In another thread Abbie Carmichael expressed some wonder that my sister could take a week off from work on short notice.
For me, being able to pick a week on short notice and take it off has always been encouraged by my bosses, providing I don’t leave any critical work hanging undone. The bosses always loved it when we, the lower level minions, could arrange our our leave time among ourselves without their intervention.
How unusual is this?
I haven’t arranged for any time off with my current employer, I’ve only been there about two months…as for my last employer…
It was a bitch. Basically we had to know several months in advance what time we wanted off. Then we had to bid for that time off and hope someone with more senority in the company (same position, more time with company) didn’t ask for the same time off.
What it boiled down too was you asked for whatever time you could get, and then planned vacation around the time you could get off…
At my old employer, we had set times when you could not be off. You’d get your regular 2 days a week off, but you couldn’t schedule a vacation or anything during these times. Since it was retail, this was basically Christmas and inventory. Other than that, you gave the GM reasonable advance notice, she scheduled you off if there weren’t a lot of people off during that time. Remarkably pain-free.
I work at a college bookstore, so it’s highly discouraged that anyone take any time off close to the start of a semester, and it’s more difficult to get the time off you want at holidays, but other than those instances, it’s easy to get time off. The company I work for allows even part-time employees to accumulate paid time off, and my boss encourages people to use it during slow periods.
At my last job it was like pulling teeth. We didn’t even get to use our holiday time. Usually we got paid off for it—we weren’t allowed to use it.
We were always understaffed and there always had to be someone there on the scheduled shifts, so when someone called in, someone else had to cover for them. So the supervisors were always desperate for more people to put in the hours so they gave us the bare minimum of days off.
Once a year they’d pass around the vacation calendar and we all picked out our vacation days, up to a year in advance. You had to know what days you wanted off for the next 12 months. If you got your desired days off, the policy was that you were guaranteed those days off—they couldn’t take them away from you at the last moment. That was the nice part, (also that we got 3 weeks vacation a year—very nice), but that didn’t allow for last minute days off, or plans that hadn’t been quite cemented yet. Getting days off for those kinds of situations was almost impossible. Not quite impossible, but close.
We also were in a situation where if someone didn’t come into relieve you on your shift, you HAD to stay over until someone (usually a boss) could come in to take over. (This was a healthcare-related job and we couldn’t leave the patients alone.) The bosses hated to come in and cover someone else’s shift, so they’d try to wheedle and guilt you into working 16 hours so they wouldn’t have to come in. (And of course, you were expected to be back at work the next day, Johnny on the Spot, the next morning, with much less than 8 hours of sleep under your belt.) Yeah. That was great. (I didn’t do a lot of overtime myself, because I hated not getting enough sleep.)
There was also one time where one guy was off work because of one of his vacation days, but the supervisor in charge forgot about it so she forgot to schedule anyone to cover his shift. When he didn’t show up for work, she called him at home, all in a self-righteous snit, demanding to know why he was late. When he told her that he was on vacation, she still was pissed, and said, “Well, you never told me.” (Like yeah, forget the fact that it’s her JOB to know when his vacation days are.) She had such a fit that she guilted the guy into coming into work during his vacation. I really wish he hadn’t done it. I know if it had been me, I wouldn’t have—I probably would have been on a plane somewhere anyway.
Yeah, yeah. I ramble. Just one of the many reasons I quit that job.
Well, if I want to use a full week of vacation time, I have to put in for that at least a month in advance. But if I want to trade people shifts, I can usually get a week covered on pretty short notice. I could probably make a few phone calls and get next week (Sat-Tues for me) traded out, if I wanted to. Unless we’re talking holidays, of course, when everyone else is trying to get time off, too.
Caller ID.
I work in magazine publishing, and we have a production schedule that grinds on 52 weeks a year, regardless.
They ask that we put in requests two weeks in advance, which is usually doable. During holidays (day after Thanksgiving, week between Christmas and New Year’s), only two people can be out of my 12-person department – I don’t ask for those days, my family-togetherness needs aren’t that important.
While I was dealing with my broken ankle, I did use three vacation days at the last moment (as in, calling in that morning as though it were a sick day but using a vacation day for it), but it was clear that those were not normal circumstances. I used vacation days for those because I have 15 of those per year, vs. only 5 sick days.
At my workplace, we earn time off based on the number of hours we work. It’s ends up being about 70 hours off per year. You do have to use this time for “paid” holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. We usually have to let our supervisor know 30 days in advance, but you can use the time in an emergency (or you can try to make up the time during the week including weekends).
Since my work is geared towards me, anything I leave behind will be waiting for me when I get back along with the usual daily loads.
This still beats the hell out of every other place I’ve worked. Most of which gave you only one week vacation per years and the 4-5 “paid” holidays.
I could ring up work tomorrow and take 2 weeks off if I felt it was necessary - family matters or the like. No-one would bother arguing. Often someone at work will ring up and take an urgent day off. We have a very good team spirit where I work now and feel free to ring people who aren’t at work about any problems. My boss and I were both on call this weekend even though we had made prior arrangements - we would have worked it out if someone had to go in to the office. Due to our willingness to be flexible management leaves us alone - our director said recently that she comes to see us to cheer herself up (it’s nice to know she has such a happy work unit).
We get two personal days each school year. There shouldn’t be any questions about why or disapproval from administration. However, taking personal days on Friday or Monday during the spring is discouraged. We have a difficult time getting substitutes on those days. According to some, we are not allowed to take half days at all. So, if you have a doctor’s appointment at 2:00, you have to take the entire day off or beg another teacher to cover your class during their conference period. I have never taken the time to look into it but I find it hard to believe that you can’t take a few hours off. We get 8 sick days and June, July, part of August, one week for spring vacation, one week for Thanksgiving vacation, two weeks for winter break, Good Friday, MLK day, and maybe a couple of other days, off.
If someone has an urgent need to leave school, they often piggy-back on an email message sent to all faculty, and request someone to cover their classes. Those of us who want to be viewed as “do-gooders” click on reply to all, and volunteer. Those who merely want to assist a fellow teacher, respond to the sender only. People usually get their classes covered within 3 - 5 minutes.
If I want (unpaid) time off, I can have it pretty much for the asking, and on very short notice. I could probably take the week after next off, if I wanted. The only time I couldn’t would be if there were a big job that needed to be done right aways, then my boss would really prefer I were available. Paid time off…well, I’ve got vacation pay accruing at whatever fixed percentage is mandated by labour laws, and I would think I could withdraw whatever’s accrued more or less any time I want.
Course, I’m the only employee, and the whole affair is pretty relaxed.
I worked for someone like this once. I’d arrange to have a day off a few weeks in advance. I’d remind him again about a week before my day off. I’d remind him the day before that I was taking the next day off. When I came back to work, he’d ask me “So, where were you yesterday?” He was a nice guy, though, and I never got in trouble for it.
I was just named an editor (as were the other writers in my department), and the promotion* resulted in some changes to vacation schedules.
When we were all writers, we worked on the same publications together. If one person took time off, the rest of us had to work so the publications would still go out on time. This was a huge problem in December. Everyone wanted to go home for the holidays, but we had to take time off in shifts so the work would get done.
Now that we’re all editors, we’re each responsible for only two publications. I can take time off as long as I can get my work done in advance. However, one of my newsletters switches from a biweekly publication to a once-a-month publication three times a year, and my supervisor has more or less told me I need to take my vacation time during the skips. In theory I’m allowed to take my vacations whenever I want, but I don’t really see that happening.
Just ignore the asterisk in my previous post. I guess I’m not a very good editor, am I? 
I wish … I’m on Carer’s Allowance, I don’t get time off at all, I’m “on call” 24, 7, 52 for who knows how many years …
if an employee can take a week off on short notice without too much trouble, then that employee can be dismissed without too much trouble.
Like jacksen9, as a teacher I have limited ability to take time off. I get 3 personal days, which I have to request, and I can’t take them on the days before and after any break to extend the break. You get a letter in your file if you do that. Our personnel director is a real bastard and loves to bush people for infractions such at this. Also, I get 10 sick days and 5 family leave days, which I can take as whole or half days. They roll over if I don’t use them, whereas the personal days don’t, so it pays to use them lest I lose them.
However, I admit it’s hard to complain when I get every major holiday and summers off. The only problem is trying to fly anywhere, because inevitably my vacations (esp. in winter) fall at times when flights are twice what they’d normally be b/c schools are out. Small price to pay, IMO, overall.
So, to answer the OP, I could not take a week off very easily. Sub plans are a bitch, and you can’t very well expect a sub to go forward with your curriculum unless you have no choice. I had to take two weeks off when I had meningitis my first year teaching, and it was pretty hellacious. I’d only do it in the case of a serious crisis.
We’ve recently revised our section workrules to provide for at least two weeks notice if taking more than three days off. This was largely to accomodate pool shift folks that wanted to try working compressed work weeks. But as we do have a pool shift ( my job is a continuous, 24/7 operation ) and folks always eager to work overtime, in practice taking off is as easy as pie. I haven’t been denied in years and I take off a day here and there all the time. The only issue is long, overlapping vacations - you can’t have too many off at once. But conflicts of that sort have been rare.
For the last several years, I have been consistently unable to take my full annual leave allowance, having to either try to carry days over into the next year (which doesn’t usually work very well) or simply forfeit them. I’m the only person that does my job; there is no holiday cover (they just phone me up and on numerous occasions have called me in on a leave day) - for this reason also I will never be paid for untaken leave - there’s no point paying me extra to stay and do X, Y and Z when I have to do X, Y and Z regardless.
Circumstances often conspire to compel me to cancel a single day of leave - this has happened three times in the last three weeks.