Saturday, May 12, 2018

Friday: Personal Day/Floating Holiday and Vacation Time

On Friday, I took the first of my two days of personal days, called Floating Holidays, which are days off in addition to regular holidays such as New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, etc., (which are federal and/or state holidays; 12 such holidays in the year), and vacation days.  It sounds like a lot of time off, doesn't it?

With a prior employer, I received 1 week (5 working days) of vacation per year and about 6 paid federal/state holidays (so the day after Thanksgiving was a regular working day).  I had the option of taking the vacation time off with pay or, working during that week and getting paid in lieu of vacation and being paid working during that week!  In other words, getting two weeks' pay!  The owner of the company said it was cheaper for him to pay us two weeks' pay than to hire a temporary employee through an agency.  As far as I remember, we didn't have the option of taking one day of vacation at a time.  I worked for that company for two years and both years, chose to take my vacation time in pay because I needed the money more than the time off.  I left that company to join my present company, where I've worked ever since.

With my current company, I received 1 week (5 working days) of vacation per year for the first 5 years of employment and 1 floating holiday, and 12 federal/state holidays and one or two additional holidays that weren't federal/state holidays, such as the day after Thanksgiving.  I could, also, carry over that week of vacation into the following year to add it to that year's vacation and have 2 weeks of vacation at the end of the 2nd year!

After the 5th year, until the 15th year of employment, I received 3 weeks of vacation per year.  After the 15th year, I received one additional day of vacation per year until I received 4 weeks of vacation on my 20th year of employment.  I also received 2 days of floating holidays per year!

From year 20 until year 25, I received one additional day of vacation per year, until I received 5 weeks of vacation per year.  This is the maximum amount of vacation any employee with this company may receive.  By US standards, this is a lot of vacation time off. 

Apart from that very first year, when I received 40 hours of vacation time in a lump sum, the remainder of the vacation time off was accrued at a rate of a certain number of hours per month.  It was up to each individual to save them to build up one or two weeks of vacation time.  From the start, I became very adapt at stretching out my days of vacation to make maximum use of it. For example, since we got both Thanksgiving Day (3rd Thursday in November) and the Friday after it, taking just 3 days of vacation time off on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday enabled me to have a whole week off!  Or, I could use my floating holidays for two of those days and use only one day of vacation time!  Because I hoarded my vacation time and accrued the maximum number of days of vacation I was allowed, I was able to take almost two months of paid time off after my daughter was born (the Family and Medical Leave of Absence Law, which guaranteed up to 6 weeks of unpaid leave was signed into law less than one month before my daughter was born, but because I had vacation time, I was able to take that time off and still get paid).

After my daughter was born, my sick leave and vacation time off was taken,a day here, a couple of days there, to be home with her when she got sick, to take her to her doctor's appointments, to attend her school activities, etc.  And, later, after my mother fell and broke her hip, and had her strokes, my time off was used to take her to her doctors' appointments, and to care for her.  It meant I didn't have to take any unpaid time off; it also meant that I didn't take any vacations in the 'taking a holiday' sense of the word.  Over the years, vacation time represented, not the availability of time to take off to relax and enjoy, but rather, a precious resource of paid time off to be held in reserve in case something happened and I needed to take some time off without any financial impact. 

I was back to having my maximum number of vacation days off accumulated when I was diagnosed with cancer.  My sick leave was used first and then, even though I was allowed to work from home when I could,  I took vacation days off, as needed, for medical appointments, for chemo treatment days and the days that immediately followed, when I didn't feel well enough to work. 

And now, with approximately two and a half months before retirement, it seems I have arrived at the same place I was when I first started working!  Once again, I have the option of taking time off between now and retirement or, working during that time and getting paid for the unused vacation time I have accrued!  So, do I take the time off, just before having all the time off I will want, or do I work the next few weeks and accept payment in lieu?  At first, I thought I'll just take the time off.  Then, I ran some numbers and saw how much it would be if I accept payment in lieu and now, I am tempted to take the money!  But, most probably, I'll do a combination of both and take a little time off, between now and then, and accept payment in lieu for the rest of it.

How about you?  If you are working/have worked, how much vacation time do/did you get?  How  is/was your vacation time allocated to you?   In a lump sum at the beginning or end of the year?  Accrued at the rate of a certain number of hours each month?  Do you usually take an annual vacation of a couple of weeks at a time?  Or, do you take your vacation time off sparingly, a day or two here and there?  If you have the option of taking time off or getting paid for it, what do you think you would you choose?


16 comments:

  1. Working some accrued time and getting paid for it, and taking some of the time off as well, seems like a good compromise. Sometimes just being able to take a day or two break does wonders for body, mind and spirit! After all, you will be fully retired soon enough.
    I remember when DH was working, he was able to "bank time", by working some extra hours over a few weeks and then he was able to take more time off at Christmas making it a nice break.

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    1. Bushlady, yes, I think I will be ready for a few days off in the upcoming weeks, before I retire. :)

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  2. Hi! How exciting...you are so close to retirement! Congrats! My husband had 6 weeks vacation and floating holidays plus the usual holidays. He didn't take the last year's days and took the money instead. Prior, he was banking all his vacation days and then his company started a new policy that you couldn't bank them from year to year so he had to use them up! (I think they should've paid him for what he had before they began that new policy). When our kids were little....and when I would give birth to a new baby, or have other things arise that I needed him to watch the kids, he would use vacation days for that.
    In 37 years he only took 2 sick days! Andrea

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    1. Wow, I can't imagine anyone taking just 2 sick days in 37 years! Hope he was paid for all the unused sick leave in addition to unused vacation time!

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    2. Hi! He was paid for the unused vacation days his last year. The others had to be used up a while ago when they changed the policy. No pay for unused sick days as he was salaried. Andrea

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    3. Thank you for replying, Andrea.

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  3. I was always aware that you didn't get a lot of paid leave in the US, but until today I didn't realise how little. Here we are fortunate that it starts at around four weeks per year in most jobs and that is often before Bank Holidays.
    At this stage in your working life you should do what you feel. An occasional day off might be lovely. X

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    1. Even when we do get paid vacation time, we often feel guilty about taking the time off!

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  4. We work 9 hour days and I have every other Monday off. Which is great for my doctor appointments. It can be hard working 6:30 to 4:30, but I love it now. Especially when my Monday falls on a holiday like Memorial day. I get 4 days off. Down side is when you use vacation or sick it costs 9 hours, instead of 8. And it costs me 1 hour for the holiday. But I think it's worth it. I've been there 14 years and accrue 3 weeks a year. I love this arrangement.

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    1. Mia, that is the schedule I have, too! 9 hour days, with every other Monday off. And an extra day off when the Monday off is on a holiday. I, too, have to take 9 hours off per day of vacation, and have to make up the 8 hr. holidays with 1 hr. of vacation time. :)

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  5. In the UK, around 4 weeks (20 days) paid leave per year is normal, sometimes with more accruing the longer you work for an organisation. We also get eight Bank Holidays (official holidays) per year. In my last job I had five weeks leave. If you work in a job which requires you to work on a bank holiday it's usual to get an enhanced rate of pay for those days.

    I can't imagine having only one or two weeks off per year - as well as travelling on trips away, I used annual leave for things like having work done on my house so I could be there when workmen came in. I also got paid sick leave, and compassionate leave when my parents died. It's really interesting to learn about how different things are in your part of the world. I wish you joy of your retirement.

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    1. We are very miserly when it comes to giving paid time off, here! I do get sick leave - 96 hours a year, and up to 3 days of bereavement leave upon the death of a member of the immediate family. When my mother died, I needed to take several days of vacation time off in addition to my 3 days of bereavement leave.

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  6. I don't even know how many days of personal and sick leave I have. I didn't take any leave until my dad passed away, so I had enough days accumulated to take one month of paid time off.
    And I take summers off without pay.

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    1. That's great that you had enough paid time to take a month off when your father passed away, Nil. You might want to find out how much leave you get, though, just so you know. :) My mother, too, was a teacher and used to get summers off without pay. Sometimes, she would tutor during the summer to get a little income.

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  7. The University Libraries where I worked for the last 20 years of my life, was very generous with offering "time off". I had 4 paid weeks of holidays, plus the "bank holidays", plus a paid week off between Christmas and New Year's when the libraries were shut down. We had paid sick days up to 6 months before disability benefits kicked in, and we also had paid time off to attend medical appointments (although I personally made my appointments to coincide with days I had off anyways.) But the best days off were called "lieu days". We had an unpaid hour each day for lunch break. If you decided to only take 1/2 hour for your lunch and work the other 1/2 hour, you could save those 1/2 hours up until you amassed a whole day off. You could only take one "lieu day" a month, but it was so worth it to pick a day off during the month to do whatever you wanted. I used them as "working" holidays to get stuff done at home, but it was so nice not to have to use up a holiday to do that sort of thing.

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    1. Susan, it sounds like a very nice and generous amount of time off! We may take up to 16 hours of our sick leave time to attend doctor's appointments and other "preventive medicine" appointments (blood tests, etc.) But it isn't in addition to sick leave. We may also take our sick leave if a member of the immediate family is ill. At one time, I used all my sick leave to take my mother and daughter to their doctor's appointments and to be at home with them when they were sick!

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