Vacation Days/PTO

[hhisc16]

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.

In SC, our days accrued at retirement are worth 25 dollars per day...

 

[dez1978]

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?

We can accumulate up to 338 hours of vacation time and it rolls over from year to year. But if you are over 338 hrs in Oct you use it or lose it. Also I work for the state. And if you move from 1 state dept to another, like I worked for Corrections for 18 years then moved to Mental Health, you can only take 40 hrs of vacation time with you to your new job. They pay out the rest. There is no limit on how much sick time you can have. A lot of people end up taking a month or 2 off "sick" to burn up that time the last few months they work before retirement. Or if they know they need a medical procedure done or whatever.

 

[Tess]

I receive 4 weeks of PTO--sick and vacation time off come from the same pot. You better believe I use each and every hour--for vacation. If I am sick (which pre-Covid was never); I take it unpaid rather than use my precious vacation hours. We are not allowed to carry over and there is no "cash out" for failure to use your time.

DH gets 5 weeks and he is allowed to carry over 40 hours. Sick time is just paid (and he, like me, pre-Covid was never ill) since he is senior management.

 

[CdnCarrie]

I get 6 weeks vacation plus our Christmas shut down. We are only allowed to carry over 2 weeks of vacation. So yes I use 4 weeks easily each year and sometimes more and sometimes I carry over some days. Sick time has nothing to do with our vacation time. Nothing is designated as personal time. If you took a day off (but weren't sick) it would just be a vacation day. Well unless it was bereavement leave or something along those lines.

I think there is a clause in our contact that says you can take up to one day a year if your caregiver was unavailable - as in your daycare provider for minor children or for someone you cared for was suddenly unable to be there you could get paid for one day to find other arrangements. It has to be unexpected not like the babysitter is going on vacation. I used it once when there was a water main break or something at the kids' daycare. So if your elderly parent goes to adult day respite and they had to close suddenly for the day. That sort of thing.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We have "unlimited" DTO, but I think I use maybe 15-20 a year, possibly a few more depending on the year.

 

[Colleen27]

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 mean, that's a nice thought... but if the corporate expectations are such that people who take their time tend to be let go, or given negative performance reviews, or passed over for advancement, it might not be a realistic one. I think most people are pretty good at reading their company's culture when it comes to these things, and that few people are interested in leaving time on the table by choice (assuming there's no incentive to do so - a payout for unused time might be more valuable to some people or at some points in time than days off would be).

 

[Colleen27]

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.

But if getting PTO paid out instead advances the cause of home ownership, which is what I think the poster you quoted was getting at, isn't that perhaps a better use of the time than taking a week off (whether to travel or to hang out at home)?

And there's one other thing about PTO that doesn't get much discussion on the DIS, where I get the impression most people are salary/professional - for those who work regular overtime, PTO doesn't make taking time off financially neutral. My son doesn't generally use his time because he works 55 hour weeks normally and hates getting that just-40-hours paycheck. It is fine as a bonus when he cashes out what he can't roll over but he's not interested in it diminishing his regular weekly check by that much.

 

[Uncle Coaster]

My first year at my current job I let a day of vacation go unused and found out that is heavily frowned upon by my bosses. They encourage people to use it all. I think I lost out on a few hours last year but nobody said anything yet.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

If your job gives you paid time off, do you use all of it?

A report on local news this morning says 75% of people leave Vacation Days unused, an average of 5 days.

My PTO is still separated into holiday, vacation, sick, and personal days.

I take every millisecond of vacation, personal, and holiday time off. I get 10 sick days, but rarely use them all. Usually I take 7 or 8 sick days, mostly for “Mental Health.”

Some reasons given for not taking all eligible vacation days are:
1. Too much work to make up upon return.
2. Afraid of appearing as a slacker that would hinder promotion opportunities.
3. Company culture frowns upon or discourages employees using their full allotment.
4. Those who can roll over PTO are saving it for later.

Dh gets 'flex time' instead of sick days; he gets vacation hours, and major holidays off. His flex time covers sick and personal days, and can be used for whatever he needs. He's up to 6 weeks vacation a year (he was bumped up a level, so it changed and I'm not sure yet). He takes all his flex time, and usually rolls over a week or two of vacation.

 

[tvguy]

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

Wow, you're lucky. A some of healthcare companies here have canceled all vacation and many scheduled days off due to the pandemic. My DIL went to work for Kaiser Permanente a year ago and was told in October to expect to work Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years 2021 due to the pandemic. She quit on the spot. (she is not a healthcare professional, she worked on their social media sites)

 

[barkley]

i suspect people where i retired from use it allot more now than in previous years. we walked into entry level jobs with 3 weeks paid vacation/3 paid float/12 paid sick. float was use it or lose it, sick was no cap (but lost if not used prior to leaving), vacation could be saved up to 3x your annual accruals (after 5 years you started earning another day per year up to a max of 6 weeks per year, so you could end up banking 18 weeks). thing was, back then-if you were at or above a certain classification you could cash out up to a year's accruals which pension laws at the time allowed for an artificial increase in your wages for pension calculations so people would cash out 6 weeks in december, 6 weeks in january, set up a retirement date and then take those last 6 weeks as paid vacation. they changed the pension law there several years back with about 6 months notice to staff-anyone who qualified to retire ran for the retirement office.

i was in a classification that also got another 50 hours of paid time off per year-it was use it or lose it so i always opted for it vs. my vacation time.

 

[E&Cmom]

Wow, you're lucky. A some of healthcare companies here have canceled all vacation and many scheduled days off due to the pandemic. My DIL went to work for Kaiser Permanente a year ago and was told in October to expect to work Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years 2021 due to the pandemic. She quit on the spot. (she is not a healthcare professional, she worked on their social media sites)

I am CanadIan and nurses here are unionized so it is probably different. We have a collective agreement and are entitled to a certain amount of vacation days. They can not cancel them. We do work Statuary holidays if is on our schedule.

 

[Jml813]

I get 7 sick days that are use or loose. We don't get paid out on those.

We get 48 hours of personal time that has to be used in the same calendar year or lost. Again it doesn't pay out.

Vacation time can roll over up to 175% currently due to Covid, but we can't cash it out. I have been with the company 22 years and I get 250 hours a year. I typically roll over some but not all. I try to use as much as possible, nobody covers me when I'm out but I've learned that from my own sanity I do need to take some time. I currently have over 300 hours of paid time off available before we talk about personal or sick days. In fact, I was joking with my boss that I was going to take every Friday off this year just to try and get rid of some time but I know that that's not feasible!

I'm also a salaried employee so it's easier to flex out time than actually use vacation. That being said I typically work over 50 hours a week.

There's also 8 holiday days a year.

 

[starry_solo]

My company gives paid time off (vacation and sick time rolled into one bank). How much you get is dependent on how much you work there and our group can accumulate up to 1 year off of paid time off (some groups/classifications can only accumulate 1/2 a year of paid time off).

Anyhow, I save up enough to make sure that if some emergency happens, I won't go without being paid. I took all my time last year and will likely take all my time this year (except for the emergency leave time).

 

[starry_solo]

Wow, you're lucky. A some of healthcare companies here have canceled all vacation and many scheduled days off due to the pandemic. My DIL went to work for Kaiser Permanente a year ago and was told in October to expect to work Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years 2021 due to the pandemic. She quit on the spot. (she is not a healthcare professional, she worked on their social media sites)

Here in Southern California, the Kaiser healthcare employees are unionized and they bid on vacation time off in order of seniority (I know because one of my BFFs works there). So, obviously, not everyone gets off those holidays, but if one senior person picks Thanksgiving, that same person can't get Christmas or New Years off too unless the others lower in seniority don't pick it and by the time it gets back to the top senior person, it's still available, then that person gets it.

 

[tvguy]

Here in Southern California, the Kaiser healthcare employees are unionized and they bid on vacation time off in order of seniority (I know because one of my BFFs works there). So, obviously, not everyone gets off those holidays, but if one senior person picks Thanksgiving, that same person can't get Christmas or New Years off too unless the others lower in seniority don't pick it and by the time it gets back to the top senior person, it's still available, then that person gets it.

My DIL is in Southern California. She is not medical staff, but worked on their digitial platforms. And she is not union, but the pending strike was the main reason all days off were canceled.

 

[E&Cmom]

Here in Southern California, the Kaiser healthcare employees are unionized and they bid on vacation time off in order of seniority (I know because one of my BFFs works there). So, obviously, not everyone gets off those holidays, but if one senior person picks Thanksgiving, that same person can't get Christmas or New Years off too unless the others lower in seniority don't pick it and by the time it gets back to the top senior person, it's still available, then that person gets it.

This is similar with use in terms of bidding. Holidays like Christmas etc work different. If you are scheduled both Christmas and New Years one year you can request one off in lieu of another day in the same pay period. It is also done by seniority so you are not guaranteed it off. Luckily I have been lucky with trading it off since sometimes another coworker is happy with the overtime pay.

 

[tvguy]

I am CanadIan and nurses here are unionized so it is probably different. We have a collective agreement and are entitled to a certain amount of vacation days. They can not cancel them. We do work Statuary holidays if is on our schedule.

My mom was a nurse and Canadian. Graduate of Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing. She said Canadian nurses were the best. She had strong feelings about nurses being professionals and professions don't join unions. Times have changed. I have a cousin who was an RN in Saskatchewan. She got so fed up with everything regarding healthcare there that she moved to Qatar.

 

[Skywalker3]

We are both federal employees. DH earns 8 hours/pay period, I earn 6 hours/pay period (every 2 wks) Can't carry over more than 240. DH currently uses what he earns each year, and carries over about 240 or just under each year. I don't have that much saved up. Each of us earn 4 hours of sick leave/pay period. We have vacations planned well in advance, and take time off every year. (DVC has us planning 11 months out usually.)

 

[CallieMar]

I mean, that's a nice thought... but if the corporate expectations are such that people who take their time tend to be let go, or given negative performance reviews, or passed over for advancement, it might not be a realistic one. I think most people are pretty good at reading their company's culture when it comes to these things, and that few people are interested in leaving time on the table by choice (assuming there's no incentive to do so - a payout for unused time might be more valuable to some people or at some points in time than days off would be).

This would be a dealbreaker for me and I’d be looking for another job. At my previous job, SEC regulations require that we take 2 consecutive weeks off with zero contact with our employer. Couldn’t even text a coworker on vacation to ask a question if something blew up. The leave was documented and we had to map out coverage and make sure that everyone was cross trained. I really liked this because it meant I could truly forget about work while on vacation, even in a management role. My current job doesn’t have to adhere to these regulations, but I can still take time off knowing most of it gets covered (of course project work just gets put on hold). I know this doesn’t work in everyone’s situation and I absolutely have been privileged to be able to make that choice.