I don't know of any official revelation but I did get a little insight into the amount of vacation taken at the company I work for when I had taken 'significantly more' vacation than the rest of my coworkers.
The most anyone else took was around the 4 weeks mark. I had taken a little over 6 weeks and that was the upper limit that had my boss telling me I was taking too much vacation. I felt a little shafted by than since my last job was 5 weeks + sick time + bank holidays.
So that's not a lot of information for you but that would confirm your suspicion that it is less. That said it does not translate to unlimited work hours but our work is contract work. We get contracted out to other companies so though we are expected to get the work done and sometimes work >8 hours the expectation is that it will average out to 8hours a day. Be it 4hours one day followed by two 10 hours days or what have you.
The most anyone else took was around the 4 weeks mark. I had taken a little over 6 weeks and that was the upper limit that had my boss telling me I was taking too much vacation. I felt a little shafted by than since my last job was 5 weeks + sick time + bank holidays.
So that's not a lot of information for you but that would confirm your suspicion that it is less. That said it does not translate to unlimited work hours but our work is contract work. We get contracted out to other companies so though we are expected to get the work done and sometimes work >8 hours the expectation is that it will average out to 8hours a day. Be it 4hours one day followed by two 10 hours days or what have you.