How Often Do you Use your Leave each pay period?

[Anonymous]

There is one woman who seems to take a sick day nearly every pay period, with really weird excuses, and we all talk about her and think she's a slacker.

Perhaps she is seeing a therapist. Perhaps her child is having troubles at school or seeing a therapist.

I burn a LOT of sick leave time taking my child to psychiatrist visits for medication management and therapy.

Count your blessings that you don't have these other issues to juggle!

[Anonymous]

I use all of my leave allotted to me for a given year....I rarely carry over I'm not the type that takes pride in saving up tons of leave. I do not live to work and find no shame in working the requisite 40 hours and then cutting out of here. Wish there was a way for me to work p/t or 4 days/week. I'm actually getting ready to send a request to cut my hours back to about 37 hours for the summer, so that I will be home earlier. I love to travel and my last vacation was in late April...I'm getting antsy already. (FYI: We are a family of 6 [4 kids]).

[Anonymous]

I am part-time, so I actually make a real effort not to use leave for day to day things - because I don't accrue as much and because the assumption is I can do everything on my day off (which is sometimes true, but not always).

But I also think my job might be more flexible than yours. We certainaly have people who come in late or leave early all the time, and just work extra hours another day. I will say that the people who do it all the time - last minute - don't have the best reputation. Especially when it is weird, random excuses - that start to sound made up. But the occassional use is fine.

If you have to use it every single pay period, I would consider asking for part-time (if that is even possible) or asking for a more flexible schedule. Maybe you could work longer hours some days and work half a day one day a week. I've found in my job, they are more tolerant of scheduled absenses (if that makes sense). I realize that a lot of jobs don't have this flexibility, but sometimes you don't know until you ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had an infant and a dying grandmother when I started at the government, so I burned through all my leave (and as many credit hours as I could accrue) for the first few months. Thus, I save a lot now. Although I take off a couple hours to a day almost every pay period, I am usually able to deal with most of it by credit hours. I haven't used much sick leave at all in years (maybe 5 hours so far this year) - if my child is sick, which is rare, I usually work from home all day but use four hours of sick leave or credit hours. On the other hand, I do use chunks of annual leave for big vacations - two week international trips).

My work is very independent, so my absence is only a problem when it is a full completely unscheduled day (which I haven't had in years because I try to be in contact at home if my child is sick) or a very long trip (which is at least planned).

You took significant time off for a dying grandmother?

Eww...not the poster, but...who the eff are you to judge why people take time off? You have no idea of this person's circumstances.

Yes, that was a nasty comment. When my father was dying, I took off a lot of time to relieve my mother -- his primary caregiver -- so she could get out of the house and have some time for herself. There isn't much that's as difficult as caring for someone who's dying 24/7/365. Maybe PP was doing something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use all of my leave allotted to me for a given year....I rarely carry over I'm not the type that takes pride in saving up tons of leave. I do not live to work and find no shame in working the requisite 40 hours and then cutting out of here. Wish there was a way for me to work p/t or 4 days/week. I'm actually getting ready to send a request to cut my hours back to about 37 hours for the summer, so that I will be home earlier. I love to travel and my last vacation was in late April...I'm getting antsy already. (FYI: We are a family of 6 [4 kids]).

I never viewed it as a pride thing. To me, government leave (particularly sick leave) is like a short-term disability account. Unless your employer provides that as well (mine didn't).

[Anonymous]

'Gliding flextime' is an understanding with your manager that if you work an extra hour one day, you won't need to take leave if you leave an hour early the next day. All it takes is a simple verbal agreement with your supervisor and all is good. For most salaried employees, this is the agreement when the employees can be trusted to get the work done by the deadline. As long as performance and productivity doesn't suffer, this is key for employees to maintain a good work/life balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use all of my leave allotted to me for a given year....I rarely carry over I'm not the type that takes pride in saving up tons of leave. I do not live to work and find no shame in working the requisite 40 hours and then cutting out of here. Wish there was a way for me to work p/t or 4 days/week. I'm actually getting ready to send a request to cut my hours back to about 37 hours for the summer, so that I will be home earlier. I love to travel and my last vacation was in late April...I'm getting antsy already. (FYI: We are a family of 6 [4 kids]).

I never viewed it as a pride thing. To me, government leave (particularly sick leave) is like a short-term disability account. Unless your employer provides that as well (mine didn't).

11:48 here. Perhaps my opinion is formed because when I hear the comment about lots of time saved it's usually coupled with "I work hard. I don't have time to be bothered with a vacation". Some people seem to really love that they work so hard and that is often coupled with looking down on folks who dare to take vacation and/or actually use their leave. My opinion is: If I have it, I'm using it. If the company doesn't want that amount of time used, they shouldn't offer it.

[Anonymous]

I take off for my pets as needed.

[Anonymous]

I roll over about 238 each year, so hardly ever use any. That's why we hired a nanny, so we could both actually work full time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had an infant and a dying grandmother when I started at the government, so I burned through all my leave (and as many credit hours as I could accrue) for the first few months. Thus, I save a lot now. Although I take off a couple hours to a day almost every pay period, I am usually able to deal with most of it by credit hours. I haven't used much sick leave at all in years (maybe 5 hours so far this year) - if my child is sick, which is rare, I usually work from home all day but use four hours of sick leave or credit hours. On the other hand, I do use chunks of annual leave for big vacations - two week international trips).

My work is very independent, so my absence is only a problem when it is a full completely unscheduled day (which I haven't had in years because I try to be in contact at home if my child is sick) or a very long trip (which is at least planned).

You took significant time off for a dying grandmother?

Not the PP but when my grandmother was dying of cancer she needed someone there to give her medicine, clean up her vomit, cook her food, and bathe her. And during the last week, she needed diaper changes. Do you have a problem with that asshole?