Best Days To Chope Leave In 2022 To Maximise Public Holidays & Long Weekends

Out of the 11 public holidays in 2022, there are a whopping six long weekends — including one ultra-long four-day weekend. You know what this means. Yup, it’s time to plan your leave wisely.

We’ve come up with ways to best maximise your leave days, working around public holidays and long weekends. Anyone fancies 50 days off from work just by taking 16 days of leave?

With all that leave saved, you may want to use it during the two PH droughts in the year: There are no public holidays from May 17 to Jul 10 for eight weeks, and Aug 10 to Oct 24 for almost 11 weeks. You’re welcome.

And yes, you should still take leave even if we may still be grappling to learn to live with Covid-19 when 2022 rolls around. Never mind if you’re not vacay-ing on the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme or if we can only go out in groups of two/five/however many the prevailing Covid-19 restrictions allow. Don’t underestimate the physical and mental benefits in taking leave for a well-deserved break, even if you're just taking the time off to do the simple things in life, like tending to your home garden.

Public holidays in Singapore in 2022 — and what the best days are to take leave to maximise those precious PHs:

#1: Jan 1 (Sat), New Year’s Day
Take leave on: -
Works out to: A regular Saturday which may or may not involve a hangover.

#2: Feb 1-2 (Tue,Wed), Chinese New Year
Take leave on: Jan 31 (Mon)
Works out to: Five days off from Jan 29 (Sat) to Feb 2 (Wed) with just one day of leave.
For an even longer break: Take leave on Jan 31 and Feb 3-4 — that’s 3 days of leave for 9 days off work (Jan 29-Feb 6).

#3: Apr 15 (Fri), Good Friday
Take leave on: -
Works out to: A typical three-day long weekend.

#4: May 1 (Sun), Labour Day (May 2 is a public holiday)
Take leave on: -
Works out to: A fab four-day weekend from Apr 30-May 3 (May 3 is Hari Raya Puasa), with zero days of leave required. Score!

#5: May 3 (Tue), Hari Raya Puasa
Take leave on: -
Works out to: A four-day weekend (see above).
For an even longer break: Stretch that long weekend even more by taking leave on May 4-6 and to get Apr 30-May 8 off. That’ll give you a 9-day break with just 3 days of leave.

#6: May 15 (Sun), Vesak Day (May 16 is a PH)
Take leave on: -
Works out to: The third long weekend of the year. No leave required.
For an even longer break: Take May 4-6 and May 9-13 off — that’s eight days of leave which will get you a whopping 17 days off (from Apr 30 to May 16).

#7 Jul 10 (Sun), Hari Raya Haji (Jul 11 is a PH)
Take leave on: -
Works out to: ​​​​​​​Three days off, zero leave days needed.

#8: Aug 9 (Tue), National Day
Take leave on: Aug 8 (Mon)
Works out to: Take 1 day of leave for 4 days off.

#9: Oct 24 (Mon), Deepavali
Take leave on: -
Works out to: Another three-day long weekend.

#10: Dec 25 (Sun), Christmas (Dec 26 is a PH)
Take leave on: -
Works out to: The sixth and final three-day long weekend of 2022.
Plan B: There’s an opportunity for a super-long break— take 4 days of leave (Dec 27-30) to get a 10-day break from Dec 24 (Sat) to Jan 2, 2023 (Tue).

Photo: Unsplash/Bna Ignacio