This will teach me to pay more attention to company policy. At the end of the year, any vacation time over 240 hours is automatically converted into sick time. Guess who has like 320 hours of vacation time saved up, because he never goes anywhere? We can sell vacation time at the end of each year, but we have to do it a year in advance...i.e. if I want to sell time at the end of next year, I have to tell them by the end of this year. So, at this point, I either have to talk my boss into letting me take two weeks off in the next month and a half, or lose the time. Bah!
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
This will teach me to pay more attention to company policy. At the end of the year, any vacation time over 240 hours is automatically converted into sick time. Guess who has like 320 hours of vacation time saved up, because he never goes anywhere? We can sell vacation time at the end of each year, but we have to do it a year in advance...i.e. if I want to sell time at the end of next year, I have to tell them by the end of this year. So, at this point, I either have to talk my boss into letting me take two weeks off in the next month and a half, or lose the time. Bah!
Either that or you need to take more sick days.
__________________ Of Courtesy, it is much less than Courage of Heart or Holiness. Yet in my walks it seems to me that the Grace of God is in Courtesy.
I'd take more vacation, I just don't have anything to do with it! I always end up just slothing around the house or something.
Anyway, the good news is, my boss took pity on me and told me to take the second week of Dec and the week of xmas off. Wow...December is going to be a light month for me...
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
Time off is good for you, even if its slothing around the house. Hey you can come in here and post a lot!
In the summer my husband takes Fridays off to go golfing, otherwise he would lose some of his vacation time.
We bought a book of things to do in our county and started exploring places we haven't been. Some times we just pack a picnic lunch and take off exploring. You never know where you end up, or what little adventures you can have, and people you will meet. So those times when we can't afford to go somewhere, we become tourists in our area.
Sharon Dee, I love going off by myself and exploring. Take a camera, meditate in a beautiful spot, go to a museum, take a hike. Hey you could go explore that area where the bell witch lived! Scare yourself silly.
I'd take more vacation, I just don't have anything to do with it! I always end up just slothing around the house or something.
Your second sentence contradicts the first.
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"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Hey, now there's an idea! I'd have to do it alone but what the heck?
I really like exploring new things on my own. It means I can abandon an adventure when it turns out to be a bitch and I can take my time when I find something I really like. Sometimes having to kowtow (erm... worry about) what someone else wants to do in a new situation can be exhausting and detract from the experience.
I'm going to piggy-back on Adam's thread (Adam, I feel your pain!) with a mini-rant about work myself. We just got a memo that says "effective immediately" we are not allowed to be in the building outside of regular work hours. GRRRRRRRR!!!!!! I wanna come in when I WANNA, dagnabbit! That's been one of the great blessings. I can be here if/when I WANT to. I have worked plenty of Christmases, Thanksgivings, Thanksgiving holidays, Labor Days, Memorial Days and Independence Days, and other holidays and weekends, and nights, and middle-of-the-nights and early mornings and whatever. I can if I WANT to, and by gum, I often WANT to. Dang! Pisses me off.
Wow, maddog, that sounds like a rule created to slow productivity by stifling employee flexibility. Is it some kind of security measure? And, what are they going to do to you if they "catch" you?
Yeah, wildy, apparently it is totally security-related. They can't "catch" you b/c they've simply turned off the electronic key-card reader; the door will no longer open. Frickity frickity frick. Pisses me off.
240 hours can be carried over, damn that's nice. I get a max of 40 hours carry over where I work, anything beyond that is lost with no compensation.
When I started at my current job we had 2 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of sick time (available January 1 each year), still only 40 hours could be carried over. Vacation time could be used for sick time in an emergency (or an extended illness) but not vice versa.
What that lead to according to the company was a lot of abuse of the system, i.e. most everybody using their full 10 days of allotted sick time. I know I did. I hardly used vacation time, but took a sick day every month and a half or so as a day to recharge.
So the company to exception to employees using time they had been given. About 2 years ago the company changed to a PTO system. Now instead of 10 days vacation and 10 days sick you can accumulate 15 days of PTO. So not only do we lose a week but now you essentially cannot take any real time off the first half of the year (unless you carry over time from the previous year) as you have not accrued enough PTO yet.
So what this does is either force people to take most of their time off in the last half of the year (the busiest time traditionally in the freight industry). Or if you are like me you take a PTO day every 2 to 3 weeks rather than every 5 as with the previous system.
I suppose the company has saved money (as everyone of the 10,000+ employees lost at least 1 week of time off), but it does make it harder for employees to plan vacations very far in advance. Who knows what can happen between now and 6 months in the future when you have a vacation planned. The bottom line has become more and more important, employees are a distant second or third concern.
Under the old system you would still have vacation time even after using all your sick time (should something serious happen), now since sick days and vacation days come from the same pool, should you get a serious illness you may not have those PTO days available when your planned vacation comes around.
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The best way to make America great is to lower the standards!
I hate it when companies pool the two together like that, Zehava. For the reasons you've stated. No one ever seems to be able to take a vacation that way. And getting sick gets even more stressful as you try to conserve time off.
maddog, I'm really sorry to hear they've changed the policy at your office. I know how much you liked the peace and quiet on those weekends and holidays. I hope they rethink this and change it back.
That really sucks, maddog. Hell, sometimes the only way you (that's a broad 'you' that includes 'me') can get anything done is by going in after hours when no one else is there bothering you.
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"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
Mini work-related rant
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For the reasons you've stated. No one ever seems to be able to take a vacation that way. And getting sick gets even more stressful as you try to conserve time off.
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