Annual leave

If you're already thinking ahead to next year's holidays you can double your break and get a whopping 52 days off using just 26 days of annual leave.

The European Working Time Directive, brought into UK law in 1998, says workers should receive their 'normal' pay when they go on annual leave.

Recruitment firm Glassdoor has similarly alarming statistics: 23% of employees who took annual leave in 2018 regularly checked their emails, while 15% continued working throughout their holiday because of fear of falling behind and the consequences of not hitting their targets.