more vacation days/less pay...would you take this?

[Anonymous]

My job may be offering an option of taking more vacation days/for less pay. I would go from 4 weeks of vacation to 10 weeks of vacation. I would lose 4 weeks of salary and they would put in a lower amount towards my retirement, based on my lower salary. My salary would go from about $100,000 to $91,000. I am married with 2 young children. My husband makes $100,000. We have no debt. As I'm writing this, it seems like such an easy choice.......money isn't everything.......I'd be saving on childcare costs and spending more quality time with my kids. Admittedly my inner turmoil comes from that I grew up very poor and have money issues.......so willingly giving up salary/later retirement benefits is hard for me. And I will get flamed for this.....I love my children but they exhaust me.......so going to work is actually more of a vacation than staying home with them for extended periods.

[Anonymous]

As long as they are flexible about you using them.

[Anonymous]

YES! Especially if you can take the ten weeks in clumps, ie use the majority for the summer.

Think of the 9k difference as an offset of childcare costs.

[Anonymous]

YES and you don't have to spend every day off with your kids if they are tiring -- take some "you" days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YES and you don't have to spend every day off with your kids if they are tiring -- take some "you" days

+1.

[Anonymous]

So, you'd be losing 4 weeks of salary but gaining 6 weeks of vacation?

Here's a question:

Most companies add vacation days to your benefits package the longer you stay with the company. So, if you were to stay on for several more years, does your vacation time increase or stay the same. In other words:

hypothetical Current situation:

year 1 - 4 weeks
year 3 - 5 weeks
year 5 - 6 weeks
year 10 - 8 weeks.


Option 1

Year 1 - 10 weeks
year 3 - 10 weeks
year 5 - 10 weeks
year 10 - 10 weeks.


Option 2

year 1 - 10 weeks
year 3 - 11 weeks
year 5 - 12 weeks
year 10 - 14 weeks.


If you currently have the situation described above and they are offering you option 1 - (and you plan to stay a while) you may be losing money in the long run. If they are offering you option 2 - I would definitely do it.

[Anonymous]

Knowing the rules for taking the vacation would be a big factor. On the surface I think yes I would take this in a heartbeat. But both pp have brought up good questions. How does this change your benefits going foward and will you be restricted on when you use your leave.

My concern would be that most employees that would take this option are those with kids. All of those parents would be trying to use their leave at the same time. What happens when everyone wants the same time off, in big chunks of time.

[Anonymous]

I have been with the company for 9 years and would get 4 weeks of vacation until year 15........after that I would get 5 weeks of vacation....which is the maximum amount of vacation that can be earned.

[Anonymous]

OP again...Unfortunately, I won't find out the rule for the flexibility of when we can take the vacation days until we have our meeting with human resources coming up soon.

[Anonymous]

I would take that in a heartbeat.

Especially if it rolls over if you don't take it. Then you get a nice fat check when you leave that job even if you don't take all the time.

[Anonymous]

With the exception of being able to choose the day (which they can to a certain extent), isnt that what people are complaining about regarding the furloughs?

[Anonymous]

I would take it and I have the same history with money from my childhood.

It would not be easy internally but I would get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been with the company for 9 years and would get 4 weeks of vacation until year 15........after that I would get 5 weeks of vacation....which is the maximum amount of vacation that can be earned.

I would find out if at year 15 you get an additional week. That way your "promotion" of 2 weeks isn't diluted in year 15. but, if you are able to have flexibility with when you can take the vacation, it rolls over if you don't use it, there's a culture of allowing vacations (bosses don't treat you negatively when you put in for vacation) and (this is a biggie for me) your workload permits it - I would do it.

Make sure your workload permits it. I know someone who is so busy at work that when she goes on vaation, she has to log in a few hours a day just to stay on top of it. With decrease pay and time in office, your work responsibilities should also decrease accordingly.

[Anonymous]

OP - It sounds like a sweet deal but if it's about saving the company money, make sure it isn't a precursor to a layoff. In other words, make sure this isn't the company seeing who it can live without.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would take that in a heartbeat.

Especially if it rolls over if you don't take it. Then you get a nice fat check when you leave that job even if you don't take all the time.

Who has vacation tme that rolls over without a max number of days?