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With five weeks off, a one-person business is closed 79% of the year
France’s standard five weeks of paid leave, applied to a business with nobody else to answer, pushes its closed hours from 77% to 79% of the year. The calculation and how to handle the gap.
The self-employed have no legal entitlement to paid leave, but most take holidays, and the French benchmark is five weeks. For a business where nobody else can answer, those weeks are weeks without a reply.
The calculation
An employee earns 2.5 working days (jours ouvrables) of leave per month, 30 a year: five weeks. Counted in weekdays, five weeks is 25 days.
| 2026, open 9 am to 5 pm | Working days | Share of hours closed |
|---|---|---|
| No holidays | 252 | 77.0% |
| Five weeks off | 227 | 79.3% |
The difference looks small over a year, but it is concentrated: two or three weeks in August and one at Christmas, when enquiries do not stop.
Before you go on holiday
- Say it on your site: show the dates you are away and when you will reply.
- Update your voicemail and email auto-reply with the same dates.
- Keep answering the easy questions: a chat agent can reply about your services and prices, and collect contact details for when you are back.
- Plan your return: block the first morning back for the leads that came in while you were away.
Sources
The author
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