Spin-Off from Work Hours: Do You Take Your Vacation Time?

[Minnesota!]

We can roll/bank over up to 120 hours of personal time. I don't.

I get 4 weeks vacation, 2 weeks personal at the 1st of every year. I generally use all my vacation, and then if I need more time, dip into personal. This year I carried over 3 hours

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I take all my paid time off. I earned it, its mine, I'm entitled to take it! I think we can bank a certain amount year to year but I don't get all that much, so it gets used.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

My new employer is use it or lose it, and we only get 12 days. You bet your bippy I use it

 

[RedAngie]

I use all my vacation days every year. Always have.

 

[Erzengel]

I try and bank some into next year (converting vacation time to sick time, working 20 hours so I can take mon-wed or wed-fri off) but I like to be able to take as much vacation as I can.

 

[BrianL]

I take it here and there, usually for quick jaunts to Disney, but I have SO MUCH banked and can never use it all. I am usually maxed out on vacation hours.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

I've never taken all my vacation time.
And now we get unlimited vacation days off with approval.
I am intending to do a 4 week vacation next year for my 50th - and my boss is giving my $10,000 towards it - so next year I am taking a LOT of time off!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

As to my OP, I'm curious to know WHY people don't take their vacation days. I realize not everyone travels every year but is there really nothing else you'd rather do than work?

I think a lot of people hang on to a few days to use later in the year, and then things get busy and you just miss your chance.

 

[ronandannette]

I think a lot of people hang on to a few days to use later in the year, and then things get busy and you just miss your chance.

Some people might. My boss is one of the people that a) is such an ego-maniac he believes the place will fall apart without him and b) really has no interests outside work. He has over 100 days banked (which he loses systematically as they age over 5 years) and earns 35 new days a year. He takes maybe 10, if we're lucky - we call it Mike-cation and it's almost better than taking holidays ourselves!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Some people might. My boss is one of the people that a) is such an ego-maniac he believes the place will fall apart without him and b) really has no interests outside work. He has over 100 days banked (which he loses systematically as they age over 5 years) and earns 35 new days a year. He takes maybe 10, if we're lucky - we call it Mike-cation and it's almost better than taking holidays ourselves!

My boss fits a, but definitely not b. He takes 50-60 days off a year & routinely works sub 4-hour days. But, he insists on coming in while sick because "the place doesn't run itself!". Uh yes, yes it does. He's a great salesman, but he's no longer our only great salesman (nor our top one), and he causes more problems than he solves when he tries to get involved in any other part of the business LOL

Edit, and yes it's wonderful when he's gone. He's snowbirding this Winter and we are getting SOOO much done!!

 

[Mokat76]

I take all of mine. It's essential to my well-being. I think when I was younger I saw vacation as another loyalty test so didn't take it all. Apparently with age came wisdom (and exhaustion). If my employer thinks I'm disloyal because I use my paid benefits, that's his problem. I am considerate about scheduling my time so I'm not gone during big work deals if I can help it.

 

[sasywtch]

I get 4 weeks + 1 day a year vacation plus 8 hours a month sick leave, all holidays, 1 personal day and 2 professional development days (pretty much personal holidays but the union had to name it something). We can carry over 600 hours of vacation which can be cashed out at retirement. Sick leave cannot be cashed out. Personal holidays and prof. dev days must be used within the year or lose. Due to some medical issues, I use my 8 hours sick monthly generally (hour here and there for appts) and usually use a day or two of vacation monthly so use up my vacation that way. I have an old balance of 100 hours of vacation that I don't use and keep on the books, just in case. I work 9 hour days and have every other Monday off. This January, both my off Mondays were holidays so I just gained 16 hours of time off I can take. Starting February 1, the order I use it will be personal day, development days (since those 3 days have to be used in this year), sick leave, holiday credit and then vacation. (I should add that we are able to also accumulate overtime for time off instead of pay but due to the stress at my job right now, wouldn't consider staying one minute after 5pm if I don't have to so that's not an option for me)

 

[usd2bmd]

I have been at my current employer for 11 years. When I came to them it was after being "restructured" out of my former job. I left a position with with 6 weeks paid vacation and 120 sick days. Now we didn't get paid for the unused sick time when i left, but there had been people i worked with that were able to take extended leaves to fight illnesses without losing their normal salary. This was an extremely generous benefit, but one that was repaid with fierce company loyalty.

I know have 23 PTO (including sick time) days and we have the ability to buy time. I buy the max (6 days) and we also get two floating holidays. I use every last hour.

 

[kydisneyfans]

We get 15 days mixed sick and PTO time and can carry it over. It's an accrual system which is even worse. With Crohn's I keep 3 weeks banked at all times since one never knows when the flare will happen. We also can flex time so that if we want a 4 day weekend, we can work Mon-Thurs 10 hours and Tues-Fri 10 hours. I recently took 5 days off over MLK weekend and didn't take a minute of PTO, so there are some advantages.

 

[dclpluto]

I get 5 weeks a year. Last year I cashed 2 weeks in since I only needed 3 weeks. Two weeks for a DCL Panama Canal cruise and one week for a DCL eastern cruise. This year I'm using 4 weeks so I will only have one week left I will save it in case something happens. One week in June wdw one week in sept wdw one week in dec wdw and one week in dec DCL western cruise.

 

[Bluestars]

Each year, I get 4 vacation weeks, 6 holidays, and 6 sick days. I use all of my vacation days and holidays every year. The only time I have ever used all of my sick days in one year was when I had a baby. My life is more than my job and I really enjoy my time off, although I do work remotely on a few things even on vacations.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I will add that when I was hourly, taking a "day here or a day there" was challenging due to overtime. All my OT reverted back to straight time if I took a single day off, so there was a financial consideration. That's why weeks that already feature a paid holiday were so popular for vacation days as there was no overtime paid that week anyway.

 

[Skippy918]

You guys get a lot of time off. I currently get 12 days per year for vacation. I use all of it. I wish I had more so we could take longer trips and more frequent trips especially in the summer when the kids are out of school.

 

[disneychrista]

I voted OTHER. Not because I don't WANT to take my time off (I get 5 week vacations plus 4 sick days on top of 10 Holidays) it is because I am often refused to take the time off.

This past November, I was told to take time off because it would be difficult to do so during December & January. So I put in a week off and it was cut down to ONE DAY! I lost over 2 weeks time last year.

 

[queenofthehive]

You betcha - every last second! (5 weeks/yr)