@thumper1 thank you! This is hard but for us the right thing. I appreciate the hope 
I just looked at my quickly building vacation hours from work. Usually I have maybe 10-24 hours in the kitty at any given time (trips to explore are what keep me sane) and I am now at 44 hours. Since I “only” work 3 days a week, I build hours somewhat slowly, but steadily, allowing for 2 to 3 lovely trips a year. My last was in February. I miss going to some of my usual haunts. Maybe I’ll get to go in 2021.
My husband has taken only one week of vacation time all year. He will take the week off between Christmas and New Years…to relax. I guess he will take the pay for his remaining time as I don’t think they can roll PTO over from one year to the next anymore.
H has taken 35 hours of vacation this year. He has a bunch of use-it-or-lose-it days, plus some comp time (not 1:1) for international travel. He had three overseas trips before Covid shut that down. He took a couple of Friday afternoons off during the summer so we could go to local state parks when they weren’t crowded.
Usually he gets authorization to carry it over, but am not sure what will happen this year. He has had a huge project over the past two months and has been working 12-14 hours a day. I expect there will be other emergent events in the next few weeks, too.
Our anniversary and my big birthday are next month, and we usually go away for a couple days. Not this year. Didn’t get to see our sons, either. We usually build vacations around visits to them since they live in places where we like to travel.
He can take the vacation pay as cash when he retires, IIRC. I think the accrued sick pay can apply to his retirement. It may be the other way around.
We work for ourselves. I’ve taken a lot of time off this yea but DH hasn’t. He really needs a break. I need to figure out something for him.
We got ourselves to Cape Cod twice this year, usually we only go every other year. But since we were supposed to go to Hong Kong in January (put off because of politics) and then put off again because of Covid and also were supposed to go to Scotland this fall (partly business, but also pleasure), I still feel a bit robbed. I missed doing art gallery hopping at the Cape, but doing take out instead of eating in was not a big sacrifice. I’m going to travel like mad when it’s safe though.
I have never heard of any co paying for the unused vacation time that exceeds the max accrued allowed - it simply goes poof… you lose it without any $$ paid to you.
Same. We can carry over a week normally, 2 this year. Anything unused outside of that goes poof.
Normally we are the same, but they changed the rules during the pandemic. They suspended our Max hours accurred. Last week they put a new Max hours in effect in April 2021. If you don’t use the extra by then it will be paid out. April2022 the old maximums go into effect. Anything extra will be converted to sick leave which can be added to years of service upon retirement. (Max of 1 year allowed)
However, I have been using my use or lose all along. I work 8-1 or 8-12 every Friday and most Mondays. I will have a hard time going back to full Fridays.
My husband as is usual will have vacation go poof at the end of the year. They cut out paying them for it years ago. Sometimes they let him roll over a week. This year because of budgets, people need to take it or lose it. I’ve stopped asking how much vacation time will be lost. 2 years till retirement
I worked for a not for profit that would pay out unused vacation time. They also eventually stopped because they wanted people to actually use their vacation time and too many people were treating it like a holiday bonus.
Before I retired I had separate banks for vacation and sick.
We had rejected a proposal to combine into one PTO bank with use or lose limits. Vacation was use or lose and paid out if you left; sick was banked without limit but not paid out. As I anticipated retirement, I was able to deplete my sick hours with a weekly recurring appointment scheduled during work hours
My company allowed us to cash in 5 vacation days this summer, and they just offered it again for Dec. They also upped number of vacation days can be rolled over - from 40 to 45 days. I am fairly new to the company, so I do not have that many days to carry over, but it’s nice to have one extra pay.
Regarding traveling, you know, in the summer it seems people were leaning more into nearby vacations or “get away” where they would rent an AirBNB for a long weekend or whatever. If you’re comfortable with that, don’t forget that option is still there for non-summertime!
It might be a very healthy mental break to spend a night or two in a highly rated, highly sanitized AirBNB even just an hour or two away to get a different environment. And places may be less used over the winter so not as much of the back-to-back guests going in and out.
My son’s company shuts down its manufacturing for the week between Christmas and New Years. Offices and R &D (where he works) shut down as well, since no production leaves them with little to do. It is without pay.
So he gets 2 weeks paid vacation per year, but ends up saving one of them to pay for that week of missed work. So he feels like he really only gets 1 week of vacation.
Then again, he’s happy to still be working, so there’s that.
My last job allowed us to carry over up to 20 days (could not exceed 20 total in the bank - so we couldn’t accumulate a bank of more than 20 carryover). I had 28 days of vacation a year, and I ended up carrying over 20 my last few years. Sad, but true. They paid me 75% for my unused days, current and banked, when I left. My previous job paid 100% of the unused days, but I could actually take vacation at that job so didn’t have a payout when I left.
My husband’s company allows a limited number of vacation days to be carried over from one year to the next. Not sick time. That is what goes POOF.
He has been paid annually for anything he doesn’t carry over now for several years.
I guess YMMV depending on your employer. But I do believe there was a change a few years ago that required companies to not carry too much of this time over from one year to the next. My husband will get this money in his last 2020 paycheck.
i get to carry over 2 weeks , but had to use my vacation this year to move my son to college in Aug and Quarantine with him (did work part of that) and my recent vacation. Will take off between Xmas and New years. Currently trying to find a way to do our annual trek to Florida to be with my mom. We usually stay with her but this year we will need to find an AirBnb. In her building many of her friends may not be using their apartments, ,so that is the likely option. This way we can spend time at the beach/pool/outdoors with her. We will also Quarantine at home before we leave at best we can and test before we go.
I do get upset with my mom, as she is living her life , going out to eat, hanging out with friends, etc. Her attitude is that she has lived X years of her life and if she gets Covid it was her time. I am not happy about this, but nothing I can do. She wants to continue to live her life, as while my dad was alive she was his primary caretaker and that took a toll on her. I just dont want to be the one to give her Covid
I also worked for nonprofit that allowed payouts of unused vacation after 3 years of service.
@BunsenBurner, H works for the government. He can bank up to 480 hours of vacation and it gets paid in cash when he retires. Excess amounts are use-it-or-lose-it.
Accrued sick leave gets added to pension service at retirement. That sick leave is in lieu of a short-term disability plan, so we try to bank enough to keep his paycheck coming until LTD kicks in at six months of disability. He has also donated sick leave to co-workers if there’s a serious health issue and they’ve run out of paid time.
He almost never uses all his vacation. Too much stuff to do at work. We’ve been mulling a camping trailer for a while, and in the era of Covid, one with a bathroom would make it possible to go camping at least. The alternative is to take our tent out during the week once the parks open in the spring. The parks are pretty deserted and we could use the bathhouses if we brought cleaning supplies.
Yesterday we drove around rural VA and hiked at a couple of state parks. Not many people, and most wore masks. A beautiful sunny, warm-ish day in November – I’ll take it.
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