I have just returned from an amazing three-month adventure travelling through “The Americas”. I visited countries like Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas and the USA. Best of it all, I was being paid while I was away.
Along the way we chatted to locals about where we had been and where we were headed; they were all amazed to find out how long we had been travelling. They were even more shocked when the conversation revealed that I hadn’t quit my job and I was on long service leave.
No one had ever heard of such a thing, and Americans were especially amazed: “Oh my lord we only get two weeks’ vacation a year. Hey Brittany listen to this; we’ve gotta move Down Under; they even get a holiday for a horse race.”
I was definitely intrigued on my return. A quick google search revealed that Australia is in fact the only county with legalized long service leave. Interestingly long service leave was introduced in Australia in the 1860s; the idea was to allow civil servants the opportunity to sail home to England after 10 years’ service in ‘the colonies’.
So after over 13 years at Fenwick Software and no long service leave left, I look forward to working hard and building up more, and then maybe a trip home to England. Actually maybe back to America to rub it in a bit more…
