I’d take the job with more vacation. My old job gave me five weeks; my current job’s policy is so confusing it’s difficult to know exactly how much I have, plus my boss tries to make me feel as if I’m a malcontent if I try to schedule any. I did have to work holidays for many years at my old newspaper job, but then I got enough seniority that I didn’t have to do it. I don’t have to work holidays here, but they come out of my bank anyway.
My husband’s company is trying to get him approved to go to a conference in Vienna this fall. If he can, I’m going with him if I have the vacation time or not. I might get fired for it. Even if I have the vacation time, I’ll get scolded like a schoolgirl. I take Job A.
I would not accept a job at a company that offered only 5 vacation days per year, because I would assume that the company does not promote or enable a healthy work-life balance.
I have lost my mother and my sister over the last couple of years, which has reminded me that my main desire in life is to spend time with my loved ones. I don’t live to work, I work to live. I obviously need a job I enjoy, but I don’t want to spend all my time there. I want to work in a place where the culture is friendly to having a life outside work. I don’t believe that a company that only offers 5 vacation days has the right culture for me.
I was laid off in January '09 (and was hired back into another department 6 months later, right before my severance ran out.) In that interim, I had applied for a job which gave only 2 weeks of vacation a year and I had tickets to India for a 2.5 week trip. They made it quite clear that going without pay was not an option. (And then the day after my 3 hour interview, the whole company went into a hiring freeze, so it became a moot point anyway).
The question was hypothetical. The baseline case is essentially what I get now and the options are end members that i have seen elsewhere. There are no actual decisions being made here, I’m just interested in people’s opinions. I lean towards the position that there is a certain minimum number of days that is acceptable unless the pay is truly incredible (like millions) and that they become less valuable as you get more of them, but that it isn’t a linear relationship.
As for what’s important to me, I’d like to be left the hell alone outside of the of the office, but that isn’t an option in my industry, so i will settle for more days off. I’d rather sit in front of a computer at home or a hotel (or a beach or a forest…) than in the office.
I know my husband once actually negotiated for slightly lower salary and more time off. Now what he does is start with the pay they offer, then ask for another week of vacation. It’s great, because I get 26 days a year plus the 10 Federal holidays, and 13 sick days which amass forever. I no longer have to take days off by myself just to burn it up.
I think this varies a lot by industry, which is the reason for the variety of responses. I’m paid by salary, not by the hour, and unpaid vacation is simply not done where I work (edit: outside of emergency leave and such). So a lot of us who wouldn’t consider job A are in a situation where if you get 5 days paid vacation, 5 days is all you have any chance of getting. If you feel (as I do) that 5 days simply isn’t enough time with your family, then it would take a LOT of money to make you take that job.
I would definitely go with the more vacation option. Every day away from work is gold to me.
Right now I get 2 weeks of vacation, 6 personal days, and 6 holidays. That’s not really enough–I usually end up asking for a least a couple of unpaid days off every year. That all changes in 2011, though, when I bridge my previous service and get bumped up to 5 weeks vacation. For the last couple of years, having those extra 3 weeks of vacation has seemed like a tiny light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Mark’s reasoning is only common sense if A) total income is your sole decision point and B) vacation time is worth exactly as much as time in the office in that calculation.
For me, for example, once I can cover my expenses and maybe a hundred bucks of fun money a month, time not-at-work is worth probably ten times as much as time at work, so for me to take one less vacation day would require ten times my daily salary.