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#1 Feb 26 2013 at 7:37 PM Rating: Good
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It's nearing the end of the vacation year for me (June 1st to May 31st).

My employer has a "Use it or lose it" policy when it comes to accumulated vacation time. I can roll over up to five days, but anything over that is forfeited if not used by the end of the year. Vacation days cannot be turned in for cash value, true for both salaried and hourly employees. Their reasoning is always "We want you to take time off" but I'm pretty sure it's really "We don't want to pay you more".

Being the lifeless single man I am, I never really think about time off until the end of the year then I have to quickly fit as many days as I can without leaving my projects and coworkers high and dry. This usually takes the form of me taking off every Friday for a few months. I'm sitting on 20 vacation days right now. And am going to be using 12 of them up to take off every Friday between now and the week of memorial day (Good Friday is already a day off). That leaves me with 8 days left. Probably going to ask for the week of memorial day off too, which will bring me down to 4 days to roll over.

Work is just such an ingrained thing in my schedule, I don't really ever think about ever NOT working. Projects that are multiple months long lead to time flying by. I mention to a coworker back in August that I need to make sure to use up my vacation time before the end of the year, and suddenly I wake up one day and it's the end of February.
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#2 Feb 26 2013 at 7:39 PM Rating: Good
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Were you asking for advice on what days to take off, or just bragging that you have 20 days worth of vacation time?
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#3 Feb 26 2013 at 7:50 PM Rating: Decent
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My employer just allows you to accumulate hours until you hit a cap. Then you don't accumulate any more until you spend some. No set dates with limited rollovers, so no rush to spend them by some set date. Just have to keep an eye on it so you don't max out. It's ironic you posted this today, since I just (as in an hour or so ago) mentioned to my boss that I'll need to take time off cause I'm nearing the cap. I'm sitting at 378 hours right now (yes, that's me saying my vacation time is bigger than yours. Nyah nyah!).

I'm the same with vacations though. It doesn't really occur to me to take time off and go places or anything.
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#4 Feb 26 2013 at 8:03 PM Rating: Good
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Shaowstrike the Shady wrote:
Were you asking for advice on what days to take off, or just bragging that you have 20 days worth of vacation time?


Just talking. And announcing that I have 3 day weekends for the next three months.

gbaji wrote:
I'm sitting at 378 hours right now (yes, that's me saying my vacation time is bigger than yours. Nyah nyah!).


I had 168 hours this year. I started with 80 hours and get 8 hours every year. Next year I'll have 136 plus what ever I end up rolling over. I think I cap at 160 hours plus rollover.

Edited, Feb 26th 2013 9:07pm by TirithRR
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#5 Feb 26 2013 at 9:51 PM Rating: Decent
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Wait? You get 8 hours of vacation time a year? That's one day. That can't be right.
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#6 Feb 26 2013 at 9:53 PM Rating: Good
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I phrased it wrong. I started with 80 hours per year, and get an additional 8 per year, per year I work there.

It made sense in my mind because I knew what I was saying. Smiley: nod

Edited, Feb 26th 2013 10:53pm by TirithRR
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#7 Feb 26 2013 at 11:31 PM Rating: Excellent
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My job we have 3 different times we can use for vacation, Actual vacation, start off at 80 hours a year, then 120 after 5 years then 160 after 10. Those are use or lose. then we get 60-80 hours of one we can use for sick time or vacation, that one increases after 10 years, it also doesn't pay out, and then one that we get 64 hours of time that pays out if we don't use but caps at like $1500. 304 hours is more than enough for time off I want for the year.
#8 Feb 27 2013 at 3:58 AM Rating: Excellent
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Why not take a vacation and go somewhere? See some more of the world?

I'm sure your coworkers can survive without you for a month.
#9 Feb 27 2013 at 5:26 AM Rating: Excellent
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His Excellency Aethien wrote:
I'm sure your coworkers can survive without you for a month.
Sometimes, it's best for them not to realize that.
#10 Feb 27 2013 at 5:39 AM Rating: Excellent
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The One and Only Poldaran wrote:
His Excellency Aethien wrote:
I'm sure your coworkers can survive without you for a month.
Sometimes, it's best for them not to realize that.


The trick is to set them back enough that when you get back from the vacation they'll have only made a day's worth of progress.
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#11 Feb 27 2013 at 6:15 AM Rating: Excellent
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When I left my last job, I had accrued... oh, some 120-140 hours of sick leave? I was simply never, ever sick. I also had around 160 hours of vacation time (we have a 200 hour cap for each category). I found out I could cash in my vacation time (which I did, and ate a 30% tax rate Smiley: mad), but I lost ALL of my sick leave, despite moving from one Florida public university to another. Some 120-140 hours... gone.

I now I use sick leave quite often. Never going to lose out on my leave again! Smiley: bah

And what the heck is with the 06/01-05/31 year? We're 07/01-06/30, which already threw me off (why not New Years for a new year, amirite?).

Edit: Threw, not through. It was early!

Edited, Feb 27th 2013 9:09am by LockeColeMA
#12 Feb 27 2013 at 6:21 AM Rating: Good
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His Excellency Aethien wrote:
Why not take a vacation and go somewhere? See some more of the world?

I agree. It's surprising how much changing up your scenery for a few days can do to refresh your routine.
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#13 Feb 27 2013 at 6:32 AM Rating: Good
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LockeColeMA wrote:
And what the heck is with the 06/01-05/31 year? We're 07/01-06/30, which already through me off (why not New Years for a new year, amirite?).


I'm not 100% sure, but back in the day, I believe that the end of May was when the shop pretty much shutdown and inventory began because the big car companies shutdown and all orders dropped to almost nothing.

These days we do business with so many different car companies, and of course I don't think Ford, GM, etc. have the large summer shutdowns anymore (or if they do they haven't been as noticeable), that we stay busy throughout the year.

Edited, Feb 27th 2013 7:33am by TirithRR
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#14 Feb 27 2013 at 8:41 AM Rating: Good
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I get two and a half days of paid vacation per month of work. I can collect up to sixty days of vacation and save them for whenever, and any beyond those sixty days must be used before the end of the fiscal year or are lost. So near the end of the year I can have stored, say, seventy days. I can use ten and have sixty left, or use nine and still have sixty left since I'd lose that one day. Also, I could just use all seventy days at once and start back at zero twenty-eight, since those vacation days are counted as work days. There's a few finer details involved, but overall that's the gist of it.
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#15 Feb 27 2013 at 8:58 AM Rating: Good
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Go wherever as long as you don't spend it here.
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#16 Feb 27 2013 at 9:46 AM Rating: Excellent
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My last job started some accrual business that I never fully understood but had enough banked time that I never spent too long worrying about it either. Beyond the usual caps and stuff, you could go into "debt" a certain degree by taking time prematurely and other tweaks. Anyway, when I left I got a month's salary paid out to me so that was good enough.

Ironically, the whole reason it was changed was because the company had done a round of lay-offs for performance reasons and it chapped the owner's hide to have to fire someone and then cut them a large check. The new system was designed to encourage you to keep your banked hours down so, when you got canned, they were paying you for days rather than weeks or months of banked time.
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#17 Feb 27 2013 at 10:33 AM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
I'm sitting at 378 hours right now


Wow they let you guys accrue a lot. We got the same kind of program but cap at 256 hours. I was there once, then had kids, and that did a good job of eating up the vacation time.

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#18 Feb 27 2013 at 3:28 PM Rating: Decent
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someproteinguy wrote:
gbaji wrote:
I'm sitting at 378 hours right now


Wow they let you guys accrue a lot. We got the same kind of program but cap at 256 hours. I was there once, then had kids, and that did a good job of eating up the vacation time.


Don't remember the full rules (which I suppose I could look up, but whatever), but at my work I think that temps get 3 weeks of vacation a year, full time gets you 4 weeks, and after some number of years and a given title level you get 5 weeks (which is where I'm at). This is in addition to 10 holiday days a year. The cap is 400 hours of vacation. Sick days used to be tracked but are not anymore. They just require a doctors note if you're out for more than 5 consecutive days. I suppose people could abuse that, but then they can be fired if their management isn't happy with them, so there's your downside. I've never been out sick anywhere near that, so it doesn't really affect me. Vacation time can also be matched for cash. So if I take 5 days off, I can take an additional 5 days as extra pay. I usually do this because I never use anywhere near to 5 weeks of vacation time a year. Typically, I'll take off a week a couple times a year and spend the matching amount. That adds up to 4 weeks though, so I still accrue some extra. Also, for a long time I just didn't take vacation at all (work habit I guess), so I'm always floating pretty near the cap.
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#19 Feb 27 2013 at 8:16 PM Rating: Good
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Vacation...haha. I get 20 days and can roll over 10. But I can't manage to get 20 days in in one year unless I want to just work from home, so I always lose some days and still have 10 more days to roll over.
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#20 Feb 28 2013 at 7:31 AM Rating: Good
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I get 24 vacation days plus three personal days a year. I can carry over 200 hours at the end of the calendar year.

I need a vacation.
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#21 Feb 28 2013 at 8:01 AM Rating: Excellent
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I tend to use a few days over summer to get 4 day long weekends, but aside from that I don't do much. I tend to save up time and take longer trips. It works better with my job to, it's not really worth it to transition off of projects for one week, but you can't just ignore clients either.

I usually can take off enough extra days in summer for canoe trips that I can keep my overall balance low if it starts building up. That being said I'm still at the intro rate at my company, (3 weeks) so when I move up to four, it might build up a bit more.
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#22 Mar 01 2013 at 10:50 PM Rating: Good
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My first Friday off was spent playing Tales of Graces f.

It was very productive use of a day...
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#23 Mar 04 2013 at 8:46 AM Rating: Good
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Vacation? What is that? Is that when the undergrads leave so campus is nice and quiet and you feel even better about being in the lab late?

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