Vacation Days/PTO

[soccerdad72]

Do most people get their alloted time all pooled at the beginning of the year or have to build it up? Like I earn 14 hr vacation time per month and cannot take it until it's earned. I can accrue ip to a certain amount before I lose it. I think 338 hrs, idk I've never been close. But thats honestly one of the big things that keeps me here instead of going to work at the nuke plant. There I'd start off with 6 days off in a year and have to work back up to a large amount. But there its given at the start of the year to use anytime.

For us, it depends on whether you're salaried or hourly / union vs. non-union. I'm salaried, non-union, so we're given our allocation of vacation on the first day of the fiscal year.

 

[sam_gordon]

Do most people get their alloted time all pooled at the beginning of the year or have to build it up? Like I earn 14 hr vacation time per month and cannot take it until it's earned. I can accrue ip to a certain amount before I lose it. I think 338 hrs, idk I've never been close. But thats honestly one of the big things that keeps me here instead of going to work at the nuke plant. There I'd start off with 6 days off in a year and have to work back up to a large amount. But there its given at the start of the year to use anytime.

At our place, it gets accrued through the year, but you can take it all in January if you want. However, if you've used more PTO time than you've accrued when you leave the company, the money is taken out of your final check.

So, for example, let's say you accrue one day/month. You take all 12 days in January. You leave the company in June. You'll need to "repay" for six days.

If you can't take it until it's earned, AND assuming (you don't say) it has to be taken in the same year it's earned, how/when do you take the time you earn in December?

 

[GreatLakes]

Do most people get their alloted time all pooled at the beginning of the year or have to build it up? Like I earn 14 hr vacation time per month and cannot take it until it's earned. I can accrue ip to a certain amount before I lose it. I think 338 hrs, idk I've never been close. But thats honestly one of the big things that keeps me here instead of going to work at the nuke plant. There I'd start off with 6 days off in a year and have to work back up to a large amount. But there its given at the start of the year to use anytime.

The rollover is available immediately and then we get 1/26 if our yearly benefit every pay. We do have a policy where we can't go negative but the C-level at the top of each division can make exceptions on a per-case basis. I've made an exception to the rule for an employee once.

 

[mrodgers]

PSA: Take every minute of PTO you earn, no one on their death bed has ever regretted living their life and enjoying their time instead of working.

I get them paid out and don't live in a house. I should take every minute I earn?

Guy at work says pretty much the same. He states he thinks people should be fired if they don't use their time off. Again, he lives in a house.

 

[LYSE]

I generally use all of it.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I have 25 vacation days and 4 personal days a year. I have a very hard time using all of it. I have the mindset of saving my days in case I need them for some emergency and then I'm scrambling to take days during the last 3 months of the year. I need to plan better so that I'm taking days consistently throughout the year.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I teach at a university, so my paid days off are when the students are off. I don't get paid for the summer unless I teach a summer class, though. It still ends up being quite a lot of paid vacation days.

It's kind of nice because I don't have to be sure to schedule my time off to be sure I get it, and I'm always off when my kids are out of school. But it's not-so-nice that I can't schedule it whenever I want to; if class is in session I can't take time off unless I'm sick or there's an emergency.

 

[kdonnel]

Do most people get their alloted time all pooled at the beginning of the year or have to build it up?

Each company I have worked for has switched to a grant model. If granted and you leave or are let go in the majority of states there is no legal need to pay the time.

If accrued then it must be paid out.

 

[disneychrista]

I get them paid out and don't live in a house. I should take every minute I earn?

Guy at work says pretty much the same. He states he thinks people should be fired if they don't use their time off. Again, he lives in a house.

I don’t get what living in a house has to do with using vacation time. I think the point is to work to live don’t live to work.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm a teacher, so I don't get vacation days. Each year we get:

10 Sick Days
3 Personal Days
2 Emergency Days (these can be used for funerals, court appearances or natural disasters)

The sick days roll and the personal days become sick days and roll if you don't use them. We are paid for our sick days when we retire. Right now a sick day is "worth" about $140 to me at retirement, so when I need to take one, I have to weigh if it is worth $140 to have that day off, so I am pretty particular about them. I try to make all my appointments and things on days off from school so I don't have to take any sick time for appointments.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I have always worked places where you can't carry year over year, so I take every last minute of my PTO. My husband can carry his AND gets more than me, so he will often accumulate. He'll take the same vacation weeks that I do, but then have some left over that accrues. His job is high stress and they are very generous with PTO, so he gets more than he can really use without being totally upside-down on his work flow upon return. It's not uncommon for people to retire with several weeks of logged vacation, so they keep the paychecks coming for a few months after they stop coming into the office. They also offer a yearly buyout if you are getting close to the PTO cap. He hasn't had to take it yet, but may in coming years as his hours keep eeking up.

 

[E&Cmom]

I used them. I work healthcare during the pandemic. There is no way I won’t use them.

 

[GreatLakes]

I get them paid out and don't live in a house. I should take every minute I earn?

Guy at work says pretty much the same. He states he thinks people should be fired if they don't use their time off. Again, he lives in a house.

I'm not sure what living in a house has to do with this. House, condo, apartment, the point is take the time to not be at work and enjoy life. Most PTO is spent somewhere other than my house as well unless I have to take off to do a project.

 

[RangerPooh]

I feel fortunate in the amount of time off I get each year, and the fact that it can roll over up to a certain amount. We accrue up to 24 annual leave days and 12 sick days each year. With kids I use most of my sick day and easily 15-20 of my annual leave days. PLUS, we also get the week between Christmas and New Years off, and some holidays (New Years, MLK, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, Christmas Eve and Christmas. The rest roll over. Thanks to Covid and working remote for over a year I had a nice stockpile! I do have plans for all 24 days this coming year.

DH works for the same employer and has the same amount of time off. Unfortunately his position keep shim so busy that he rarely gets to use his time off, even if we're on vacation he's still working

 

[MamaMermaid]

Absolutely yes. And so does hubby. I teach so most of my days are taken because I'm sick or my son is sick and I need to stay home. Before kids, I usually didn't use all my days and they'd roll over. Now I'm lucky if I manage to have only 1 or 2 unpaid days!

 

[piglet1979]

Do most people get their alloted time all pooled at the beginning of the year or have to build it up? Like I earn 14 hr vacation time per month and cannot take it until it's earned. I can accrue ip to a certain amount before I lose it. I think 338 hrs, idk I've never been close. But thats honestly one of the big things that keeps me here instead of going to work at the nuke plant. There I'd start off with 6 days off in a year and have to work back up to a large amount. But there its given at the start of the year to use anytime.

I accrue about 8 hours a pay or something around that. Though we can go negative if we need to. IF is just like 8 hours or something it is fine. Anything more we would need to talk with HR.

If you can't take it until it's earned, AND assuming (you don't say) it has to be taken in the same year it's earned, how/when do you take the time you earn in December?

For us we can roll over 80 hours. So the 16ish hours I get in December usually roll over. You can also plan ahead of time and use that during the month. I keep an Excel spreadsheet so I know each month what I am earning, what I am taking (also with the reason why) and then what my total amount is. My spreadsheet goes back about 10 years.

 

[tvguy]

My former employer switched to PTO 3 years ago. It's a hot mess. We have 64 locations, two in California. The idea at corporate was to shift to PTO and make it use it or lose it. That's illegal in California. Here you HAVE to get either the time off, or they have to pay off the time.
Prior to PTO vacation hours carried over. Holidays were a day off or a double time day. Sick hours were use it or lose it. Now vacation and sick hours are PTO, and you can carry those hours over. Holidays go in a different pool, those hours have to be used in the year earned and do not carry over.
They started cracking down because they were getting killed when someone quit or retired. They had to pay me out 7 weeks pay. Now, if you have a larger balance, they start encouraging you to take a day off here and there.
As for working getting backed up, my industry is one of those where there is almost zero carry over work. If your assignment for the 5pm news isn't ready at 5 pm, your entire day was a waste and you can't finish up tomorrow.
And moving holidays from double time days to days off means everyone now has an additional 9 days off. Mind you, most folks only get 10 vacation days until they have been with the company 5 years, and average tenure is 2 years. So now the boss has to cover twice as many days off, and we don't have the staff to do that.

 

[rangerxenos]

They put our sick days in with our vacation days and call it PTO. I always have a bank of hours, I accrue so many hours every week, up to a maximum, then I can't accrue anymore. I make SURE I'm never at that point, I'm not giving time back!

 

[nene0182]

I currently get 5.5 weeks of PTO a year (accrues throughout the year) and 4 “floating holidays” that are distributed each January

I always use my floating holidays early in the year since they cannot be rolled over to a new year and aren’t paid out if you leave.

We can carry up to 240 hours of PTO at a time. I lost half a day a few months ago but that’s the first time in 7 years I’ve ever let that happen. I just got back from a vacation and currently have 195 hrs of PTO and my 4 floating holidays to use. I find it a lot easier to manage my PTO since we can always have 240 in our bank compared to my husband who gets less time than me but can only carry over 40 hrs every year.

 

[Grand Koalafornian]

we have one bank of PTO. I just put in four weeks notice (it takes more than two weeks to hire and train someone these days - I wanted to be polite). My state requires my employer to pay out what’s unused. I will be walking away with 4 1/2 weeks of unused time off, so basically a month’s extra wages that I don’t have to work for.