One, I never used any of my regular vacation hours because I would simply adjust my hours when I could so that pile grew grew grew because I pulled from my converted vacation bank instead...
and second, I seldom could adjust my hours at work because a co-worker quit recently (which i'm not complaining about) and schedules have been really tight so its been more trouble getting me a day off then its worth...
and third, I hit the 7 year marker in terms of calculating my vacation with my company.
Yup, that last one means I get 8.3 hours of vacation a check right now.... That's a day off every check! I guess there is something to working with the same company for so long!
So come Friday when the paycheck graces my checking account I will have 232.11 hours of regular vacation... and 72.14 hours of converted work time to vacation...
For you math geeks out there that's a whopping 304.25 vacation hours. 7.6 weeks of pure vacation...
Too bad we don't really have the money for a trip right now, But I think the best thing I can do is just try and take a day off every two weeks or so until work slows down and I can get a few more days off consecutively. Our one year anniversary is coming up around the corner, and there are a few DIY projects I'd love to get my hands on around the house...
Like finishing my kitchen door!
Wow that's crazy! Vacations are expensive though so I know what you're saying. Nothing wrong with just staying home and relaxing :)
ReplyDeleteThat's what i'm thinking for now. It would be stupid to take money we don't really have just to get away from everything, but with our anniversary around the corner I think i'll just take a few days off just to relax around the house and maybe go to the beach for a day with the hubby down to the area we got married at.
DeleteThat is a lot of vacation. Many people would be jealous. You are smart for not going on a vacation if you can't afford it. A day off every every two weeks would be pretty nice. It is amazing how much you can get done in that extra day. Make sure you rest though too. You don't want to burn out.
ReplyDeleteYa, I'm feeling burned out already from just working. Yesterday i came home, went for a walk down to the bank with the hubby, did a midweek date night, then came home and laid down for a while, took a nice relaxing bath, and then passed out at like 6pm!!!!!! I look so much better after that much sleep that I even did my hair for work this morning.
DeleteCheck with your HR office to be sure you don't have a vacation max to worry about. Many local and state government offices have them, and you don't want to be surprised when you start losing time!
ReplyDeleteWe do have a cap and i'm far under it. 600 hours and change of regular vacation before issues arrive... and I can have 240 hours of converted time off... I think they have this worked in there so generously because a lot of people will stock up vacation time to use it as maternity leave in the event of a little goober...
Deleteeither way, if I loose my job tomorrow they cash it out and pay me for it.
The city used to let people sell back their vacation if no one used it as long as they took a total of 10 days off a year... but I think they did away with that policy because it was costing them.
A few people did it once a year to get a "bonus" and now I can't find anything on it and they don't email people out the dates where you have to submit it by.
That seems silly because state law requires them to pay you for your unused vacation time anyway. So, it still comes out of their coffers. It must be difficult for them to let you take a two week vacation if you have so much time accrued. That's what happened to me--one person office that they never wanted to close for an extended period of time. I finally put my foot down and said, I'm going on a 3 week vacation this year on these dates so you better plan ahead! Still had tons on the books so I started taking EVERY Friday off. That last for almost a year.
ReplyDeleteRe maternity leave: they should let you use your accrued sick days for that. I had over 3 months of sick leave time accrued for each of my kids. Then used vacay days here and there when they were sick, field trips, etc.. I never get sick so was able to save a bunch. Always amazed me how people would use each and every sick day as soon as it was earned. Several had to do unpaid leaves when they actually had a true illness. We had a bank of leave that we would donate to each year for catastrophic illness cases. I always gave 8 hours per year and thanked God I never had to use it. One gal's little boy had leukemia and she needed to be with him for his last months. We even had to donate more because she depleted what was there. I was happy to give her 5 days of my sick leave.
It would be simpler if we had more staff... but we have lost 2 full time positions at my work in the past 2 years that they have not replaced...
DeleteOur entire center used to have 5 Full time workers...and a bunch of part time hourly staff.... we now have 3 full time workers and our part time staff has wilted down because they can only work so many hours a year that many have taken second jobs else where which means they can't sub for others... and I can't ask younger workers to work for me since the under 18 crowd are in school during my working hours.
and then its hard to convince the older college age staff that isn't in school in the morning that they want to work for me at 5:30 AM after they have plans to stay up late and live the night life.
Then you add that they are soooo slammed at City Hall that any thought of me being away from the desk on Friday sends chills through the department...
That's precisely my point: they need to have chills otherwise they will NEVER get you the help that you need. You've earned the time off so take it. Trust me, if you died tomorrow (God forbid), they'd find someone pronto to take your place. You've just made it easy for them not to get you assistance. There's surely someone out there who would love to have a 1 day week job==just not looking in the right places. What kind of office do you work in that it's all college age people? I thought you worked for a city.
ReplyDeleteI do work for a city... Just a recreation center and were between fiscal years and can't find people to work who aren't maxed out on hours.
DeleteAfter July 1st things will be a different story.