My D used to work for a company that allowed unlimited time off. From what she could tell, people did take vacation, and no one seemed to abuse it. I can tell you that I have coworkers who would absolutely abuse it … they would NEVER be here (they are already gone more than the number of vacation days they really have, from what I can tell).
I have 25 days per year - we can roll over up to 20 days (we can’t “bank” 20 extra from year to year, though - the most we can ever have in excess of the annual is 20). I have been here almost 4 years, and I am rolling over 20 days this year (have to take a day off this week so I don’t lose it when the new benefit year starts in July). I would love to take more time off, but no little elves arrive to do my work when I am away; my counterpart is in the same boat. Our boss, on the other hand, will soon take 2-1/2 weeks off. There are folks who think about stuff, and folks who do stuff.
We have not taken a vacation in 17 years. I use up my days visiting our son at school, parents weekends and the like, and running the rest out preparing for the holidays at home over Thanksgiving and Christmas. My husband has not had a single break beyond an extended (tethered) weekend that entire time. We plan to retire at the end of this year or early next and make up for all that lost time.
@novadad99:
That isn’t uncommon with consulting firms apparently, I had interviewed with some consulting firms years ago and they said you have X vacation days that are billed as 8 hours, but we expect you to make those hours up in the rest of the year in billed hours. So if I took off 5 days, I owed them 80 extra hours in billable time to clients (needless to say, I told them to stick it, not to mention the culture at those places gave me the creeps)
I barely used any of my 5 wks vacation last year. My project was in execution phase, and I was on call for most of the year. I was able to roll only one week of the unused leave into this year.
In over 30 years, my H took all of his vacation exactly once, last year. Many years, I swore that he worked the hours he took off either getting ready or catching up when he got back.
I don’t even want to talk about how many hours he has accrued in sick leave. Thousands.
He’s been very loyal to his company. It’s too bad they haven’t been loyal back. Counting down the days until retirement.
Interesting, novadad, my D with the 5 or 6 weeks vacation works for a big consulting firm. She works plenty of long days, but was not specifically told she needed to make up for her time off, and she travels a lot for vacations.
@NoVADad99 - that is interesting. It is exactly what happened to me in a government job because it was salaried. Every day I took off even it was one sick day I had to make up the work the next day with long hours. I took off like 5 sick days in 20 years so when I was off I was really sick. Coming back to double time the next day was terrible.
D currently works for a company with the same policy. Unlimited vacation. But you have to have your work done and catch up in a responsible way; people do not abuse it. So occasionally when she’s away, she might have to spend an hour or two checking in on stuff, but the good thing is that we never have to worry about her not coming home for Thanksgiving or Christmas (she comes for a week for each) due to not having saved up enough vacation time!
H, on the other hand… don’t get me started. I’ll be lucky to get him to take three of the five weeks he has this year - and two of those are planned trips away in the fall, so he’s really taken none so far this year - oh, he did take ONE whole day off when we moved in February. And there’s no cashing in when he retires… it’s gone.
It sounds like the common denominator here with people not taking all they’re given is the fear of what they have to do before they leave and what they have to do when they return to catch up (I don’t know how this can be easily remedied). Even when we’re on vacation, H usually spends anywhere between 2-3 hours a day checking emails, but at least he does it in the early morning while I’m still asleep.
As a federal employee, H and S were both entitled to vacation and sick leave. The supervisor was somehow disciplined if the workers had vacation that wasn’t rolled over and was lost. When H was single, he’d invariably lose some vacation time most years. After he got married, we were good about using all the leave that would otherwise be lost. He was able to roll over up to about 1/2 a year of vacation and unlimited sick leave.
H, S and other staff are allowed “com time” for work that in other settings would be overtime, and when they travel for work on weekends. I believe S takes and enjoys his vacation, while rolling over whatever he doesn’t use.
That’s a shame. Life is short. My company doesn’t allow us to carry over more than 150 hours PTO. My second job from which i was laid off two weeks ago doesn’t pay out the sick time accrued when you leave, although I will get the vacation time. Makes you want to take a sick day here or there. I much prefer PTO which in MA is paid in full when you leave, but again you can’t have more than 150 hours or you stop accruing. I had been looking for a second job for a while and was thrilled when I was able to negotiate three unpaid weeks and three paid weeks the first year (not sure what would have happened after that, and now a moot point). I really treasure my time off and its a deal-breaker when job shopping.
DS#1 and his W are taking a very long vacation soon. Hers is unpaid leave, but she is paid from grant funding and she volunteered, as others needed the limited funds more than she. DS worked out a combination of paid/unpaid leave, and I fully expect he really will not be off the grid all that much. I have never ever taken a vacation as long as they will be. But HOPEFULLY they will be doing this in anticipation of having a family soon that will preclude such luxuries. Good news-- his company offers a 6 week paternity leave (though I don’t know if he would really be unreachable during such a time). DS#2 and his GF are on vacation across the pond as I type. What is wrong wit this picture???
Federal employees can accrue sick leave throughout their career and convert it to add to their total service time to calculate their pensions. Most employees will have thousands of hours which will work out to a year or more of service time.
The ESL program where I teach now has only one reliable substitute who also has other things to do besides cover for us. Planning vacations is a collosal PITA because of that. We all have to coordinate the time off that we want, and then book it well in advance and work around that one reliable replacement’s personal schedule. There is a more than decent chance that I won’t be able to use up all four weeks of vacation this year. I’m just glad that I haven’t been here long enough to max out on what I can roll over.
A few years ago I lost 5 days PTO even though we can carry over 2 weeks. I said “never again” so I make sure I use it all up except the carry over. I only use sick time for doctor appointments as I haven’t called in sick since in my 7.5 years there. Not that I go in when I’m sick, I just don’t get sick.
My accounting job is very busy the first several days of the month, but very flexible after that. I can pretty much take off anytime after the 10th of the month or so.
If you are a good, competent employee, there is another advantage I found to taking a week or two vacation: My bosses and fellow coworkers never appreciated me as much as when I was gone during that time and it became apparent exactly how hard I worked and how much I did and, therefore, were happy when I returned.
I am very lucky. I get 5 1/2 weeks vacation and I think it’s 13 days of sick leave a year. Plus at my current job, if I work over 40 hours, I can save those hours to take off at another time, up to 3 days worth. So this year I’ve been on 2 week long vacations, but I’ve only used about a week of actual vacation time. I almost always use all of my vacation time, but I have been known to donate some. My husband puts in significant extra time he never gets paid for, and generally works part of many days while we are on vacation.
With my company I have the maximum PTO of 25 days as do many others but I know that there are tons of people who barely use any of their time. Nothing can carry over from year to year and if you leave or retire you do get the amount of time already accrued within your year, nothing more. I do tend to use all my time both in a vacation week and summer Fridays. For me since it is PTO depending on the calendar I might have to use 4 days right off the bat for religious holidays- 2 for Rosh Hashonah, Yom Kippur and frequently Passover for shopping/cooking etc.
Because I travel on business and sometimes have conferences that extend to Saturday or travel on Sunday there are times I am out as I might take a day to attend a museum event once or twice a year, but I am not marked out. This year I unfortunately had several funerals to attend… and so 25 days can get used up fairly quickly. Since my kids are all graduated from college, there aren’t any school events to attend.
The other side of that is time as I am in sales, one of my colleagues who rarely used her time said that anytime you are not at your desk emailing or making calls, you are missing opportunities. I can see her point…as there is always something that can be done. I generally do check my email at night or on the weekend… but not when I am away by and large, or I might check it but leave all the routine emails for when I am back. It is hard not to check when you can easily do so and hard not to get sucked in.
