How much time off do you get for your job? UPDATED

[OK!]

I get 3 weeks (15 days) of vacation; I'm not sure about the exact number of sick days we're allotted per year. I've been fortunate enough never to have had to call in sick, but I do work from home so I usually just log on and suffer through the day if I'm feeling bad. If I were working in an office, I'd probably have used 2-3 sick days last year.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I have two weeks vacation pay, which I'll be requesting for the fall. Other then that I just request off whenever I need, and I usually get off with no problems.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

I get none - zilch. All new hires at my job are kept at "one hour below full-time" (like 30 hours a week) so there are no paid days off, no benefits. If I am sick or on vacation, I simply don't get paid. I knew the deal going in, so I never expected to have paid days off, and I adjust my budget accordingly.

Paid days off sound like an incredible luxury - one I will never experiece.

 

[blanq]

I am just about to pass the 20 year mark at my county government job, and my PTO (paid time off meant for sick and vacation) will increase to 11.03 hours every two weeks, so that is right about 7 weeks per year. I am able to carry over up to 500 hours of PTO from year to year. I have a current PTO balance of 410 hours. Before we converted to PTO, we had the traditional sick/vacation plan. I have over 400 hours of sick leave that coverted to an extended sick leave bank when our time off plan changed, and I can use those when I am sick, need to go to the doctor, etc. I am well aware what a great time off plan I have. I am amazed at the number of people I work with who burn every minute as they accrue it, and then whe they have an emergency, they don't have the time available to take.

 

[barkley]

Is this your first year with the company? I know at some companies you don't get vacation time until after your first anniversary date.

this can be the case, but i'm also wondering since she mentioned that the time issue is between now and september (vs. a traditional calendar year) if it might have something to do with the employer being a npo, and the position being specialy funded.

it can get realy strange with funded positions in npo's-especialy if it's being funded by grant. the staff can appear to have the same rules of attendance as non specialy funded staff but in reality their time is more restricted by how the granting is written up. in some cases a grant is such that it strictly limits unpaid time off and if any occurs it causes problems for the other positions that are fully or partialy funded by virtue of the awop staffer's position (we had this with clerical staff-they got funded by virtue of it being justified on the physical presence of certain other funded staff members, absent those people we still had to pay clerical but we could'nt use the funding source it was budgeted from).

just the standard h/r person or the manager/supervisors might not be familiar with how to address it b/c it's not driven by their regular staff operating procedures (esp. if she's a contract vs. a permanant employee of the npo), but an h/r specialist or whoever wrote the grant definatly should know.

this is the kind of situation where you put a request for clarification in writing.

 

[blowinbubbles]

MushyMushy, I've been in a semi-similar situation years ago, when I worked at an A/C company. I was allowed five days PTO a year, and that was it. No sick leave, although if necessary, I could take time off unpaid. We weren't eligible for 10 days until putting in *SIX* years there! That made things difficult, because my kids were little, and if they were sick, I had to take unpaid time off.

Now, I work in an educational system, and the time off policy rocks! I accrue 7.5 hours a month *each* vacation time and sick leave, plus, I have two weeks paid vacation at Christmas and one week paid vacation for Spring Break. Also, we are allowed to accumulate our vacation time up to 300 hours and sick leave unlimited. That's a good thing, too, because it would be hard to take all that time off each year.

 

[barkley]

I am just about to pass the 20 year mark at my county government job, and my PTO (paid time off meant for sick and vacation) will increase to 11.03 hours every two weeks, so that is right about 7 weeks per year. I am able to carry over up to 500 hours of PTO from year to year. I have a current PTO balance of 410 hours. Before we converted to PTO, we had the traditional sick/vacation plan. I have over 400 hours of sick leave that coverted to an extended sick leave bank when our time off plan changed, and I can use those when I am sick, need to go to the doctor, etc. I am well aware what a great time off plan I have. I am amazed at the number of people I work with who burn every minute as they accrue it, and then whe they have an emergency, they don't have the time available to take.

in the county i worked in we could bank up to 3 times our annual vacation time before we hit 'use it or lose it', so some staff members had up to 24 weeks on the books

with sick leave, unless you were planning on using it when you retired to purchase service time it realy was'nt in your best interest to have more than a couple of weeks on the books. reason being is the state disability insurance paid (tax free) as much as most of our salaries, and the waiting period was only 7 calendar days. so if you had an illness or injury that had you out over one work week you had an income source that could cover you for up to a full year (it was later expanded to cover time off for child/spouse disabilities as well if you needed to care at home for them). if you had sick leave on the books the employer made you use it, but still collect state disability and buy back the sick leave. so you basicly were receiving tax free income which your employer took from you to issue you the same amount in taxable income which always resulted in net financial loss.

 

[PollyannaMom]

"None" and "as much as I want" - depending on how you look at it. I'm a substitute teacher, so I only get paid when there is work available and I sign up for it. So...I don't get any paid time off, but I can take unpaid time whenever I need it.

OP - I think the policy is vague to discourage anyone from going over unless it is an absolute emergency. I expect, if you got sick, and they really liked you as an employee, that it would be discovered in the fine print that the time could be taken unpaid. Alternately, if the same situation happened to someone they were looking for a reason to get rid of, it would be grounds for dismissal. Sorry you have to deal with it, though.

 

[DebbieB]

I have 32 years with my company, I get 30 PTO days, which include vacation, family care, illness up to 5 days. Once you go over 5 days for 1 illness, it goes to short term disability and is paid up to 13 weeks (with medical documentation and approval). We also have 8 holidays.

Does your company have over 50 employees? I think they have to give you unpaid time off for illness or family care under FMLA if you run out of paid days.

 

[MushyMushy]

I can't believe that they only give you 5 days of PTO . They have to be realistic. I think the thing to do is start talking with the upper management and get something realistic in order. I can see 5 sick days and then some vacation days but no way is 5 days of PTO even reasonable.

Are you the only one with that few days of PTO or is this everyone?

There are only a couple of us hired under this grant who have this PTO. Normally when someone is hired, they have a 65 day probation and any time off is unpaid, then after probation they earn their time off. That's what I thought was happening when I was hired!

You're not guaranteed THAT day off here (for example, you can be required to work December 25th) but you can claim a day back at another time if you are required to work a national holiday.

I like living here. Mushy's a great lady, she shouldn't have these worries

That is such a sweet thing to say, Kath. I appreciate it. Can I come live with you??

I don't think any of the typical/normal vacation policies apply here...sounds like there is a grant to fund your position. Where did the 5 days off come from? the terms of the grant, a contract you signed with your employer, the standard policy at your company?

I think in this case you just need to sit with HR and figure out how to take care of additional time off beyond your 5 days. I would presume its going to be unpaid. But you may be out of luck and they may say because of the terms of the grant if you can't fulfill the time required you may not be able to continue in your position.

That's exactly what I've been trying to ask them. I just want to know what to expect from them, but they either don't know or aren't being forthcoming. The thing is, they don't want to lose me, I know that. One supervisor (not mine) told me that they'd "work with me" on it, but geez, I just want to know specifically what to expect.

this can be the case, but i'm also wondering since she mentioned that the time issue is between now and september (vs. a traditional calendar year) if it might have something to do with the employer being a npo, and the position being specialy funded.

it can get realy strange with funded positions in npo's-especialy if it's being funded by grant. the staff can appear to have the same rules of attendance as non specialy funded staff but in reality their time is more restricted by how the granting is written up. in some cases a grant is such that it strictly limits unpaid time off and if any occurs it causes problems for the other positions that are fully or partialy funded by virtue of the awop staffer's position (we had this with clerical staff-they got funded by virtue of it being justified on the physical presence of certain other funded staff members, absent those people we still had to pay clerical but we could'nt use the funding source it was budgeted from).

just the standard h/r person or the manager/supervisors might not be familiar with how to address it b/c it's not driven by their regular staff operating procedures (esp. if she's a contract vs. a permanant employee of the npo), but an h/r specialist or whoever wrote the grant definatly should know.

this is the kind of situation where you put a request for clarification in writing.

What you're saying makes sense. I've never had experience with a non-profit before, and I appreciate any insight you can give me into it! It's not that I don't ask these questions at work, but I don't get straight answers. I'm starting to understand the different funding sources for our company, but it's pretty complicated to me!

This whole situation discourages me about the job. I might not have accepted the position knowing what I do now and I think my supervisor knows this, which is why she's so vague about these things. I do need to ask for this in writing.

 

[quentina]

Ask to see the handbook. All your answers will be in there.

 

[mickeymedic]

I get 200 hours of PTO to use for vacation, sick time or holidays.

 

[Kath2003]

That is such a sweet thing to say, Kath. I appreciate it. Can I come live with you??

Sure. Cost of living is pretty high here so our home isn't that big, though. You'll have to live in a closet and share a bathroom with the cats

 

[MushyMushy]

Ask to see the handbook. All your answers will be in there.

I've read the handbook cover to cover and my position isn't covered in it. There are a couple of us hired under entirely different circumstances and there doesn't appear to be any written policy for us! This is a brand new funding source from the new administration.

 

[Kath2003]

I've read the handbook cover to cover and my position isn't covered in it. There are a couple of us hired under entirely different circumstances and there doesn't appear to be any written policy for us! This is a brand new funding source from the new administration.

Is that legal? Here if you are a contracted employee, you cannot be treated any differently to other workers in a similar position - so in your case, you couldn't be treated any differently to any other teaching/professional staff in terms of your working conditions.

 

[kilee]

For employee's who have completed their 90 days and have less than 5 yrs (after 5 yrs it increases) we get per year:

10 vacation days
5 personal days
6.5 regular sick days
6.5 long term sick days (these are for if you're out 3-5 days. Example, I used 5 of them in October when I had swine flu).

We also get 4 floating holidays for MLK, Presidents Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day.

We also get paid holidays and are closed for: New Years Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

We get a nice amount of time off. However, if you run out of sick time and you call in sick you get written up.

 

[Minnie]

15 vacation days
5 sick days
11 holidays (worked holidays = 2 other days off)

I feel very fortunate to be employed by such a great company

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

I get 20 vacation days, 2 personal days and 6 sick days. It sounds like a lot but with school age kids, it's not. The kids get 3 full weeks off school for vacations - Christmas, winter and spring breaks, plus several days in the fall - Veteran's Day, Election Day, Columbus Day and Jewish holidays, if they fall during the week. There's your 20 days. So there is no time for anything else like leaving early for little league games, school plays, etc. And forget a day to myself! Luckily DH takes a few days and I hoard my time. If I know I need to take a half day on a Friday, I try to work an extra hour Mon - Thurs, so I can still work 40 hours in a week and not have to take 4 hours of vacation time on Friday. Or, during winter break I can work from home half days, or DH will work in the am then come home and I will go to work in the afternoon to save a half day. I work in the financial industry and this year they have added a new policy that everyone must take 2 weeks off consecutively as "risk" prevention/control. The theory is that if someone is committing fraud it would be detected if they are out of the office for 2 weeks. The problem is that I don't have enough time to do that and cover all the kids' days off. If I take a week for winter break and then take the week after, I will be sitting around the house by myself for the second week in stupid February when the weather stinks. When the weather is nice, I won't have days to take off! I wonder what will happen if I get stuck with no days off at the end of the year and I need them. Will the company let me take unpaid days? Dunno. There are some newbies who only get 2 weeks per year. I don't think it's reasonable for the company to force them to take all their days at once. What if they go on vacation in June and have some kind of emergency later in the year? What do single moms do? And to top it off, in the position I have, I couldn't commit fraud if I wanted to. Sometimes I wonder what the people at the top are thinking.

 

[MushyMushy]

Well, I spoke with my supervisor today and she did tell me that I could be fired for going over my 2 paid days between now and September. When I explained to her about a recent health issue and the fact that I knew I'd have to go over my 2 remaining days, she let me know this. Later she went to talk to her supervisor to confirm it, but they are looking into ways to "work with me" on it.

To be honest, I feel that my days are numbered with this job, sadly. Even if they do work with me on my doctor's visits and testing I'll have to do, I can't imagine any other scenario between now and September where I won't need a day off for other issues! My heath isn't the best in the world either.

My boss did say that it benefits them to work with me -- first of all, they like me in this position. But also, if I had to leave it would take them weeks to replace me, then have to train someone new and lose all that time anyway when they could have been working with the existing employee.

Anyway, just thought I'd give an update. I'm okay with the answer I got. Although it was the worst case scenario answer, I'd still rather know than have it hanging over my head like that.

 

[tiggspring]

OP I know how bad that sucks. I don't think most people realize about a 3rd to half the country works this way! My dh and I both are/were in mental health and 5 days total personal (sick/vaca) was the norm. Now he is in upper management at a very large co and he get 5 weeks since he has been there 7years. We know we are very lucky because we have lived most of the last 20yrs with much less. His pay is still half that at the same job just differnt field so he spends most of his time working two other jobs so we can pay the bills. But he loves his boss and his job and we feel the health field is more of a vocation. Hopefully his job will someday pay all the bills so he can enjoy his vaca!