How Often Do you Use your Leave each pay period?

[Anonymous]

I am wondering what the norm is for mothers. Lately, I have to use leave often due to husband's travel schedule (a few hours here and there).
But I hope it is not considered excessive! It has been ongoing for awhile plus some health issues a few months ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering what the norm is for mothers. Lately, I have to use leave often due to husband's travel schedule (a few hours here and there).
But I hope it is not considered excessive! It has been ongoing for awhile plus some health issues a few months ago.

Depends. Does someone have to pick up your slack? I work with someone who is always taking a couple hours here and a couple of hours there. It becomes old hat very fast, particularly, when it happens without notice.

[Anonymous]

PP- yes, it's so annoying when people don't give advance notice of illness, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

I'm a fed and there is a woman in my group who uses 1-4 hours of leave every other day. I don't know how she ever accrues any leave. The days she works a full day, she will often work 30 minutes of credit. She has a long commute and she is a mom of one kid. I don't think that any of them have chronic health conditions. I don't think anyone thinks that much of it. I'm part-time so in a way its kind of the same thing except everyone knows my schedule.

[Anonymous]

It depends on life. I've been in government over 20 years now, and for the longest time NEVER used sick leave. I accrued over 9 months of it before I got pregnant. I used 6 months of it for maternity leave. Then, because I was clueless about being a mom, I never foresaw how often my infant would get sick at day care. So I ran through sick leave like it was water for the first 2 years of his life. It was awful. Now that he's older, I'm back to using almost no leave at all except for regular vacations.

Having said all of this, I work in the type of job where it's not necessary to be in an office 40 hours a week. I'm not doing phone coverage, for example. I do a lot of work at home and my work is independent of everyone else as long as I meet my deadlines. So nobody suffers if I'm out as long as I keep producing the work.

[Anonymous]

Like the PP, I am a fed and my work is very independent about 90% of the time.

But I am a new fed (coming up on 2 years) and I have no leave accumulated. We basically use it all every year between a summer vacation, the winter holidays and random school events for my kids. I try to put in several credit hours a week too in order to get even more time.

I end up using an hour or two of annual or sick leave almost every pay period. The people arpund me who have tons of leave (many have been feds for 20 years) take leave all the time, so I feel zero guilt about it.

[Anonymous]

I am in the hole. It is pretty common for this to happen.

I work extremely hard not to dump on others by working off-hours to finish up the work that belongs to me, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fed and there is a woman in my group who uses 1-4 hours of leave every other day. I don't know how she ever accrues any leave. The days she works a full day, she will often work 30 minutes of credit. She has a long commute and she is a mom of one kid. I don't think that any of them have chronic health conditions. I don't think anyone thinks that much of it. I'm part-time so in a way its kind of the same thing except everyone knows my schedule.

Doesn't your agency offer gliding flextime? Welcome to the 21st century.

[Anonymous]

It really depends - some pay periods I use nothing, and others I need to use several hours for sick days, doctor's appointments, my own appointments, etc. It's hard not to feel like you're using too much leave when kids are sick, but I really do think it balances out in the long run. Coworkers without children use leave too, and I know it helps me to remember I'm not the only person in the office who needs to take a day now and again.

[Anonymous]

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).

[Anonymous]

Doesn't your agency offer gliding flextime?

7:59 here. What is gliding flextime? The flex schedules offered by my agency don't work for me, but I have not heard of this. Ours only offers the 4-10 and the 5-4-9. Neither of which help me attend things like Colonial Day at my kid's school or manage my DH's travel schedule.

[Anonymous]

We don't have to take time off if we work at least 1/2 a day (although this cannot be abused) - so I never take time off for doc appts, leaving early for parent/teacher conferences, etc. I probably use this liberal policy about 6x/a year. I use a lot more leave during the winter due to snow days and sick kids than I do in the warmer months.

As for DH travel, the kids are just as school a bit longer (7:30a-5;00p) so I can do both drop off and pick up.

[Anonymous]

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?

[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?

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.

[Anonymous]

When my daughter was really young, I used up most/all of my 12 days of sick leave per year. Since she turned 1, I've used maybe half of them each year. I don't use much of my 3 weeks of vacation either - I take 1-2 days off a few days a year to visit my folks or take a long weekend at the beach, and occasionally I have to take vacation days for administrative stuff like preparing for a move. But I probably don't average more than one day off a month. (we have telecommuting and I can work from home if I have a deadline and my daughter's too sick for daycare.) I think it depends on your office culture whether you're taking too much leave. In my office, nearly everyone has kids, so it's pretty accepted that things come up. 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.