Q&A: I am moving to Turkey – what extended Holidays are there that I can expect to get off from work?
Question by Matt: I am moving to Turkey – what extended Holidays are there that I can expect to get off from work?
I accepted a job in Turkey and will be moving there next week. I want to plan trips for my family and friends to come visit me, but understand that the holidays – times when I will not have to work – will be different than in the U.S.. What are the dates from now through 2008 that most Turkish companies give their employees off work (For popular Muslim or national holidays).
Best answer:
Answer by Irmak
29 October – Republic Day (1,5 days – 28(half day),29 October)
The Feast of the Sacrifice (7,5 days – 19 (half day),20,21,22,23 December and 1,2,3 January)
New Year’s Day (1 day – 1 January)
23 April – Children’s Day (1 day)
Ramadan Fest (3,5 days – 11(half day),12,13,14 October)
30 August (1 day)
Give your answer to this question below!
I would like to add that the dates of the religious holidays change every year, because they follow the Islamic (Hicri) calender.
irmak is right but don’t forget that if your company doesn’t want you to go on holiday,then there is no holiday especially when the company is too busy! But don’t worry we have lots of holidays
We have two religional fests and four national fests in a year and we have an off day for 1st of January for new year’s day. Since religional fests are decided by Islamic Calendar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar) they changes every year. But the national fests are fixed as below:
April 23 National Day and Children’s Day
May 19 Youth Day and Sports Fest
August 30 Victory Day
October 29 Republican Day
And for this year (2007) religional fest are as below:
December 20-23 the Feast of the Sacrifice
October 12-14 Ramadan Fest
hope this helps
If your employers aren’t jerks, you’ll get the following days off:
October 29 (founding of the Republic)
April 23 (Children’s Day)
May 19 (Youth and Sport Day)
August 30 (Victory Day)
January 1 (New Year’s Day)
Seker Bayram (commemorates the end of Ramadan, a few days off)
Kurban Bayram (Feast of the Sacrifice, a few days off)
However, a lot of employers work their employees to the bone, including 14-hour days everyday (including weekends–oh wait, maybe you’ll just work 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays), truck your lunch in from some nasty place and won’t allow you to leave the office–even to go to the pharmacy–while the owner of the company and his worthless kid who is being groomed to take over but couldn’t care less, jet off to Paris or Dubai. This was the case at the last Turkish-run company where I worked. Employees there got one day off at either Bayram, and just made something around 1000 YTL/month (about $850). (I didn’t make much more, btw.)
That was it. I had to beg to be let off work at 7 pm.
If you’ll be teaching, though, you’ll be getting the above days off and then some.
It’s true that we work longer than the people living in the European countries, however people are more relaxed and have more social relationships with each other. It’s not so programmed, life’s sooo spontaneous that you’ll be surprised
))We also have plenty of holidays, plus everyone has a yearly vacation, some have 30 days a year, some 20. Depends on where you’re going to work. But living is cheap in Turkey (compared top other countries), so you’ll definitely manage. 