Time off of work...

[MA_PE]

I get 3 weeks paid vacation every year, plus the obligatory paid holidays. Xmas, New Year's day, Mem. day, Labor day, Turkey day and July 4th
I really can't complain about the amount of vacation time, even though I'm sure I could figure out how to use 2 months or so each year.

My boss usually asks me where I'm going as he rubber stamps my vacation form, but just because he's genuinely curious, not because he'd say "no" if he didn't approve of my activities.

I think I'm up to 4 weeks now (perk of being old) plus the usual holidays.

I never take it all because the kids and thier extra currcular activities don't allow for much vacation allocation (time or money). I usually take a week in cash buyout at christmas to ease the holiday pain.

Same here with the supervisor approval, he asks what's up out of curiousity rather than to decide whether to approve or not.

 

[McEngr]

Speaking of time off does anyone elses spouse "spend" their vacations for them? Come June Ill have about 2 weeks of vacation saved up and my wife has it perfectly budgeted for our two vacations this summer (Gulf Shores and Ireland). It really pisses me off because I would rather have one of those vacation weeks saved incase I want to take a random day off here and there. I asked off for Ireland already because we bought the plane tickets and one week of vacation is fine. Im trying to figure out how to tell her I would rather skip Gulf Shores this year (her whole family goes, 40+ people) and keep my vacation days.

Hey Fusion,

How long have you been married? My wife and I have been married for 7 years now, and she's an Alaskan. I can't afford to go see her family every summer, but she always goes up there and Minnesota for family reunions about every other year. I've only been once, so it's not a big deal.

I obviously don't know your wife real well, but I'll bet she wouldn't mind you taking a shortened trip (in other words, just taking an early flight back).

That way, you can spare a few days to see the Louisville/WV game this year (or whatever you wanna do).

Are you a Cardinals fan? Just curious...

McE

 

[ktulu]

Speaking of time off does anyone elses spouse "spend" their vacations for them? Come June Ill have about 2 weeks of vacation saved up and my wife has it perfectly budgeted for our two vacations this summer (Gulf Shores and Ireland). It really pisses me off because I would rather have one of those vacation weeks saved incase I want to take a random day off here and there. I asked off for Ireland already because we bought the plane tickets and one week of vacation is fine. Im trying to figure out how to tell her I would rather skip Gulf Shores this year (her whole family goes, 40+ people) and keep my vacation days.

Don't go knocking Gulf Shores. I was practically raised on those beaches. But honestly, if it's with the in-laws and their extended family, I would be loking for an out as well.....

Back to McE original question/problem...It all depends on what is stated in the employee handbook...if nothing in there says that they have the right to deny vacation, then by law, they cannot act accordingly, and you can take time off whenever...My wife ran into the same situation, until her aunt told her about the state law (Alabama)...

So take a look into the handbook. Probably the one book nobody even reads (guilty..)

 

[TouchDown]

I agree with you Metro & VT. They always ask me why/what/etc. I am planning to do with my time off, sometimes I tell them, sometimes I don't. It is none of their business... and I like to keep my work life separate from my personal life anyway.

Amen.
As far as my work, they have the right to not approve vacation, but they try to be as flexible as possible. Only time it's an issue is coverage for production floor when it's a holiday and everyone wants to take off. It's more of an issue for hourly vs. salaried.

Common rule is that you give as much notice for vacation as you're taking off, and it's going to get approved (unless you've already been overruled because everyone it taking off...).

ie. if I want to take a 1/2 day, I just have to tell them that morning. If I want to take 4 weeks off - I have to give notice 4 weeks in advance. Some people do take off a month at a time.

Not to rub it in, but I move up to earning 4 wks vacation per year starting in July. WHOO HOOO!

 

[TouchDown]

As a side note - they do ask many times - are you going to be in town or out of town? And, they may allow you to go off work, but if you're working on a hot project, they have the right to page you and "call you back".

If you're out of town and not able to be reached at all - then they may not allow vacation if you're "too important" to something that's going down on the week you decide to leave.

 

[Hill William]

State gov. 12 hours a month to do with what i please. 12 hours sick a month that i have to be "sick" for. The sick leave is used toward Dr. visits, sick wife/kids. I can carry over unlimited sick and 240 hours of vacation. Plus 14 holidays a year. :th_rockon:

 

[kevo_55]

Damn, that kinda sucks McEngr.

Still, you'll be gone to a better place soon enough. :th_rockon:

I get about 2 weeks of paid vacation plus a few holidays off a year. I don't have to give a reason, but it usually comes up in normal conversation with my boss and co-workers.

It's kinda intresting this topic was made because I've been off for the last 2 days because I wanted to start getting in some extra studying for the exam. I actually HAD to take Thursday off because I was actually going to loose vacation time. (You can only bank 4 weeks a year at my company)

 

[ktulu]

State gov. 12 hours a month to do with what i please. 12 hours sick a month that i have to be "sick" for. The sick leave is used toward Dr. visits, sick wife/kids. I can carry over unlimited sick and 240 hours of vacation. Plus 14 holidays a year. :th_rockon:

I'm in the same boat, except I get 13.33 hours a month annual leave and 8 hours sick leave a month. The holidays as well, but I can carry over 320 hours annual leave and unlimited sick (~530 hours to date)

 

[DVINNY]

I get 104 days off per year.

Saturdays and Sundays.

 

[FusionWhite]

Hey Fusion,
How long have you been married? My wife and I have been married for 7 years now, and she's an Alaskan. I can't afford to go see her family every summer, but she always goes up there and Minnesota for family reunions about every other year. I've only been once, so it's not a big deal.

I obviously don't know your wife real well, but I'll bet she wouldn't mind you taking a shortened trip (in other words, just taking an early flight back).

That way, you can spare a few days to see the Louisville/WV game this year (or whatever you wanna do).

Are you a Cardinals fan? Just curious...

McE

Dont get me wrong, I love my in-laws. They're a hard partying, get drunk, have fun kind of bunch which is fine by me. I just dont like that I had no say in how my vacation got used this year. Im looking forward to taking a vacation day this coming up football season. UofL plays half their games on Thursday nights and thats going to make for some very rough, very hung-over Friday mornings.

 

[MetroRAFB]

Dont get me wrong, I love my in-laws. They're a hard partying, get drunk, have fun kind of bunch which is fine by me. I just dont like that I had no say in how my vacation got used this year. Im looking forward to taking a vacation day this coming up football season. UofL plays half their games on Thursday nights and thats going to make for some very rough, very hung-over Friday mornings.

The third week of vacation helps out with the spouse planning. My wife usually finds two weeks of **** for us to do together (all of it fun and fine by me). I need the extra week for me though, I usually take three or four long weekends a year and go hunting or fishing, and I usually take at least one of my four sons with me, usually two. It's tough to do that with only two weeks of vacation though. I can remember feeling the same way you do when I only had two weeks of paid vacation and I had to fight for "me time".

 

[Bigwolf]

I get 104 days off per year.Saturdays and Sundays.

:th_rockon: :unitedstates: :210:

 

[bigray76]

Most of my time off is tentative since my deadlines and assignments can change so often.

A lot of my time is 'impulse time' - I wake up and say screw this, I am going fishing!

-Ray

 

[snickerd3]

In our section, our vacation time requests are basically rubber stamped. If we want to take off early we just put a slip in the bosses in box and mention to him that we are taking off. Other sections must submit and get their approved slip back before they even think about leaving.

 

[SkyWarp]

I ask this question because my boss rejected my request for time off to help a friend move.

Your boss is great. He/she just got you out of helping someone move :Locolaugh:
Seriously though, we can take days off on short notice, if you're going to take say a week off, you just need to schedule it around your projects, or if you're a manager, you schedule your projects around your vacation :Locolaugh:

 

[grover]

I'm a federal employee- I get 20 paid vacation days and 13 paid sick days a year, in addition to the 10 paid holidays. I also run up a bunch of comp time, as I may be salaried, but I'm only required to work 40 hours/week and they're too cheap to pay me time-and-a-half overtime. All that airline time flying back and forth to Hawaii, Italy, Guam, Japan, Australia, etc- man, it's hard to burn all that comp time and still get work done. (I tell ya, I get spoiled- those 5 day work weeks are killer if I ever have to work one!)

We have a small group at HQ; my leave requests are subject to approval, but only to make sure we're not all gone at once and at least SOMEONE is in the office on any given day.

Aside from that, rubber stamp baby! 1-2 weeks my ***, try RETROACTIVE PERMISSION. "Hey boss, is it OK that I cut off early yesterday afternoon?"

Seriously though, we can take days off on short notice, if you're going to take say a week off, you just need to schedule it around your projects, or if you're a manager, you schedule your projects around your vacation

RHIP :happy: It's good to be the program manager sometimes, ya know?
Speaking of which- why wasn't Program Manager an option on our avatars? I put project manager as I wear many hats, but my primary job is a life-cycle-manager, of which projects are just a portion.

 

[user 788]

Nobody here ever asks for the reason why I want to take off. I get 2-3 weeks off without a problem. I just have to make sure someone's in the office during that time who can do my work. So basically my co-workers and me just have to agree on when we're all going to take our vacation time. We never had a problem with that.

 

[user 788]

I'm in the same boat, except I get 13.33 hours a month annual leave and 8 hours sick leave a month. The holidays as well, but I can carry over 320 hours annual leave and unlimited sick (~530 hours to date)

Wow, that sounds great. My sick days get lost if I don't use them during the year. But since I have kids and they get sick sometimes I usually take most of them. This year I'm going to take all of them - I can feel a headache coming ! I get 3 weeks paid vacation, 2 personal days and 7 sick days.

 

[cement]

banking sick leave is pretty sweet. I've used about 3 weeks since I tore my knee up, and I still have 4 weeks for the next dumb thing I do.

We have an informal policy that you give as much notice as the time you are taking off, but if you want time off during construction, you better have your ducks lined up way early.

 

[MA_PE]

banking sick leave is pretty sweet. I've used about 3 weeks since I tore my knee up, and I still have 4 weeks for the next dumb thing I do.
We have an informal policy that you give as much notice as the time you are taking off, but if you want time off during construction, you better have your ducks lined up way early.

we also get to accrue sick time. The intent is to allow one to accumulate enough sick time so that if you ever got seriously ill, your sick time will carry you through until long term disability kick in.

what kills me is how some jobs (typically in the public sector) buy out sicktime at retirement or termination. That's pushing it. Vacation time is earned, sick time is supposed to be if your sick not extra paid time.

Oh well, like I said in another post, jealousy ain't pretty. :BS: