Do you hoard PTO?

[Chew Toy McCoy]

If you do get paid time off at work, on the spectrum of using it as soon as it's available to saving it like it’s an emergency only fund, where do you fall?

 

[Eric]

If you do get paid time off at work, on the spectrum of using it as soon as it's available to saving it like it’s an emergency only fund, where do you fall?

We have flex time (unlimited vacation) at my job and I would gladly take two weeks PTO instead, at least that way you either use it or get paid out for it (at least in CA). With flex time you have to push to get time off and when you do it's typically full of escalations and pissed off clients, in the end it's not worth it so I rarely ever take any vacation and when I do it's a working vacation.

 

[Joe]

My employer gives us our PTO all up front at the beginning of each year. I usually have a little cushion just in case and we're allowed to roll over 1 year of PTO or we lose it.

Because of Covid in 2020 I didn't really go anywhere or take vacation so I had a lot rollover from last year. I use it though so I would say I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not using it all at once and I don't hoard it.

 

[Deleted member 215]

I'm closer to the "hoarding" end of the spectrum. I like to save it for actual multi-day vacations. I only do a few of those a year. So I'm not going to waste it.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

We have flex time (unlimited vacation) at my job and I would gladly take two weeks PTO instead, at least that way you either use it or get paid out for it (at least in CA). With flex time you have to push to get time off and when you do it's typically full of escalations and pissed off clients, in the end it's not worth it so I rarely ever take any vacation and when I do it's a working vacation.

Yeah, I heard that is a notoriously deceptive policy. Unlimited time off but they are going to make you feel guilty as fuck if you even try to take just one day off.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

My employer gives us our PTO all up front at the beginning of each year. I usually have a little cushion just in case and we're allowed to roll over 1 year of PTO or we lose it.

Because of Covid in 2020 I didn't really go anywhere or take vacation so I had a lot rollover from last year. I use it though so I would say I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not using it all at once and I don't hoard it.

Where I'm at they cap your vacation time total at 240 hours and I'm just a few hours short of that. There seems to be an ever changing policy on sick time. I believe currently we get 5 sick days and it's use it or lose it. I currently have 4 sick days banked.

I don't do much traveling and usually use my vacation time for fuck off days, usually a Wednesday. I'm a bigger fan of a day off in the middle of the week as opposed to creating a 3 day weekend. Mostly I've just used my sick days for doctor checkup appointments.

 

[DT]

I'm an employee adult, but I'll swear PTO didn't ring a bell until I opened thread ... hahahaha, I thought it was like some kind of consumable consumer good

 

[SuperMatt]

If you have over 60 days of leave in the Army at the end of a year, that is “use or lose” leave. If you don’t use it, anything over the 60 days is gone forever. It is wise to check your leave balance a few months before the end of the year (a year ends in September in the Army) to make sure you can use up any excess leave.

 

[Hrafn]

I'm at 28 days banked, so hoarder.

 

[Edd]

Mostly not a hoarder. I have a rotating schedule, and I’ve been there 15 years so good amount of PTO. I can easily take a week off a month because of the way the days fall.

 

[User.168]

.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I somehow manage to never take it until it's been almost a year and I'm about to lose it. Then I take it in a flurry.

 

[thekev]

We have flex time (unlimited vacation) at my job and I would gladly take two weeks PTO instead, at least that way you either use it or get paid out for it (at least in CA). With flex time you have to push to get time off and when you do it's typically full of escalations and pissed off clients, in the end it's not worth it so I rarely ever take any vacation and when I do it's a working vacation.

I have the same thing. I would prefer to work someplace where time off is accrued and taking it is at least strongly encourage. There's always a limit, and when structured as unlimited, it's usually lower than it would be if you simply accrued it.

I'm an employee adult, but I'll swear PTO didn't ring a bell until I opened thread ... hahahaha, I thought it was like some kind of consumable consumer good

You're self employed right?

 

[DT]

You're self employed right?

I work for this evil woman ... so evil, but so sexy ...

 

[thekev]

I work for this evil woman ... so evil, but so sexy ...

I never pegged you for Farnworth.

As much as I like to think I'm Bender, I'm probably Wernstrom.

 

[User.191]

We’ve been told that absolutly no vacation will be allowed over the Christmas period other than the corporate office closing days.

I will naturally be taking time off over the Christmas period as it’s a case of use it or loose it and I’ve got 25 days to take off between now and the end of the year - since I‘ve had no chance to do anything before now since one of my team was ‘headcounted reduced” without even asking me if I was OK with that…

 

[bunnspecial]

In past jobs, I was somewhere in the middle.

My last job we had three separate "buckets"-personal, annual, and sick. I never figured out how annual and personal were different other than we were credited 2 personal at the beginning of the calendar year and it was "use it or lose it." Annual started at 15 days/year then increased by 1 for each year of service up to a max of 22 days a year, credited monthly. We could roll over 2x our annual accrual.

I never "burned" annual leave, but always had enough that I could take a last minute day off for whatever if I wanted, or a couple days here or there. Of course if I had a big trip planned, I'd budget accordingly. Usually personal days were a "buffer" for me to avoid dipping too deep into annual, but I did burn a few(as in just take them off so I don't lose them). Sick was limited enough in how/when you could use it that I left there with about 40 days. We were paid out on annual leave and personal leave at severance, but sick was only paid if you retired(although it's still on the books if I ever went back there to work). I'd have donated some sick leave, but the timing of my leaving was such that I didn't have time to get it in motion.

My current job is technically a 9 month appointment, although paid over 12 months. Because of that, they're pretty stingy with personal leave-2 days credited at the beginning of the year, and can only roll over 2 from year-to-year. Of course the whole summer off thing works in our favor, although I generally teach in the summer and can't use benefited time then. We get 10 sick days a year, but again rules are tight enough that I've used maybe a grand total of 2 days in the time I've been here. It rolls over indefinitely. If I'd opted for a traditional pension, I could turn it into service credit on leaving/severance but since my confidence in a pension funded by the state of Illinois is minimal(plus there are some rules like limits on income increases, which can happen for me year to year just from variation in teaching load). I opted for a 401K type plan, which means all my sick leave will just vanish when I leave/retire...

 

[Apple fanboy]

If you do get paid time off at work, on the spectrum of using it as soon as it's available to saving it like it’s an emergency only fund, where do you fall?

I usually struggle to fit my holidays in. I’ve booked every Monday off for the rest of the year, but already had to cancel 2. I work 25-50% of the days I’m off anyway at the moment unless I’m off out somewhere.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I usually struggle to fit my holidays in. I’ve booked every Monday off for the rest of the year, but already had to cancel 2. I work 25-50% of the days I’m off anyway at the moment unless I’m off out somewhere.

I thought about attempting the long term 4 day work week using my stockpiled PTO, but haven’t done it. And I have a job where I wouldn’t be doing any work on my days off.

 

[lizkat]

I usually took vacation and comp time in days to extend weekends, at least after I had bought a place upstate and was renovating it, making a garden in summer, etc. Then when I started telecommuting more, I still took PTO in days, but often enough in the city, to get with friends downstate. I used to like the drive time too, until late in the 90s when aggressive suburban style driving seemed to be starting farther and farther up from the city every year... and yet you could still get a ticket on what was then NY-17 for doing 62 even when Jersey guys might routinely pass you doing 80.

All that made me decide to start taking some of my comp time off as a week at a stretch. I had a rent-controlled place in the city, so I had needed to make sure I spent half the year at my place or risk eviction -- and believe me, the landlord had the doormen and superintendent counting the days. Not a problem for me anyway, and I still do miss the city sometimes.

All in all I think it depends on the person (or person and family / SO) whether it's more relaxing to take time off in days or clumps. I had a few friends who complained that when they took a full work-week off, they spent the first three days of it thinking geez am I making this time special enough? and two days thinking geez I have to go to work Monday. But when they just took the time in days, a long weekend felt like a total blessing. I think I liked that best as well.