Check out today’s Teatime Titbit: Wonderful Wednesday Words: leave
No, it isn’t actually a typing error on my part, but it was the post I wanted to post on Wednesday last week – right on time for the long weekend. For many reasons I didn’t get around to (dazu kommen, etw zu tun) posting it and so a bit belatedly, here it is.
Some may say the best thing about the job is ‘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 (Jahresurlaub) and we say “you are on leave (holiday/vacation)” during this time. Secondly, there is the so-called ‘leave of absence’ (permission (Erlaubnis) to be away from work) for a special reason e.g. funeral and the like (und Ähnliches). ‘Compassionate leave’ (Urlaub aus dringenden familiären Gründen) can also be granted (gewähren), 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)’ (jdn krankschreiben) for some time. However, you don’t want 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 (beantragen) 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 classed as a form of leave in which you have time off your normal work in order 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 (Last)) of looking after a newly born. ‘Respite’ (care)’ (Erholungsurlaub) could be understood as a kind of leave in the broadest sense (im weitesten Sinne) of the word, because the carer (Pfleger(in)) is able to 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 that is spent doing the same thing that you do at work and ‘gardening leave’ is, you guessed it have time off to tend to (sich um etw kümmern) your garden – just kidding. This 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 in order to prevent them working for another company.
QOTD: Referring to the final part of the talk from 15.52, which place(s) would like to travel to?