Why Self-Employed Gas Engineers Struggle to Take Time Off
Employed engineers get 20 (+8) days off a year by law. Most self-employed gas engineers take fewer than that — and nearly 6 in 10 aren’t happy about it.
That’s one of the findings from our 2025 Heating & Plumbing Industry Report, which surveyed gas engineers across the UK.
Most engineers go self-employed for the added freedom and control. So why are so many of them taking less time off than they would in a staff job?
The answer isn’t laziness or bad planning. It’s structural — and it’s worth understanding if you want to change it.
What the data actually shows
Of the engineers surveyed, an average of 24 days are taken off each year. But dig into the numbers, and the picture gets more interesting — and more telling.
For example, the single largest group said they take more than 30 days off a year. But nearly the same amount take fewer than 10 — well below what any employed engineer would receive as a minimum.
Only 41.5% said they were happy with how much time they take off. The remaining 58.5% were either outright dissatisfied (14.6%) or felt it could be better (43.9%).
In other words, the majority of self-employed gas engineers feel like they’re not getting the balance right.
Such a wide range reflects two very different stages of running a business — and two very different relationships with time.
Taking a week off doesn’t just cost you a week
When you’re employed, holiday is paid. When you’re self-employed, a day off is a day with no income.
Sole traders suffer here the most. Taking time off means lost revenue for every day you’re not working, calls and messages you’re not answering, quotes that haven’t gone out, and customers who go elsewhere because you didn’t pick up.
For those running a small team, holiday creates a different headache — who covers the work? Who handles the calls? If the answer is “no one” or “I’ll still check in”, the holiday isn’t really a holiday.
The pile that’s waiting when you get back
Even when you do go on holiday, it can be hard to fully switch off.
The unanswered messages. The quotes that need doing. The certificate that still hasn’t been sent. The invoice chasing…
You can rarely leave for a week and slot back into your usual routine because the business is you — and when you stop, it stops.
The engineers taking 30+ days off each year haven’t found a magic formula. They’re the ones who built systems (and even teams) around them. The business can run without them for a week because it was set up that way.
The holiday problem isn’t really about holidays, but rather how the business is organised.
The practical solution
The engineers who take more time off — and actually enjoy it — tend to have a few things in common.
They’ve automated the recurring stuff:
- Boiler service reminders go out automatically.
- Follow-up messages are scheduled.
- Invoices are generated and sent on-site
- Jobs run smoothly without generating a backlog of admin work
Their admin is fast when they do return. All job history, customer details, and certificates are in one place. Coming back from a week away takes an hour to catch up, not a day.
They’ve stopped relying on memory. Jobs, quotes, and customer records aren’t in a notebook or scattered across WhatsApp and email. Everything is logged, accessible, and easy to pick up.
Try Gas Engineer Software for free
Gas Engineer Software was built to help you minimise and handle the admin workload. For self-employed engineers, this means more time doing what you enjoy and pays the bills, and fewer evenings, weekends, and ‘holidays’ spent catching up on paperwork.
Find out why our all-in-one software made for UK heating & plumbing businesses is the choice of 7,000+ companies, or jump straight into a free 7-day trial: