How Much Vacation Time Do You Get?

[mark&sue]

We live in the UK and it appears the standard vacation time a year is four weeks. I am very lucky and have 6 weeks a year and I get an extra five weeks a year working longer hours a day making 11 weeks total vacation time a year. DH is the boss of his building company and limits himself to approximately 4 and a half weeks.

We tend to go to US every year for two weeks and a week to DLP.



Susan

 

[pumpkinboy]

I am also atypical for US corporate employees. As an officer of the Bank I get 4 weeks, plus 3 personal holidays; in addition to that, I can take a week without pay ("buy" a week), simply reducing my (taxable) salary by 1/52nd. However, I will glady sacrifice 1/52 of my salary for that extra vacation time, and I think it makes me a more productive employee in the rest of the year.

So 5 1/2 weeks here.

 

[Mom B]

Okay, officially (from my union contract) I get 25 days per year, plus 4 personal days, all the standard federal holidays (I work for city government)...so how come I never have more than about 2 weeks on the books? Where did it all go anyway? My hubby has over 400 hours built up and he keeps losing hours because he's maxxed out. For years I said it was because I had to take all the time off for sick kids, taking the dog to the vet, taking my mother to the doctor, etc. But the kids are pretty much grown and it still doesn't add up the way I'd like to see it...Hmmm... And we only go to Disney for a week every two or three years (so far, but hopefully more often now that we're in DVC). I gotta work on this... something's just not right!

 

[anabelle]

I work in the auto industry and have 4 weeks of vacation (It took me 10 years to get that much). But we get 2 weeks off at Christmas that don't count.

 

[jarestel]

When I was in school back in the 60's ( ouch, was it that long ago ), we were told that in the future, labor saving devices would enable us to work far fewer hours and we would be able to spend much more time with leisure pursuits. Though we now have the labor saving devices in place, it seems we need to watch them closely for many more hours a day than my parents had to work before the labor saving devices came along. Progress, you gotta love it! So the answer to the question "how much vacation time do I get"? Not enough, my friend. Not nearly enough!

 

[Maistre Gracey]

My wife gets 34 days of vacation, but the major holidays come out of that. I guess that leaves a little over five weeks for her.

I am a somewhat different story. I work seven days straight, then get seven off. That cycle continues throughout the year.
I do get two weeks vacation, and when it's coupled in with my schedule, it's actually two 3 week stretches.

On our WDW Christmas getaway, my wife takes a Monday and Friday off, and we visit during one of my scheduled weeks off.

MG

 

[Shelby5514]

My company gives 2 weeks paid vacation for 1-5 yrs, 3 weeks for 5-15 yrs, 4 weeks for 15-25 yrs and 5 weeks for 25+ yrs. We have 6 paid holidays, 2 personal days and 2 Diamond days.

DH works for a company that has some wierd way of calculating vacation time. It's something like 2.4 days per week. Bsically it figures out to 4 weeks paid. I think he'll get 5 weeks next year.

We go to WDW at least 7 days every year.

 

[DisneyPhD]

I used to get 3 weeks, but 12 holidays, and then personal days it came out to around 6 weeks total. I got 4 months for maternity leave (paid). There was a lot of thing I liked about my job, but I did put up with a heck of a lot of crap!

Now I am a SAHM, either every day is a vacation, or I never get one, depending on how you look at it.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

I LOVED my DH's old job in a major University. He got all major school holidays, 23 days off with more to come the longer he works there, 3 personal days and unlimited sick days. He also got great medical and retirement benefits. But he HATED his job - couldn't stand the spoiled students and the "I'm paying the tuition" parents. This would have been the perfect job for DVC! But alas this was pre-DVC and pre-kids.

So, while I was pregnant with our first DD, we decided if he needed to get out, now was the time while he was still relatively young.

He got a job that paid only a tiny bit better than his last one BUT it only has 2 weeks vacation, 3 personal and sick days, and bad medical and no retirement benefits. Yikes!!! It's a VERY small company and the other employees who have been there over 25 years still have the same 2 weeks vacation!

Sigh - what to do? He dropped their medical insurance and is covered under my medical insurance. He's not crazy about his employers or his co-workers but he actually enjoys the work. He really hated going to work before. He use to be bored to death at work - after delegating the work, not much to do but surf the intenet and wait for the next problem case to get bumped to him. So, to him, it's not just the money, benefits, and vacation - he actually had to like what he was doing! Me? His old job would have been my dream job!

While he enjoys the work, he's ready to ditch his job, the second I say we can move to Florida!

I, unfortunately, can't ditch my job yet. I work in my family business and can have unlimited vacation days if I want as long as I get the work done. So, my kids know that before a vacation, Mommy needs to work late every night to get all her work done. So, for a week or 2 before a trip, DH puts the kids to sleep and I stay at work until about 11pm or later. You'd be surprised at how much of my work actually gets done right before vacation! Lol!

I use to travel with my parents and the kids without DH because of DH's limited vacation time but after a 3 week trip in October 2003, we said never again unless it was an ultra short trip. We all found the separation difficult.

So, now that we have DVC, we have to make do with 2 weeks a year. We take advantage of holidays and if we need more, DH will just have to take an unpaid vacation! That will make the trip extra expensive! But I need the vacation and I don't want to go without DH! So, wah, wah, whine, whine...

 

[aussiemickeys]

In very general terms, the standard in Australia for a full time worker seems to be 4 paid weeks Annual Leave, approx 8 days paid sick leave & all public holidays paid leave. I know of heaps of people here that have more than 4 weeks each year though (especially government employees LOL!). Also I think most places carry over the Annual Leave up to a certain point as well. I know that the sick days accumulate. I am very curious - do you guys get Long Service Leave? Here, depending what time of industry/award you are under you also get paid Long Service Leave after a certain amount of years. My friend (government employee) gets her fully paid 3 months leave after 7 years of employment & we have a small store & our employees would get 3 months paid annual leave after 15 years of employment. I have my own personal little theory why we get so much leave - I reckon it is because it takes us Aussies so long to get to any other country for our hols. 4 different flights just to get from where I am to WDW! Ah, but what a nice thing to whinge about.

 

[iankh]

...I am very curious - do you guys get Long Service Leave? Here, depending what time of industry/award you are under you also get paid Long Service Leave after a certain amount of years...

There's no standards, except perhaps in the education field. Some companies do offer sabbaticals if you have enough years of service.

 

[Pig Pen]

I get 39 days per year which includes all vacation, sick, and holidays. We can carry over unused days, but we can never go over 45 days accumulated time. We have a STD program that kicks in when you use up your time due to illness.

 

[Jecca]

I'm a teacher and get 10 weeks off in the summer, as well as all the school holidays. In addition, we get 10 sick days and 2 personal days each year. We can carry over our sick and personal days indefinitely and get paid out for them at retirement, but our personal days will become sick days at the end of each school year. We can request an extra personal day if we REALLY REALLY need to. I've done twice so far and will again next school year for our F&W trip.

We usually spend a week in the summer at WDW. Then every other year, we go over Christmas break. Next school year, I'll be taking my personal days and combining them with a long weekend for a trip down.

 

[JVL1018]

Depending on your view either everyday is a vacation or I get no vacation.
I am a stay at home Mom. LOL

I believe that the days my husband is off are my vacation days as those days I get a break from dealing with the kids all by myself.

His company gives 3 weeks after 5 years, so he gets 15 vacation days, plus 7 combined personal/sick..whatever you choose to use them for(he takes maybe 1 sick day a year, the rest are personal days)..plus because they work so hard the first few months of the year(he's an accountant) he sometimes gets a couple days extra, so about 24 days/year.

Also, if any holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday(like Christmas or 4th of July) they'll get a 4 day weekend.
It's a small family company-pay's not the best, but they take care of them.

 

[sheryl0521]

17 vacation days + 4 personal = 21 days to spend. I'd say at least 10 to 13 of them are spent on the Mouse and we work them around holidays to stretch them out to an average of 3 weeks at WDW & DVC!

 

[keishashadow]

Myself - I'm "unofficially retired/SAHM/working part-time from home" depending on what I feel like doing each week, so I personally have no vacation issue.

However, my DH, is a SteelWorker (yes, they still exist!). Despite his union contract, vacation time is NOT guaranteed. It is doled-out on an "as needed basis" by the company. Although he gets 3 weeks currently, with 4 coming soon, it is not assigned until the December of the year prior.

The employees with the most senority get to pick first (they have 5 weeks vacation). Once the list gets to my DH we scramble to pick our weeks.

No, there is no rhyme or reason as to which weeks are available each year. Since the company pays a "bonus" for the first 3 months of the year.

I'm beginning to realize that this will present a challenge for scheduling our 11-month window, unless we pick November or December. Perhaps we'll try to book the time we really want, within our 11-month window, and just cancel if we have to?

With the state of the world it seems ungracious to whine about getting 3 weeks vacation and scheduling difficulty, but I'm still doing it - shame on me.

 

[MinnieInMI]

I receive 3 weeks of vacation and 1 week of personal time and I take 3 weeks unpaid. My husband receives 6 weeks of vacation and takes 1 week unpaid. Our children are grown, and we both have flexible employers re: the unpaid time off. We have been averaging 7 weeks of travel per year. Donna

 

[ALBA]

Things are definitely a bit different where I work in the UK.

Our starting allocation is 28 days vacation, going up to 30 days after 8 years and then 33 days after 10 years, based on a 5 day week. I work 35hrs per week so anything over that is rolled up and we can take it as time of in leiu of hours worked, so I supplement my holidays to add extra days.

We apparently get 6mths fully paid sick leave, after the 6mths it goes to half pay.

All in all not a bad deal.

Alba

 

[mikesmom88]

Get 4 weeks vacation;

spend 3 of the 4 weeks at my DVC
2 weeks at WDW in August
one week in HH in February

 

[bizarre.musik]

hello, alba. can i quote you on this

Things are definitely a bit different where I work in the UK.

Our starting allocation is 28 days vacation, going up to 30 days after 8 years and then 33 days after 10 years, based on a 5 day week. I work 35hrs per week so anything over that is rolled up and we can take it as time of in leiu of hours worked, so I supplement my holidays to add extra days.

We apparently get 6mths fully paid sick leave, after the 6mths it goes to half pay.

All in all not a bad deal.

for my paper on defieciency in american vacation essay for my college essay?

-yayumi