 hours average work per week, flexible
  • when accumulated enough overtime, I could even not come one day, like extra holiday
  • 25 days of paid holiday per year

Currently:

  • unspecified number of hours, but I average out 40-45 per week
  • unspecified days of holidays, I take ca. 30
  • I receive a budget ceiling that I cannot exceed and I just report the hours
10
  • 25 days of paid holiday + 10 public holidays + 4 extra days
  • 8h30 daily
  • Financial sector

It’s an interesting indicator, but it would also depend on the compensation.
Maybe more holiday implies a lower salary. Also, in some companies, you have the official weekly hours and what is done really by employees.

11
  • IT
  • 40h / week flexible, overtime paid only if agreed ahead of time with a manager
  • 25 vacation days / year
12
  • IT
  • 41h / week flexible, overtime can be taken whenever if your project has no problem with it. Even whole days or weeks, just like vacation. Not sure if you could get it as cash though.
  • 25 vacation days / year
  • possibility to work from home at least 1 day / week
  • possibility to work during your commute if you’re able to
  • possibility to “save” vacation days in a flexible way over different years
  • possibility to change to any occupation % in the matter of minutes, as long as it doesn’t happen too regularly
  • If working less than 100%, it’s up to you and the project you’re in to determine when you work. “Legally” you can do whatever you want, e.g. 80%:
    • 6h / day, 5 days / week, all month
    • 8h / day, 4 days / week, all month
    • 8h / day, 5 days / week, 3 weeks and 1 day (depending on the month)
  • 3 weeks paternity leave
13
  • IT, research
  • 40h/week, flexible
  • Work at night and weekends mandatory with crappy compensation.
  • Possibility to work from home 1 day/week
  • 6 weeks holidays + 2 weeks christmas (!)
  • 10 days paternity leave
14

Interesting. For me one should always take into account if overtime can be compensated with holiday or paid out. That is a huge advantage compared to contracts where overtime is expected but not compensated. Howewer some might said that it is compensated by huge bonus and very high salary.
In my case:

  • 8.5 hours a day (overtime is compensated with more holidays, in my case 2-3 weeks of additional holiday)
  • 27 days of paid holidays
  • 10 days of paternity leave (very good until end of 2020, but corresponds to the minimum from 2021)
  • finance industry
15

My situation:

  • 40h work week, full time autonomy, no active time keeping/tracking, nobody asks as long as you get your job done
  • 23 days vacation plus the ZRH holidays
  • 3 months of paternity (this one was nice)
  • IT
16
  • 40h work week, full time autonomy (weekly hours can fluctuate heavily)
  • 32 days paid vacation
  • 2 weeks of paternity
  • in generell very flexible on all fronts (even with buying more vacation etc.)
  • Business development
17

My situation:

  • Flexible work hours (what matters is getting things done), I work ~35-40h/week
  • Unlimited vacation time
  • Fully remote
  • Up to 16 weeks parental leave
  • Software industry (US distributed company)
18

Without mentioning your salary the leave policy is meaningless. I would rather earn double my salary and have 0 days off, rather than have my current salary and 25 days off.

2 Likes
19
  • Contract of 41h/week. No formal attendance tracking. No compensation for any extra time worked (which happens often).
  • 5 weeks holidays (25 days) + the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
  • PhD Student :sweat_smile:
2 Likes
20

Teacher ! Holidays same as school.

1 Like
21
  • 42h/week
  • 5 weeks (25 days) paid vacation
  • working hours flexible, but should be usually around between 9-16
  • 4 weeks paternity leave (don’t care about that)
  • banking