Attn: Americans w/ jobs. Tell me about your vacation days.

In My Humble Opinion
1

My parents are 2 principals, a pre-school teacher, and a retired dentist (steps= 4 parents total) so growing up I never saw what sorts of breaks someone in a non-school job had.

When I was in Europe I was shocked at the number of days the whole city was shut down, and was asked about vacation days in the states. I wasn’t sure.

I guess it’s different depending on what kind of job you have. Could we just get a list going where you say:

  1. your job (maybe how long you’ve been there and if the answers to the following questions changed during that time)

  2. which days you aren’t expected to work (thanksgiving (friday?) , xmas, jan 1, labor day? july 4? etc.)

  3. if you have any extra vacation days and if so, how many, and do you use them? is it viewed poorly if you use vacation days?

thanks!

2

For my current job:

  1. 20 vacation days a year. No restrictions on personal days, though if you take too many, they can be denied; you work it out for a boss.

  2. Labor Day, the President’s holiday (usually a week after Columbus Day), 3 days at Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, another President’s holiday (usually in March – not President’s Day), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Memorial Day, Independence Day.

  3. I usually have days left over, so I lose them. No big deal.

Note that this is for working at a college with a “Franciscan Tradition”; i.e., Franciscan friars are heavily involved (including being President and VP).

3

Vacation days: 2 weeks when you start. Add one day each year for the first five years. Then its three weeks for 5-10 years, 4 weeks for 10-15 years topping out at (for a U.S. Corporation) a generous 5 weeks after 15 years.

Plus ten holidays. - two days for the Forth of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, New Years day, one of those January Feburary days (MLK, Presidents, Vetern’s, not sure which).

They shut down the plant I work over the 4th and Christmas, so everyone “gets” to take their vacation then - usually about six days of your vacation is furlough.

4

  1. I’m in the armed forces, going on 15 years this winter.

  2. My current assignment, a land job working out of an office, I work Mon-Fri, with weekends and federal holidays off. Additional days off will be provided around the holidays. Obviously, some events and duties will cause me to work weekends and holidays, but that isn’t common at my present assignment.

2a. When I was assigned to cutters, you had weekends and holidays off only if you were in port at the time. When you’re underway, there is no time off.

2b. When I was at a SAR station, you worked 2 days on, 2 days off, sliding weekends, regardless of holidays.

  1. I get 30 days paid vacation (leave) per year. You earn 2.5 days per month. You can carry over 60 days of leave at the end of the fiscal year; anything beyond that you will lose. (there are a few exceptions to that)

I have never complained about not having enough time off. My leave balance usually hangs around the 50-60 day mark because I get plenty of regular time off, and don’t need to take leave all that often. I’m on a weeks leave right now just to burn off some days.

5

Currently unemployed, but in my previous jobs, we generally had about 10 or so paid holidays per year. Most employers I’ve had experience with start new employees with 2 weeks of paid vacation, upping to 15 days after a varying number of years, then up to 20, and so on. Most also allow 4-5 “personal” days. These are intended for single days off that you need for other than sick time.

The handling of sick time here varies all over the place. One previous employer had the attitude that if you are sick, or your dependent is sick, you are to stay home until you are able to devote yourself fully to your job. People were actively chastised for coming in to work while ill, spreading their germs and viruses around. This actually, in my observation, led to fewer actual days off. Of course, had a person abused this attitude, there might have been a discussion as to whether they were healthy enough to continue being employed, or should go on disability. When I was teaching, we were permitted a certain number of sick days, and just about everyone made sure to use them all by the end of the term.

My husband worked for the state government for about 40 years. By the time he retired, he was up to 6 weeks paid vacation, and had accumulated the maximum allotment of unused sick leave.

6

I’m a public school employee with an administrators contract, so probably similar to your folks. I’ve been there almost 2 years.

25 vacation days a year, I can roll over up to half, or cash out up to 5 every year-end. On top of that, I have 15 sick days a year, all of which can be rolled over if I choose, up to one year’s worth that I can accumulate.

We get seven discretionary days, which are days that school is out, but which we work, and can use anytime during the year as vacation days. Those days are Columbus Day, President’s Day, Veteran’s Day, MLK Day, and three othere I can’t remember now.

I’m off both “eve’s”, and Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving and the day after, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day.

I can take any of those days so long as I get approval in advance from my superintendent, which is usually a formality. I run a department of 7 staff people, and 130 employees, so long as all the crucial spots are covered on any day, I’m free to take the days I want.

Certain times of the year are bad times to not be around. Usually the last month or so before school starts, and the first couple weeks, but that’s about all the blackouts I have.

7

Not meaning offense, but:

“In My Humble Opinion”

“For frank exchanges of views on less-than-cosmic topics. This is also the place for polling.”

8

I’ve been unemployed for the past year. (I’ve picked up some video gigs, and I’m currently working on a film. But I won’t see any income until the film – I hope – sells or until the wedding season starts again.) But my last job gave salaried employees two weeks to start, plus three personal days and unlimited sick leave. After five years we got another week of vacation. So at the time I was laid off I had 18 days of vacation/personal time. Some people abused the sick leave. (One person in particular did, but either she ‘knew where the bodies were buried’, had friends in HR, or they were afraid to come down on someone with her sexual orientation. She was ‘sick’ two or three times a Mondays a month. Sometimes Monday and Tuesday.) I missed out on the ‘calling in sick’. I could have extended my vacation time, only I’m too honest. I’m such a tool. Anyway, my last year I had only one sick day and I still had two personal days left. I think the hourly employees got the same vacation/personal time, only they had a limit of five sick days per year. And there were ten or so paid holidays.

If I may editorialise in GQ, I think Americans don’t get enough vacation time. I noticed that most of my coworkers used their time to take single days to take care of personal business or to extend existing holidays. Very few actually ‘took a vacation’. Having to use vacation days to take care of a sick child or spouse means that there is little time left for travelling. I think it would do Americans good to go abroad.

9

3 weeks paid vacation, 4.5 paid personal days each year, 9 paid legal holidays per year, one week of continuing education, one week of professional development.

Sick leave accrues at 5 hours per two weeks, and does not expire at the end of the year, but continues to grow until you leave the system. At retirement, leftover sick time can be converted into extended health-care benefits.

Sabbaticals start accruing at the rate of 1 week per year after 5 years of employment.

10

Many companies in the U.S. have a ‘use or lose’ policy. Once you accrue a certain amount of vacation time you cannot accrue more until you get below the limit. In my case I think it was five weeks.

11

At my current job, we get 10 days PTO to start, with another 5 added in the third year, seventh year, eleventh and fifteenth years. They are used for vacation, personal or sick days. We also have paid holidays. Some years, there is a furlough between Christmas and New Year’s, although I would probably work during that time anyway, since I’m not in production and January is the busiest month in my department.

At my former job,
I started with:

vacation…5
float…2*
sick…5
paid holidays…8

The use of the various types of days off became increasingly arcane and more frequently abused, at least in the opinion of the management (the presentation they gave us projected no decrease in the number of absences). They changed it so I ended up with:

PTO…24
paid holidays…8

  • I would just like to take a moment to say how much I despise floating holidays. they were designed for people to take off on important holidays not recognized by the company. What they inevitably turned into were extra vacation days. In other words: “You think we should have Martin Luther King Day off? Just get your supervisor’s permission and use one of these days. And make sure you get permission well in advance [six weeks is recommended], because these are not vacation days that you can use with 72 hours notice.”
12

3 years at current job. I’m not “expected” to work the usual holiday schedule, xmas, thx giving, New Year, etc… But I sometimes will just go in for about an hour or two. I’m on call 365 days a year so, no real days off. Technically I don’t have vacation days, just Paid Time Off days which are used for vacation or sick days. The formula is one week first year with 5 additional each year.

13

<mod>

Hombre:

Not meaning any offense either, but you can help the Mods better by not posting that you feel something is better off in another forum. There’s a little “Report Post” button in the upper right corner. Use it. We’ll all be happier.

That being said, you’re absolutely right, Better suited for IMHO, so off we go!

</mod>

14

I just left a publishing gig where I’d been for eight years; I had three weeks’ paid vacation and pretty much unlimited sick days, though they were stingy on holidays.

Now I’m working for a small company and basically have no vacation or sick days: you earn one per month you work there. Sick and vacations days both count the same. I’m very worried about what happens if I get sick, or my mother gets sick and I have to rush to Phila. to look after her . . . I’ll have to go off-salary, I guess.

15

I’m a federal employee with over 31 years of service. I get all 10 Federal holidays plus I earn 8 hours of leave every 2 weeks - that makes for 26 days a year. On top of that, we get 13 sick days a year. Sick days can accumulate till retirement, but regular vacation is capped at 240 hours carried over at the end of the leave year. I’ve never carried over more than about 20 hours, but with luck, this year, I’ll take 80 into next year.

Sadly, I haven’t had an honest-to-goodness vacation in years. I do a few days here and there to either add on to a holiday weekend, or to get chores done, with the occasional “I don’t feel like going in” day. I’m hoping we can take a real vacation this summer.

16

I work in the insurance billing department of a major hospital. For the first 5 years of employment, we earn about 7 hours of off time for every 80 worked. This time is banked and is used for days off and holidays (New Year’s, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas). We also have a separate bank of hours to be used for serious illness (doctor-ordered 3 days off or more).

Some people never take time off and end up hitting their maximum allowed (360 hours). After that, you are essentially working for free. I say screw that and take 2-3 days every couple of months (usally Fridays and Mondays).

17

When the plant I worked at for 24 years closed, I found that most firms gave new hires only 5 days “PTO”(time to be used for EITHER vacation or illness, and then only after the employee had put in a full year. This was quite a departure from the 25 days vacation/year I got at the plant.

At the plant, you didn’t have to take vacation when you were sick. You could opt to do so but weren’t compelled to. We had disability payments that kicked in on th 7th day of an illness or non work-related injury and immediately in the case of a work-related injury. We also had lots of overtime to volunteer for throughout the year. A short illness was usually simply absorbed in the short run and made up via overtime later.

With the typical stingy 1999-2000 new-hire PTO, if you got the flu in your first year, you ate the lost time. In your second year, you forgot about a vacation. These firms added 2 days/year after each subsequent year. Most maxed out at 15 days,some at 20.

The job I eventually landed is at a State university. The wages stank; they still stink after 5 years there. But I got 12 days/year vacation and 12 days/year sick leave, earned a day per month. At the end of my first month, I could have requested a paid day off as opposed to waiting a whole year.

At 5 years, I got bumped-up to 15/15. On each hiring anniversay from now on I’ll get an extra day of each type of paid time until I max out at 25 days/yr. vacation. Sick leave increases will go on for another 5 years, maxing out at 30 days/yr.

I can accrue 1000 hours/125 working days sick leave before I’m in a lose-or- use
situation.

I can have only a year’s vacation time allotment on the books at the end of a calendar year or I’ll lose the excess.

The last time I ventured back out into the job market–just after I saw how poorly the university insurance was going to cover my wife’s chemo bills 3 years ago-- combined personal time for new hires ranged from the stingy old 5 days at the end of a full year’s employment to 12 days that one could start taking any time after a 90 day probationary period, with 2 extra days at each anniversay and a cap of 30 days. It seems that the state is one of the few employers left in Nebraska that offers an actual dedicated split of sick and vacation times. Almost everywhere else has gone to combining everything into “PTO”.

18

Retail monkey here.

Vacations are paid in hours, and you needn’t take them in weekly increments.

1st year of full time employment: 40 hours
2nd - 4th years: 80 hours
5th - 9th years: 120 hours
10th year on: 160 hours

Personal / sick days are earned at the rate of 4 hours / month, for a maximum of 6 a year, but they do carry over year to year, so that you can use them if you are out for an extended period – a coworker of mine has 26 weeks worth of sick days saved.

Only three holidays off, because they are the only three days we are closed – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. However, on all these and some other holidays we receive 8 hours extra on our paychecks – New Year’s, Memorial Day, the Fourth, and a couple others I can’t remember. We also receive an extra week’s pay as a Christmas bonus, and we can take one week of our vacations as a work-through vacation (where we work and get double pay for that week). We can also elect to get paid for one of our week’s vacations at Christmas in addition to our bonus.

19

I’m having a Hell of a time remembering the last “r” in anniversary today.

I need to spell Czech before hitting “submit reply”.

20

As a federal employee with 12 years of service, I think I get 14 days a year. Those with at least 15 years get the 26 deal.