How much leave do you take each year?

[Anonymous]

Self-employed and I usually take about 5 weeks. Most of those weeks are taken because of breaks at DD's preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Im one of the people who bank a lot of leave - basically we had sick days and vacation days at work but in fact it was "frowned upon" to take those days. Trust me, there are a lot of companies and traditional workplaces out there that give you vacation days but dont love it if you actually take them!

OP here. It's the same at my job and I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By my estimate I take about 80 days a year. They don't track it at my office.

I had a good laugh - are you being serious?

My boss and co-workers are in NJ, I'm a one man show. I work half my day from home (3 hrs), walk the dog, and go to the office from 11-2, then I'm off to pick up DC from school. I work part-time.

I have 200 hrs of vacation banked, we have unlimited sick, though I don't abuse this benefit. I believe we also get a few personal days, but I only used personal leave once when our house flooded.

I usually take 1 or 2 days a week as a work from home day - I'll work one of those days but the other I'll just check email in the morning, maybe work an hour or two, and then I'm pretty much done for the day. I figure half the time I end up working, half the time I don't. Call that 20 to 30 days a year off. It's also basically an unwritten rule that everyone gets a week for Christmas/New Years and a week for Thanksgiving, but no one calls it 'vacation' or books it as such, so that gets us to 40-50 days off. Then on top of that, I officially get 4 weeks, so add another 20 taking us to 60-70, throw in the various holidays and its something like 70 to 80. It probably sounds like I'm abusing the system, but its really just part of the culture of the firm. In an odd role reversal, working long hours is actually viewed as a sign that you are struggling to deliver the same results your peers can deliver in half the time - not as a sign of being a good employee.

The company expects results and is a pay for performance culture, so this only works if you are pulling your weight - I'm reasonably good at what I do and I'm able to make it work but I know other people who barely take any vacation and get the axe cause their work doesn't translate to dollars. Like you, my boss is also in another city, which makes this a lot easier. I do occasionally have to to remind myself how good I have things - I make about $200K a year and I know I could make $250K or something elsewhere but I'd be working 60+ hour weeks instead of 30.

(Also, before people ask, I'm not a fed).

[Anonymous]

As a longtime fed, I get 26 annual leave days per year (you can carry over 30 days from year to year and anything beyond that is lose or use ) and 13 sick days (which you can carry over from year to year). I always burn up my use or lose and have over a year of sick leave in the bank (plus the 30 days of annual)....

[Anonymous]

Not allowed to carry anything from year to year.

I get 10 sick days and 25 vacations plus all Federal holidays. Plus comp time.

I use the sick days when DC is sick or needs to go to the dentist.

I use all my vacation. And probably a little extra.

None has tracked vacation time in the office in at least a decade. I did give my boss a hard time when he gave a new hire 3 weeks vacation when he had only given me 1 week my first year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a longtime fed, I get 26 annual leave days per year (you can carry over 30 days from year to year and anything beyond that is lose or use ) and 13 sick days (which you can carry over from year to year). I always burn up my use or lose and have over a year of sick leave in the bank (plus the 30 days of annual)....

Ditto. I carefully track this stuff and "make" DH take off for emergencies with the kids, B.S. stuff with his mother, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a longtime fed, I get 26 annual leave days per year (you can carry over 30 days from year to year and anything beyond that is lose or use ) and 13 sick days (which you can carry over from year to year). I always burn up my use or lose and have over a year of sick leave in the bank (plus the 30 days of annual)....

I just threw up in my mouth a little

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a longtime fed, I get 26 annual leave days per year (you can carry over 30 days from year to year and anything beyond that is lose or use ) and 13 sick days (which you can carry over from year to year). I always burn up my use or lose and have over a year of sick leave in the bank (plus the 30 days of annual)....

I just threw up in my mouth a little

Us Feds have no short-term disabity, and our LTD stinks, so many of us bank as muck sick leave as possible to act as disability policies. Plus many of us donate sick leave to colleagues who need it.

[Anonymous]

I am a fed and am saving as much leave as possible for maternity leave. Hopefully, I'll be able to be paid at 80-90% for my entire 16 weeks off. If I didnt save my leave, I'd be paid 0.

I only work 4 days a week, so for weekend vacations or occasional sick/school off days, I can switch my schedule around so I dont need to take any actual leave. Also, my in-laws live near us so if the kids are sick, they can usually watch them for part of the day, so I dont have to take a full sick day.

Also, unfortunately, we dont really have the money to travel too much, so no need to take leave for long vacations anyway.

[Anonymous]

I get 13 sick days. I used to use 3-4 a year, then I had a baby and now I'm using a ton and dipping into my banked sick leave. Still have a lot banked though.

I get 20 days of vacation time. I used to use 2-3 weeks and was building up to the max carryover to use for maternity leave. I had been planning to continue that for a second maternity leave, but now don't think we'll be having more, so I might just start using more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a longtime fed, I get 26 annual leave days per year (you can carry over 30 days from year to year and anything beyond that is lose or use ) and 13 sick days (which you can carry over from year to year). I always burn up my use or lose and have over a year of sick leave in the bank (plus the 30 days of annual)....

I just threw up in my mouth a little

Wow, bitter much? There are several posts above that people state leave policies much more generous than the feds will ever have. It's also getting old that this is the immediate reaction to anything that a fed posts about their job.

I did the same thing that pp stated. Saved and saved my sick and annual leave so I would have paid maternity leave for 9 weeks. Then took almost no sick/annual leave for the next few years to save up for the next maternity leave.

I just checked my end of year paystub and I took 10 annual days and 2 sick days last year. I'm on track to have use or lose this year, but with several family events and a vacation planned I will not have use or lose by the end of the summer.

I get 20 days of annual and 13 of sick.

[Anonymous]

The best scam in the Fed are the SES'. They basically approve their own leave slips and seem to have weeks and weeks of use or lose leave to take at the end of the year. Plus they can bank up 720 hours of annual leave which they get to cash out at their hourly rate when they retire. Bottom line is many SES' take leave without taking leave.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best scam in the Fed are the SES'. They basically approve their own leave slips and seem to have weeks and weeks of use or lose leave to take at the end of the year. Plus they can bank up 720 hours of annual leave which they get to cash out at their hourly rate when they retire. Bottom line is many SES' take leave without taking leave.....

Wow shit really? I need to get in on that.

[Anonymous]

5 days sick (use maybe 1-2/year) - I have 6 weeks of sick

15 days vacation (use about 5-10/year) - I have 4.5 weeks of vacation

Thankfully, my kids are older and don't get everything that comes around, I've been at my job over 9y so I've had time to build it up, it is challenging to take vacation here b/c of coverage, we have a great camp that is open Christmas break and Spring break so we don't have to take the time off (can't afford to go on vacation), and it stresses me to whittle down my vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with you OP. I have no idea how people bank so much leave.

By forgoing some each year. It's a milestone to get to the six weeks' cap where I work. After that, we take ALL vacation time. The "bank" is psychological and comes in handy in a crisis.

The problem is I get 13 days a year and my parents, sister's family and brother's family are in three different states. So if we try to visit everyone and take a few days for our own small vacation - we have nothing left.