When I started in the Biopharmaceutical Industry in the mid-1990's we received two kinds of time off: Vacation Time and Sick Time. These could not be conflated: Vacation Time was not for Sick Time and vice versa. That is not to say it probably did not go on (I am sure it did), but in principle at least one could still have a vacation without consuming everything due to sickness. And, of course, one could roll over unused vacation time (but not sick time - that expired at the end of the year).
Later, the industry adopted the concept of "Personal Time Off (or "PTO", not to be confused with "Power Take-Off"). In this paradigm, there was only one "bucket" of time to be used. The bright side of this was that if one was not sick, one still preserved the time for other used. The less bright side was that the time came to be viewed as only for use for vacation and thus, individuals who probably should have stayed home insisted on coming to work because they had time off planned in two months and needed to "keep" the hours:
Me: (Listening to an employee hack): "Sounds like you have a little cold."
Employee: (Sucking down cough drop): "No, no, I am good. I feel fine." (Coughing fit occurs again, part of a lung shows up on the desk)
Me: "Just go home".
In spite of the issues with people being sick at work, the beauty of PTO was that you could save a certain portion against potential vacations or emergencies for the upcoming year.
The Plague changed a lot of that.
I suspect for many companies, mine included, 2020 was a year where all PTO was rolled over no matter what the policy was because, frankly, no-one could go anywhere. 2021 was somewhat the same as well, although for my employer the decision to "roll" was made late in the year.
When my company got "bigger", one of the policies they put in place was the amount of hours that could be rolled. This differs wildly from company to company: in my industry, many companies have policies of keeping up to 360 hours a year (again, that whole "emergencies happen" thing). My company allows 60 hours.
This has been a silent source of contention for me for two reasons: the first is the above referenced "emergencies happen" policy as in the past I would keep a month in reserve; the other is that for those of us that take time off early in the year (say, to train in Japan in late January/early February) we start the year at a complete disadvantage as we are in "catch-up" mode until sometime in August, assuming we do not take a vacation in April.
This year, many at my company faced the same issue. The response from the company was: "Spend it or lose it". This, of course, when we are trying to meet year end goals. Arguments have been made (by high level folks), but the position did not change.
And so, in this last two months, more and more employees have been "out" on vacation. As you can imagine, projects are starting to slow down. Approvals are going longer. Things are now not happening - because people are sensible: you never give up time off.
What this means for me personally is that starting from today, of 27 remaining "business days", I will only be working 18. Adding in planned corporate holidays, of 35 remaining potential work days, I will be off 17 of those days.
It is not the ideal kind of time off I would like of course; a great deal of it will look like "staycation" (as you can imagine and me being me, I am already creating a list of things to do). The Ravishing Mrs. TB and I will get a little actual vacation as well (sans children, if one can imagine). Perhaps best of all, given the year it has been, I will end up with two solid weeks of more or less no connection at work (I say that, knowing that I likely have to check e-mails at least once a day. That is just the way it is).
It is not the vacation I was planning for, but may be the reset I need. After all, never leave money (or PTO) on the table.
I actually do give up vacation time. The past couple of years, I have given as much as 9 days of vacation time to the company. The reason is the company does not require us to clock off when medical appointments are done. Over a year, a day or so in time is EASY to do. Also, when family funeral occur, they do the same. Good folks to work for.
ReplyDeleteSo I figure not only am I helping my work get done on time, I am paying off what I use. Win-win for both of us. If you can't already tell, I like working for these people and in April of next year, will be here 30 years. Many of us have been here 20 or more years. So its not just me.
Do I miss the vacation time ? Well, some but my kids are now grown up and all of us have responsibilities which sort of hinder coordinating our respective time to be together. We make do just fine.
That sounds like a wonderful place to work and a very enlightened policy. In my case, I figure such things are counterbalanced by the amount of 10-12 hour days I put in at times to get things completed. It all works out in the end.
DeleteOf course, I am assuming that my problem this year will not be one next year as we will be "back on track".
Over time is tough for me. If I don't do that time early in morning, I wlll not be able to turn off the brain to get to sleep at a decent time. Need about 3 hours to shut it down (not completely, though wife will object to that, lol).
DeleteMy issue (typically) is that the actual part of my job slips to later and later in the day as other things arise and have to be dealt with - thus, sending e-mails at 1730 or 1800.
DeleteLast sentence is best sentence. Of course, being retired "vacation time" is no longer so important. Enjoy the rest of the calendar year TB, it will fly by.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, one of the wisest pieces of financial advice I ever read is "Do not lose money. Period". Or PTO, in this case.
DeleteI will certainly enjoy it to its full extent - it just irks me that this is the outcome. From a corporate point of view, it will make other companies that have more liberal vacation policies more attractive for those looking for work.
Our fiscal year rolled over in June. So we accrued vacation from that date. We used to accrue sick leave, but they moved us to a different corp, and that was just dropped without recompense. Vacation had strict policies for rollover. May was a thin month as everyone burned off the time they had left. It got so bad, they had to make a new policy regarding last minute vacations. It barely helped.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were salary, I did the same thing Anon. My long days were offset during the holidays, as those were blocked out from projects to allow us to put out fires. If you maintained your gear like you should, it was a quiet two months to get training done. Sometimes, just minding the phone while you did things around the house. Schedules were very flexible, and I ran it like I owned it.
When we were reclassed hourly, the management went micromanager on us. It was stupidly inefficient and demeaning for us to be "business owners" one day and ignorant flunkies the next. I finally just quit caring about it and gave out my manager's number for complaints. After spending a decade building relationships, it was destroyed in a few months. It still has a bit of a sting to it (surprised me).
STxAR, your "May as a thin month" is what we are currently experiencing in November and December, although for us it may be a one time event.
DeleteYour latter experience sounds horrible. Funny how micromanaging never pays off in the long run, but is still an acceptable business practice.
I have never worked someplace with separate sick time. It has always been PTO and like you said, simply increased the number of sick people coming to work and infecting others. Towards the end of my career, my boss just told us that as long as we got our work done on time, he didn't care if we were gone for a few hours to take care of personal matters or stayed home to recuperate from an illness. We never clocked in anyway so as long as we notified him, we didn't have to use any PTO time either. That helped a bit and I think think less viruses were spread around the work place as a result.
ReplyDeleteI have never understood those who don't always use up every hour of their vacation time. The last place I worked didn't allow you to roll over vacation time past 5 days. Still lots of my colleagues were collecting checks for their unused days at the end of the year. I was the only one (that I know) who tried to negotiate more vacation days for a smaller salary. I was denied. Even if I had no plans, I used them up happily on staycations to just recharge my internal batteries.
Ed - The informal time management has most always been the case for me as well, driven by an acknowledgement that 1) We all work a lot more than 40 hours; and 2) we are responsible enough to get our work done. The difference, at least in my own mind, is that when I am using PTO, I am off the communication grid, which is by far the easiest thing to get sucked back into by checking a single e-mail.
DeleteAs noted with Linda below, payouts were not an option. That said, I use up every bit of it even if, like now, it will largely be used as relaxation and catch up.
At the organisations that I have worked at, at various times they have had either formal or informal flexitime. It was a major plus point that one could build a flexi buffer against needing time off for emergencies without having to dip into formal holiday assignment . Certainly, when one particular director attempted to take away flexitime from our department there was a major stand-off until he saw the sense of our keeping it, productivity was much higher when people knew that they could be flexible in their time at work.
ReplyDeleteWill, most places I have worked for - or at least bosses that I have worked for - have had a pretty liberal policy in terms of balancing out informal flextime with the fact everyone works more than what goes into the salary or timesheet. And having a buffer against emergencies that is longer than 1.5 weeks seems, at least to me, to make good risk avoidance sense for both employee and company.
DeleteI only have military/civil service to relate from. I had 60 days (30 days per year) I took as terminal leave when I retired.
ReplyDeleteHubby loved his Civil service job for the Navy, so always ended up taking pay for unused days.
Other than flea markets we have never been big on traveling.
Take time for hobbies, TB. Maybe a little more time for the rabbit shelter as well as your own hoppers...
You all be safe and God bless.
Linda, being able to buy it out would have also been a great option. Unfortunately it was not here, nor was it as my previous employer. Not sure why this is not a thing any more.
DeleteBy all means, I will take time for all that you suggest. Maybe a nap or two as well...