PTO and the death of America's summer vacation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a 49 yo professional in DC proper and I get 30 days of PTO per year. That's sick and vacation all together. I use every single minute of it. We are closed December 25- January 2 as well

Two weeks are spent at the beach each summer, than a week in the Fall and a week in the Spring

Where do you work and are you hiring!

My spouse is at Deloitte and has this exact set up. It’s fabulous.

But does t Deloitte work you for much unpaid overtime and lots of travel?

He travels maybe one week/year and rarely works over 50 hours. During crunch time a few weeks of the year he will work weekends but he’s the default parent who does all the kid stuff during the week since I have zero flexibility so it evens out.

The company is disliked on this board but it has honestly been the most family friendly of anywhere either of us has ever worked.

What level is your husband? I had to quit at manager because it was unsustainable.

Sr manager

5 weeks vacation, 50 hour weeks, $250k salary. Man I went into wrong field.

https://www.levels.fyi/companies/deloitte/salaries/management-consultant/levels/senior-manager#

Yes, that’s about right, slightly higher than his comp. It’s more like $200 + variable bonuses (usually $20-30k) but definitely well compensated.

Is BD a big part of his role?

Yes. He has project stuff and firm initiatives. He has sales targets each year met when they win proposals he’s worked on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were running the show, I'd offer the following:

-All the federal holidays (even Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Juneteenth)

-Shut down the office DEC 24 through JAN 1

-Close the office on Good Friday and Easter Monday (when most schools are closed)

-Half-days on Fridays in summer

-Plus 25 days PTO (sick and vacation combined)

^^^
This would go a long way towards boosting morale and allowing people to take a vacation or just play hooky.

And guess what? Productivity will not decline.

It would probably increase.

I also would add 100% disability pay for the first 60-days paid for by the employer. That would help people not feel like their need to hoard PTO.

And since we're wishing, decouple health insurance from employers so that people aren't hostage if they don't like the PTO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get 26 vacation days a year, 13 sick days and 14 federal holidays annually. I am trying to get better about taking all my days off.

There are 12 Federal holidays in 2023. 13 when it’s Inauguration year.

Do. Actually there are 11. Oops. But whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were running the show, I'd offer the following:

-All the federal holidays (even Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Juneteenth)

-Shut down the office DEC 24 through JAN 1

-Close the office on Good Friday and Easter Monday (when most schools are closed)

-Half-days on Fridays in summer

-Plus 25 days PTO (sick and vacation combined)

^^^
This would go a long way towards boosting morale and allowing people to take a vacation or just play hooky.

And guess what? Productivity will not decline.

I have this at my current job, except not Good Friday/Easter Monday. It’s pretty good although I do work hard. We have high retention though.

Of course you have high retention!

People would think twice before jumping ship when they have decent PTO and holidays. The Christmas week and Easter long weekend are game changers because it’s really a break when the office shuts down and emails essentially stop.

[Anonymous]

I have 30 days annual leave, plus sick days. I take it all.

Most Americans live like dogs, like the OP who gets 10 days PTO. Basically no vacation. Pathetic. I have no idea why people would put up with it now, given the tight labor market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read the article quickly yesterday. From what I recall, I think the author missed the boat by not mentioning the reason many two-income families, including mine, don't take summer vacations - the number of school days off. People have no leave left between illnesses and the many school breaks and days off.

My kids are now teenagers, but those random days off from school used to stress me out so much. Then I realized that, at the beginning of the school year, I just needed to take PTO on those days, and be content with the situation. No need to stress about random days off from school, when they can be predicated/anticipated.

Also, one way we dealt with limited PTO -- my husband and I each took separate vacations with the kids. The kids got 2 vacations out of it. Sometimes we just went to visit family (which had the advantage of being cheap). But we got through it.

Parenting is tough, and this is why it's handy to have a SAHP for the early years. (We did not have a SAHP, but I hope that my kids will have that when they are parents in the future, as I think it is less stressful for the family.) At least current parents of young children have WFH in some cases, which is a big advantage for families (IMHO). I would have loved to pick up my kids from school when they were younger, but I was at work. Now that my job is mostly remove (lawyer), I can WFH most days, and it's nice for the family (better dinner offerings at a minimum).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/02/10/disappearing-vacation-days/

This article amuses me. It states that Americans earn more vacation time now than they did in the past, then points at the rise of PTO vs vacation/sick days as to why there is a reluctance to take longer vacations.

But I'm pretty sure for most employers when they switched to PTO, the sum of your vacation and sick days did not equaly your new PTO total. They combined them, but shrunk the total! So technically we don't have less "vacation" but we certainly have seen leave balances degrease over the last 30 years.

Of course, then you have unlimited, or zero balance vacation policies as I like to call them....

Where are you reading that combining sick and vacation reduced the total?

That's what happened at our company when they combined vacation and sick time. I think we lost 4 days off total. And yet, somehow they tried to spin it as better for the employees.