Anonymous wrote:If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

You just conceive of your value in very narrow terms. If I take an extended vacation, I'm delegating work to members of my team who I hired, trained, and set up to succeed, something that offers longterm benefits to my organization and which I know they want me to continue to do. It also means my clients are happy enough with me and my work and the status on our projects not to freak out that I will be out of the office (checking in periodically and calling into any major meetings, but not working full time) for a handful of weeks. I also have a track record that brings in work and retains ongoing clients. That doesn't disappear because I went on a long vacation.

If the only value you offer to your clients or your company is showing up, you are not as valuable as you think you are.

Fed here. Some feds request and use 3-4 weeks of their annual leave in the summer but are always in the office for Spring Break, end of the year, etc. The ones I know are hard-working and just save their leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

This is such an American take. I used to live in Europe and it’s common there to take 3-4 weeks of vacation in the summer. Basically all of Western Europe shuts down for the month of August and guess what, it’s glorious and the world doesn’t end.

But we are talking about America. Try to focus.

People work for companies that give 6 weeks of PTO. Some people work for European companies where business is slow in the summer and many employees and customers on the European side are gone for 3-4 weeks themselves. Some people work a little while away.

Anonymous wrote:If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

This is such an American take. I used to live in Europe and it’s common there to take 3-4 weeks of vacation in the summer. Basically all of Western Europe shuts down for the month of August and guess what, it’s glorious and the world doesn’t end.

This is very common in tech. I have team members who are international with families in India or Turkey and they travel each year for about a month to visit family. We also all have unlimited PTO and we also all have jobs where work can temporarily be transitioned to other team members. most tech companies don’t rely on a single engineer so one person being gone for a few weeks doesn’t mean their work is not valuable. I’m wfh and unlimited PTO and could take off a month if I wanted but instead I do several week long vacations throughout the year and lots of long weekends in between. It’s awesome and I’m loyal to my employer , until things change.

A friend is high-up in an engineering division of an American car company and is going to Europe for the month of August to his home country. His son is going as well and will go to camp while the Dad works from there on American hours for 3 out of the 4 weeks. There are a million reasons and ways this is possible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

So you can’t imagine that someone would be valuable enough that their companies would keep them happy? You must be doing menial jobs.

Nope, client facing in a specialized field with a high billable rate. No one at my firm does the same type of work I do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m off this summer on mat leave, but we’ll be doing 3 weeks in Europe at my in-laws. Husband will work 2 of the weeks on east coast time.

“Work.”

His role requires billable hours so it’ll be plenty obvious if he’s not working. You’re just a jealous and bitter wench.

I used to work in a hospital. One of the attendings decided to take a position in Alaska. He had to work for 9 months and then he got 3 months off at a stretch.

Anonymous wrote:If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

So you can’t imagine that someone would be valuable enough that their companies would keep them happy? You must be doing menial jobs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m off this summer on mat leave, but we’ll be doing 3 weeks in Europe at my in-laws. Husband will work 2 of the weeks on east coast time.

“Work.”

If you worked harder you could also “work”. Jealousy is not a good look.

If your company can manage a month+ without you, do they really need you at all? Neither DH nor I has ever had a kind of job where people can take a month or leave at once barring FMLA.

Anonymous wrote:I’m off this summer on mat leave, but we’ll be doing 3 weeks in Europe at my in-laws. Husband will work 2 of the weeks on east coast time.

“Work.”

I’m off this summer on mat leave, but we’ll be doing 3 weeks in Europe at my in-laws. Husband will work 2 of the weeks on east coast time.