Vacation time?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

How much time off a year do you get? How much do you take? Are you salary or hourly or self-employed? Do you think it's enough? Do you find that you want more?

I am pondering this more with DH's job change. He now has unlimited time off. Yeah no not quite. Before he had 21 days plus holidays. We could roll I believe 21 days a year over maximum before it got lost. Prior job he got 25 days a year with a week off between christmas and new years but use or lose. So if he tried to always use it up because if not that was a waste.

I can see how it's hard to travel now. But I find that we are also hesitating traveling not because of covid but because of his unlimited time. We are planning a week between christmas and new years, a week in Feb, and a week in August. I'd like to also do a week in October. But I feel like that's too much but realistically is it? He's take a week in August the company dictated everyone had the same week. And since february he's had 6 extra long weekend (memorial, easter, and fourth of july) days they tacked on as a company. I haven't booked christmas yet so we'll see. And yes he's salary without comp time.

I am just reflecting on how hard I think americans work and feel guilty over taking time off. That he works most weekends and nights above and beyond the hours of the office. And even before this company he usually worked a couple hours at night and a few hours each day or a full day on the weekend. So pretty standard. But I feel like europeans and even asian countries dictated more time off for their people.

How do you think your friends and families time off is?

[kork13]

I don't really know about my family, but my friends (mostly all military) and I all get 30 days of leave per year, plus ~8x 4-day weekends, plus typically around 1-2 weeks with of "minimum manning" periods around Christmas & New Year's. Frankly, we get ALOT of time off, and I rarely use it up. We're normally allowed to carry over 60 days of leave every October, but over the last 4-ish years, I've lost over 40 days of leave.

I generally try to take at least 1-2 longer (7-10 day) vacations a year, plus shorter periods of time off randomly. This year winter, I have plans to take over 40 days of leave between my return from deployment (mid-Oct) and 5 Jan. Current leave balance is 104 days of leave.... Yikes. So I'm hoping to take leave on the regular to give myself a 3-4 day weekend at least once a month, to help slowly whittle down my massive leave balance. I owe my boys a hefty amount of father-son time, so I have big goals as far as my time off.

However, the penchant for working too many hours is deeply-ingrained within the American soul. I'm guilty of it as well -- 10hr days are basically standard for me, 12-14hr days not unheard of or even necessarily uncommon at times. I definitely have a hard time talking time off, and assuredly feel some guilt leaving early or taking days off.... Especially if it's for an extended period of time. This winter will be an interesting challenge for me.

[disneysteve]

I get 259.2 hours which is 7.194 weeks. I think it’s a good amount and do my best to take every bit of it. It’s a little challenging for scheduling reasons and the fact that its use it or lose it. We don’t get paid for unused time. I’m salaried.

[GoodLiving]

As faculty, I work the academic year with additional duty days in the summer. I have no vacation but 2 personal days a year and sick time which I rarely use. I do get all the major holidays, around 2 weeks at winter break, spring break and about 6 weeks during the summer. This makes travel during anything other than peak times difficult. I have no guilt about taking the time off and I think the US should figure out how to give work/life balance back to folks. At my mature age, I think most of my friends have accumulated more vacation than we had when we were starting out. I still have never understood how folks with multiple children or kids with special needs have been able to hold on to jobs with some really horrible attendance policies.

[bjl584]

I get 25 days per year and normally don't use it all. I usually end up selling back or rolling over at least a few days.
Taking time off is almost a punishment.
Gone too long, and work piles up since no one is left to pick up the workload.
I get back and it takes another week to get caught up.
Vacations are nice, but the fallout from them are not.

[disneysteve]

Taking time off is almost a punishment.
Gone too long, and work piles up since no one is left to pick up the workload.
I get back and it takes another week to get caught up.
Vacations are nice, but the fallout from them are not.

I love that I have a job where this isn't the case. Since leaving family practice, my work is totally episodic in nature. When I walk out at the end of a shift, I'm done. There isn't any work waiting for me when I return. Nothing piles up when I'm gone. I have zero guilt about taking every hour that's coming to me.

[QuarterMillionMan]

All you guys get a lot of vacay with about 25 days a year or more. When I worked for Hawaii's government from day one of course after successful completion of 6 months of probation it was 21 days vacay & 21 days sick leave, plus 13 holidays a year (14 holidays in election year).


My current public sector job in California goes like this;
0-5 years, 10 days
6 years, 11 days
7 years, 12 days
8 years, 13 days
9 years, 14 days
10 years, 15 days
11 years, 16 days
12 years, 17 days
13 years, 18 days
14 years, 19 days
15+ years, 20 days (I'm at 18 years)

[jenn_jenn]

I also have “unlimited” vacation time. I am not a fan of such models but understand why companies use it. People here tend to take about two to three weeks a year in addition to our standard holidays. We also have a one week summer and one winter break where the entire company is off which is a nice perk.

[Fishindude77]

We maxed out at (4) weeks / 20 days of PTO, plus another (7) paid holidays.

[disneysteve]

13 holidays a year (14 holidays in election year).

Every year is an election year. Do they only give you off in presidential election years? I'm surprised nobody has complained about that. Senate and House elections, governor, state representatives, local races, etc. are certainly all important too.

[ua_guy]

I think the most I had was about 29 days including holidays. Which, actually, isn't bad when compared to most minimalist PTO policies. I would try to leave a few days to "roll over" into the next year, and I'd take the rest throughout the year.

DH has had "unlimited" PTO for years. Rarely ever utilized it, but, that's what those policies are designed for. If you can take time, good luck. Although, at this new gig, they encourage taking time off, so we'll see how that actually plays out.

[riverwed070707]

I get 6 weeks a year plus holidays. I typically use about 2-3 weeks a year. Anything more than that is nearly impossible and typically on PTO its hard to disconnect entirely. As BJ mentioned, its nearly impossible to get caught up if you don't stay at least partially engaged. Fortunately our carryover policy is pretty generous and at this point I'm just banking on getting paid for a couple months when I finally get to sign out for the last time.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Every year is an election year. Do they only give you off in presidential election years? I'm surprised nobody has complained about that. Senate and House elections, governor, state representatives, local races, etc. are certainly all important too.

Yes only presidential years.

[disneysteve]

I get 6 weeks a year plus holidays. I typically use about 2-3 weeks a year. Anything more than that is nearly impossible

I hear this so often. It's a really screwed up American phenomenon. Let's give our employees a bunch of vacation time that they can't ever actually use. And when they do try to use their time, let's keep bugging them with texts and emails so that they have to keep working anyway.

[kork13]

DH has had "unlimited" PTO for years. Rarely ever utilized it, but, that's what those policies are designed for. If you can take time, good luck.

Not sure I follow. How does unlimited PTO mean people take less of it?