2021 bank holiday hack: How to turn 19 days annual leave into nearly seven weeks off

Email your boss these dates, pronto

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Countless memes throughout the pandemic have touted the idea that the public will want to live two summers in one next year after after 2020 forced people to abandon their plans and stay at home.

Luckily, an annual leave hack could provide a way for holidaymakers to maximise their consecutive days off.

By strategically booking time off before and after bank holidays, the UK workforce could eek 48 full days off from their jobs with just 19 days of leave - assuming they do not work bank holidays or weekends as standard.

So what is the formula to maximise your holiday allowance? Here are the days you need to request from your boss.

January

Assuming people receive New Year’s Day as a bank holiday, which next year falls on a Friday, booking five days annual leave would allow a 10-day run of days off. This means booking off 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 January.

If you live in Scotland you will only need four days as Monday 4 January is already a substitute bank holiday.

10 days off for the price of five is a good way to start 2021.

Easter

Skip to the Easter bank holiday, and taking annual leave from 6-9 April would allow for another 10-day holiday period, with weekends, Good Friday and Easter Monday boosting the length of time off.

May

In May, taking holiday days on 4-7 May, or 24-28 May would allow for a 10-day holiday thanks to the three-day weekends.

August

In August, booking 31-3 September off work would allow for a nine-day break, due to the end of summer bank holiday.

Christmas

To round off the year with another long break, taking leave from 25 December would mean a ten-day holiday period, due to the way weekends and bank holidays for Christmas and New Year fall. 5

It would mean not returning to work until the 3 January 2022.

A similar holiday hack went viral in 2019, so if you’re hoping to take as many holidays in 2021 as possible then it would be wise to get your requests in for these dates as soon as possible.