people who travel often & for over a week, how do you get so much vacation time at work? or is your job flexible?

[Jessica Geisler]

I'm a self employed farmer. I work like mad from March-June, work a "regular" schedule from mid June through August, then work like mad again from September to November. For the most part, from December to February, I don't have much to do. I can usually squeeze out a week or two vacation in late July or early August, then I can do whatever I want during the winter.

There's plenty of folks out there that don't work 9-5 jobs for "the man."

We farm & own a grain elevator! My husband actually enjoys Disney because he still feels busy. we usually go every year in January, I take the kids by myself a weekend in October to maintain my mental sanity during harvest, and then we try to do something after the fair, but before school starts so that I don’t have to find someone to feed the animals.

 

[wdw4rfam]

We go twice a year for 10-12 days. We don’t go anywhere elseI stay home and homeschool, my husband is a massage therapist. He only works in a spa part time and has his own business. So as long as he gives 90 days notice at work they don’t care. His own clients just know now, when it’s disney time....

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

I have 20 days + holidays, husband has 30 + holidays (but weekends count for him if days run into them, yay military!). We usually don't go for much more than a week because of pets, but we could. As far as how we get so much time off work, these were just the packages at these locations. PTO is super industry and position-dependent. I tried to negotiate for more but won't get a 5th week until 5 years in. Everyone here starts with 4, no wiggle room.

We are also young (27,30) and don't have kids which makes travel easier.

 

[CarlyMur09]

I work for an engineering company that's got multiple locations worldwide, but I think our vacation time is based on what the country/states require and then builds off of that to give a fair amount among all the emploeyes.

For my location: Starts off with 10 days of vacation and 11 holidays (NY, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiivng Th/F, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and NYE, plus two days that are sometimes used to "fill in the blanks" or we can use as a FH). The longer we're there, the more days we accrue on a yearly basis, up to 30 days of vacation, if not more. Also, if you're salaried (I am), for the most part, they don't dock your pay for sick days if it's the occasional day. If you're hourly, you won't get paid for the day.

Currently WFH with occasional trips to the office, but before this all happened, we were working a modified schedule (I think someone earlier called it a 9/80 schedule?), where we were able to take every other Friday off, so that was helpful in being able to take 9-10 day trips to Disney, where we would fly down Thursday and come home two Sundays later or take a long weekend (Thursday through Tuesday).

We'd made a few trips over our holidays over the last few years as well, so that saved on vacation days as well. Last year alone, we had trips around Memorial Day (11 days), Labor Day (long weekend), and Thanksgiving (10 days), and I still had a few days to use on other things around home.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I get 6 weeks vacation a year - union job in Canada

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I work for my provincial government (20 years in) and I get 5 weeks vacation per year, and we can carry over up to 3 weeks into the following year. Plus, since we don’t get raises, they can award us with extra days off.

 

[twodogs]

I am a doctor and own my own practice. While that sounds great, there is no paid time off. If I take time off, it costs me because I still have to pay my staff to work and pay my overhead, but I am the only one who can bill to see patients, so there is no income. I share call with my partner, so only one of us can be off at a time. Generally, the problem is finding a time to be off that doesn’t burden my partner or leave my patients in the lurch. I have only taken 1.5 weeks off once in my career. I usually take a long weekend or a week at most, and that is not every year. Since my partner and I both have school aged kids, we have to split up weeks like Spring Break, so neither of us can ever take the entire week off. My DH has unlimited time off, but he generally has to work some of every vacation and is never really ”off”. I usually work during our vacations too, though less than he does. We prioritize traveling with our daughters, so we get a lot done, but it is rough to have every day off “cost”! I would love to take a 2 week trip, but that probably won’t happen until retirement.

 

[Skywalker3]

We're both federal workers. Hubby earns 8 hours AL every 2 wks, you can only have a max of 240 at the end of the year, and carry that forward, he's got that built up, so he uses what he earns each year, Unless there are restrictions, like sometimes no travel at the end of the fiscal year, he can take it all together/spread out, etc. as long as it's approved early. I'm federal too, but seasonal. My contract is usually up in the fall, like this year it's up at the end of Sept. We travel a lot at the end of the year, so I dont' use vacation, plus with kids' school calendars. I only have about 90 hours built up, but I was able to get 2 wks off for our planned (but cancelled) WDW trip end of May/early June. as long as it's approved early, and not too many people asking for that same time, it gets approved. We also get federal holidays off.

 

[Becky925]

I work for our local county, and have been at my job 12 plus years. At 12 years we get 4 weeks vacation(20 days) plus 12 sick days. The building is also closed for 12 holidays, plus 2 election days as our courthouse is also a polling place and business cannot be conducted while people are voting (the only exception to this is if you work for voter registration/elections, they work on election days to run the election but then receive personal days to make up for it) My only limitation is I cannot take more than 2 weeks at a time without prior written approval, and I cannot use more than 2 sick days in a row without a doctor's note or some other type of medical excuse.

 

[ArielSRL]

I'm a teacher and go during breaks. We only take one long trip though and then several shorter ones. My husband gets 3 weeks vacation I think but he also earns comp time.

 

[Flamingeaux]

I worked for the state of LA and we get both annual and sick leave. It starts at 12 days each per year and gradually increases to 24 days of each per year. We also get plenty holidays. When I retired in February I had accumulated enough leave to get 2.3 service years added to my retirement. We would go to WDW about twice a year. We did this for several years and I would say we have been there at least twenty times. Now I'm retired and fully armed with an AP and I know how to use it. My goal is to go 4 times on this AP!!

 

[princess jasmine 76]

I work in higher education as an administrator. We get 24 days / yr. Additionally, we are closed the week between xmas and New Year's.

 

[Newbie500]

I have 20 days + holidays, husband has 30 + holidays (but weekends count for him if days run into them, yay military!). We usually don't go for much more than a week because of pets, but we could. As far as how we get so much time off work, these were just the packages at these locations. PTO is super industry and position-dependent. I tried to negotiate for more but won't get a 5th week until 5 years in. Everyone here starts with 4, no wiggle room.

We are also young (27,30) and don't have kids which makes travel easier.

Ahhhhh to be young again and have so many more years to visit Disney!

 

[sullyfam]

I work for the state and my husband owns his own construction business, so he makes his own schedule. My state job allows me to carry 6 weeks of vacation per fiscal year. I may have more vacation time than that at any time during the year, I just have to get it down to 240 hours by June 30th each year. We also get 5 personal days and what feels like unlimited sick days. Plus all state and federal holidays. However, we have 3 school age kids now so we schedule our Disney trips around their school/sports etc. We find that an 8 day and 7 night trip is what works for our family. We always get to do most everything we want during that time and we're ready to go home at the end. Disney for 2 weeks is just not something that fits into our lifestyle right now but maybe when we're retired

 

[Paendrag]

I get 5 weeks annual PTO with my company. I also try to go around holidays to maximize my total time off and/or use less PTO.

 

[debedo]

My DH gets 23 days PTO. We tend to vacay about 4 weeks a year and then have long weekends here and there and visit family for holidays and the such. Maybe take a day off, here and there, for getting something done at home. So when we do any vacay that is 5+ days, he will likely work while on vacay. We did a week at the beach in June and have another week at the beach next month. He worked 3/5 weekdays in June and probably will work 2/5 next month. He usually carries some days over too (can carry over 10).

He also gets 9 days paid holidays and we can travel around those dates too. He loves to do around Xmas and NYs because his whole office tends to slow down so he doesn't miss as much.

I have mostly been a SAHM. Our kiddos are all adulting or finishing college now so I could work but whatever job I'd get would be very hard for us to continue our vacation lifestyle. I wouldn't be able to take off as much and we'd probably be down to just 1 week a year. I'd like to work part time though.

Which means you had the best job ever.....

 

[GreyStr0ke]

I work for a big tech company and we have no vacation policy! I've never used more than a week at a time though.

 

[lpereira]

Work at a hospital. 3 days on/4 days off. If I want to go someplace I can arrange for my 2 four day off periods to back up to each other for 8 days off without using PTO. If I want extra days on either side I put in a day of PTO. I accrue at 6.54 hour per paycheck. I never work overtime so I don't accrue any extra but if I did I would get more than 6.54 hour. I'm sitting on about 170 something hours despite taking (using PTO) a week in August and this week (using PTO), and I'll be taking 5 days the last week of September( also using PTO ).

 

[paradesintherain]

Work at a hospital. 3 days on/4 days off. If I want to go someplace I can arrange for my 2 four day off periods to back up to each other for 8 days off without using PTO. If I want extra days on either side I put in a day of PTO. I accrue at 6.54 hour per paycheck. I never work overtime so I don't accrue any extra but if I did I would get more than 6.54 hour. I'm sitting on about 170 something hours despite taking (using PTO) a week in August and this week (using PTO), and I'll be taking 5 days the last week of September( also using PTO ).

Does that mean you’d work 6 days in a row?!

 

[lpereira]

Does that mean you’d work 6 days in a row?!

All magic comes with a price.