what is your vacation policy at work?

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I have been elected to our department council. One of the things that we have to tackle is vacation policy. We pretty much have it by date. If you request off first it is yours. BUT what happens if 5 people request off the same day for the same request. which is what is happening for later this year. High valued dates as well, for example day after thanksgiving. We can really only have 2 people off at a time.

So I am just in need of ideas. How does your job handle days off requests?

 

[golfgal]

I know of many companies that use seniority in situations like that but I don't think that is always fair either. I know my Step-Mom's old job (she just retired) rotated years so one year you got the days around Thanksgiving off and the next year you got the days around Christmas off. I thought that was a good way to handle it because you could plan years in advance for something like that.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

I know of many companies that use seniority in situations like that but I don't think that is always fair either. I know my Step-Mom's old job (she just retired) rotated years so one year you got the days around Thanksgiving off and the next year you got the days around Christmas off. I thought that was a good way to handle it because you could plan years in advance for something like that.

Should it be years of seniority in the department or at the company?

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Oh, I should also say that we don't work the actual holiday. Christmas day, New Years day, 4th of july, etc. and we don't really work weekends. We work maybe 2-3 saturdays a year.

 

[sunnyday123]

We have to put in our requests in October for the following year. No, I'm not kidding. And they told us to not plan a vacation until you know you have that week. What this amounts to is the majority putting in for the week of Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4th, and Easter. Then we try to get every friday/monday in the summer. It's chaos really. Apparently it's all done by computer so no one really approves it, although we can get overrides done by upper management.

 

[plutotek]

Seniority is usually equated w/union, and there are companies that avoid any kind of union-type 'activity'.

At my last company, we didn't recognize length of service except as a very last criteria in a variety of measures. For vacation requests, I gave the team the date/time I would open up vacation requests (not everyone started at the same time). They would then email me their request. The receipt time would be used as the deciding factor in case of a tie. This way, everyone had the same information and knew when it was going to become available.

 

[Binnie]

Ours is based on when the request is submitted, and then by longevity with the organization (not the department). So if a person submits in January for the week of Christmas, it's all good, in theory.

That said, I have known managers to turn down requests that far ahead because they can't plan that far ahead.

 

[Kathi OD]

We don't get to request when to take vacation. There are specific weeks during the year we are closed, so everyone has vacation at the same time.

 

[golfgal]

Should it be years of seniority in the department or at the company?

If you go by seniority, I would use total time with the company. I don't think seniority should be a consideration for "major" holidays. I would develop some days that are rotating for all members of the department, Thanksgiving and Christmas specifically-this year June, Sally and Frank have first request for days off at Thanksgiving and John, George and Mary have first request off for Christmas. Next year flip those around so June, Sally and Frank have first request off for Christmas. If someone doesn't want to take their time off that week, then go to another system or seniority. For other days off during the year use date requested first then seniority.

 

[kim929]

We have 4 rounds of vacation picks. In November they open the first round. everyone has to select a week, you can't just pick days. They have 4 rounds. You usually get what you want, if it is the week after Christmas etc it comes down to seniority.


ETA: Good luck, it's a tough job.

 

[Darcy03231]

Our company uses a combination of factors:

1) Who requested the time off first. Say a newer employee requested the day after Christmas off months in advance and then an employee with more seniority waited until the week before Christmas to ask for the day off, the newer employee would get the day.

2) Seniority (years with the company is what counts for us). If both employees asked for the day off at the same time, and neither one had it the year before, the employee with seniority would get it.

3) Whether you had it off the year before. Our company rotates the most requested days to be fair to everyone. So if a new employee and an older employee asked for the same day at the same time and the older employee had the day off the year before, the newer employee would get it off that year.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I don't think that we have a policy. When I managed a team, I tried to prepare in advance to make sure that we had adequate coverage during holidays. It was never a problem. Of course, it is much easier these days with the ability to connect remotely than it was in the past.

 

[marlynnp]

Our company uses a combination of factors:

1) Who requested the time off first. Say a newer employee requested the day after Christmas off months in advance and then an employee with more seniority waited until the week before Christmas to ask for the day off, the newer employee would get the day.

2) Seniority (years with the company is what counts for us). If both employees asked for the day off at the same time, and neither one had it the year before, the employee with seniority would get it.

3) Whether you had it off the year before. Our company rotates the most requested days to be fair to everyone. So if a new employee and an older employee asked for the same day at the same time and the older employee had the day off the year before, the newer employee would get it off that year.

This and also the length of the request. If someone is requesting the entire week prior to the 4th of July holiday (it's a Monday this year) and someone else requests only the Friday prior. The first person is going to get the day.

 

[tvguy]

My place, first come, first served. Not sure we have ever had a situation where 2 people asked for the same day, and the exact same time.
This past holiday season was a mess, because either management dragged their feet, or could not find qualified people to filling vacancies. (9 months in the case of one job). 5 positions, 4 of them people who can do more than one job. 4 of us (including me) had vacations approved before these people left, with one of these 4 scheduled to cover. Fortunately, the company did not cancel vacations, but a lot of folks worked overtime Christmas and New Years' weeks to cover folks on vacation.

My DW's place, union. They do rounds by Seniority. Everyone puts in their first choice. Has to be in full week segments. Then eveyrone puts in a second, third, fourth, fifth,etc. If you pass, then it reverts to first come first serve. Anything less than a full week is first come, first serve. It has been controversial for some folks. One guy, a middle manager, has been there 23 years and doesn't have enough seniority to get Christmas week off. He has fought and fought this, but the corporate ownership, and the union membership don't want to change it. His argument is it isn't fair. The opposing side is, in a union shop everyone makes the same salary after 5 years, so the only benefit you get for longevity is priority on vacation time.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Ours was pretty basic. The company rule was First come, first served by each department . And it was all up to your Supervisor. In case of ties, senority was supposed to be the tiebreaker. Plus depending on how long you worked for the company, would depend on how much vacation time you received. First year was a week, 2nd and 3rd year was two weeks, 4 and 5 years was 3 weeks, after 5 years was 4 weeks vacation.

I was the Supervisor for my department. Due to the workload, we couldn't have more than 2 people gone for a weeks vacation at a time. Most of the time, it wasn't a problem.

But after a very frustrating first holiday season supervisoring because everyone wanted the same time off, I came up with these rules:

You couldn't have more than 1 holiday week off a year unless no one else wanted that holiday week and you couldn't have the same holiday week off every year if more than two people wanted it.
More than once we did a lottery to make it fair.

Everyone in my team (6 of us) said they were happy with it. I wasn't thrilled because my kids were out of school (only 2 of us had kids) and I had to pay extra for them to be in daycare but it seemed the only fair way.

It did help that for Christmas the company began closing for the week between Christmas and New Years the last couple of years I was there.

I'm so glad to be done with dealing with that stuff and only working part time from home now.

Good luck OP!

 

[Carly_Roach]

The month of January is open season on scheduling vacation. If there are two people who want the same week, seniority rules. After January closes, then vacations are scheduled on first-come, first-served regardless of seniority.

Holidays are rotated. If you had Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day, etc week this year, you can't get it again for the next five years unless no one else asks for it in January.

Each person has two weeks vacation regardless of how much time they've been at the company. There is no 3 weeks for X many years, 4 weeks for X many years incentive. We each have two weeks and that's all we're going to get even if we spend 20 years at the company. Needless to say that cuts down on the time-off bickering over calendar hogging.

 

[Planogirl]

At our company it's all about seniority. I'm in a area that is small so I don't get off any times around holidays or Spring break. We also have to request all at the same time and they let us know what we've been approved for. They are doing it for a four month period this year whereas it was for six months last year and for the year before that. It steadily becomes more unfair IMO.

 

[candykisses]

Our company uses seniority to approve vacation requests. We can request off by day, week or month.

My department has three employees and our supervisor. I have the most seniority with 35 years. On November 1st I'm given a calendar for the entire next year. I mark down all the days I want, then forward it to the next senior person and so on.

If for some reason I decide not to mark down any of my days, then my workmates can have them. I can't force them out of a day that I want at a later time.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Ours is first come, first serve. Only one person in a job classification can be off at a time. As far as "high demand" dates (day after Thanksgiving, etc), you can't have it more than one year in a row even if you are the first to ask, unless no one else asks for that day.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

In my previous job it was dependent on who asked for it first. Whether it was on the same day or not, if someone asked 5 minutes before the other, they got it.