Wonderful Wednesday Words. Some may say the best thing about the job is the ‘leave’ we take/have, but did you know how many different types of ‘leave’ there are?
First of all, you have ‘paid’ leave, which makes up your ‘annual’ leave and we say “you are on leave (holiday/vacation)” during this time. Secondly, there is the so-called ‘leave of absence’ (permission to be away from work) for a particular reason, e.g. funeral and the like. ‘Compassionate leave’ can also be granted if someone in your family is ill or has died. Speaking of illnesses, you are said to be on ‘sick leave’ and the doc ‘sign you off (work)’ for some time. However, you don’t want to be “absent without leave (AWOL)” cos that’ll just land you in the s**t.
Naturally, there is also ‘unpaid’ leave, which you have to apply for to do something special – extended holiday etc. I have recently watched a very inspiring TED talk on the matter, check it out: Travel more, buy less https://youtu.be/AlCqyZEXM1I
– great food for thought. A ‘sabbatical’ is also a form of leave in which you have time off your work to study or travel.
Parental (maternity or paternity) leave is becoming more and more popular for men, who want to share the joy (and burden) of looking after a newly born. ‘Respite’ (care)’ could be understood as a kind of leave in the broadest sense of the word, because the carer can get some downtime/rest themselves.
Finally, back to work, Have you ever heard of a ‘Busman’s holiday’ or ‘gardening leave’? A ‘busman’s holiday’ is the term given to a holiday, which you do the same thing that you do at work. ‘Gardening leave’ is, you guessed it when you have time off to tend to your garden – just kidding. It is a term I heard for the first time just recently, and it is a period which somebody does not work but remains employed by a company to prevent them from working for another company.
Dear Titbitonians, speaking of taking leave – I’ll take a 3 month sabbatical / late parental leave (my son is already 8), whatever you like to call it, starting 1 July. Furthermore, I have also decided to take time out from blogging as of Monday next week.
I’ll put posting blogs on autopilot, so we will revisit past posts on a daily basis throughout. As you remember from this Monday’s post, I’ve just broken through the 500 post mark so there is no shortage of content there to ‚revisit‘.
As of October, I’ll be back posting fresh content! However, ONLY twice a week so I can free up time to work on other projects like my YouTube channel starting in October.
So I wish you all a great summer (despite all the restrictions) and looking forward to talking to you in October.
Take care and stay healthy!!!
To get around to (dazu kommen, etw zu tun), ‘annual’ leave (Jahresurlaub), “you are on leave“ (holiday/vacation), ‘leave of absence’ (Freistellung). permission (Erlaubnis), and the like (und Ähnliches), compassionate leave (Urlaub aus dringenden familiären Gründen), to grant sth (gewähren), speaking of sth (wo wir gerade von etw sprechen), to sign sb off (work) (jdn krankschreiben), absent without leave (AWOL) (abwesend ohne Erlaubnis), to apply for sth (beantragen), parental (maternity or paternity) leave (Elternzeit), burden (Last), respite (care) (Erholungsurlaub), in the broadest sense (im weitesten Sinne), the carer (Pfleger(in)), to tend to sth/sb (sich um etw kümmern), furthermore (Außerdem), despite (trotz), restrictions (Einschränkungen)