I work for an AmLaw 200 law firm (staff not attorney), and I get 25-30 days of PTO. But I could never use all that time and still hit my marks, so who cares how much it is?

Consulting and 25 days that includes vacation and sick leave. Catch is whether I can actually use all of that time - I often can’t. And my firm has a strict rollover policy only permitting 5 days till over each year so I often lose my leave.

Anonymous wrote:my dad used to say only losers used PTO. My dad only missed work when he was really sick. I don't think we ever went to the beach with him, because he hated taking time home. My dad might call me a loser cause I do take PTO time.

My DH only used about one sick day a year during the ten years he worked 55 hours at a general contractor. Some years he’d lose some of the 10 vacation days, as it was use it or lose it. I never understood why he didn’t pay enough attention and lost vacation days. He was making only $75-$100k that decade working those long hours, and that was his 7th to 17th year working in the same field . A $25k raise during the decade merely covers inflation. It’s depressing writing about it. He’s now on his 19th year of working as a project manager with a civil engineering background, making $120k. The bump was when he switched jobs. Oh he gets 18 days but sick is included in that total.

I’m an attorney and experienced the same. 10 days even if you were on your 3rd firm job with a decade under your belt. Heck, even the gov gave me just 4 hrs per pay leave, which translates into just 13 days. Only from my 4th year in gov did I get19.5 days a year. It’s nice. But to get to the next level of 26 days of vacation a year, I need to work 15 years. I’ll be 51 when that happens.

In comparison, a friend who worked for the World Bank (legal) from age 27, she got a mind boggling 6 weeks right from the start.

25 days from the start.
Big pharma

Non profit:
24 days of vacation
12 sick day
Week between Christmas and Near Year is off

30 days vacation and as much time needed for personal or sick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Started at 3 weeks + 2 weeks sick + 3 "personal days" per year (never quite understood why those were different than vacation)

After 5 yrs went up to 4 weeks vacation

wtf do you do with a 4 week vacation?

NP
- week at Christmas
- week for spring break
- two weeks in the summer

Personal days are for appointments, banking, mental health day etc. Basically one day here or there, but you are staying in the area.

For me, it's

1 week at Xmas, usually visiting family out of state
1 week at Spring break, also usually an OOS family visit
1-1.5 weeks in summer for a "real" vacation w/ just DH and kids
the extra vacation days are used for the occasional long weekend or sometimes when a work trip takes me to a city where I want to add on a day to visit family or friends

18 vacation, 10 sick

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have unlimited? How does that work for maternity?

I have an unlimited policy, but I work at an investment bank so it essentially means that nobody actually ever takes vacation. It's not ideal.

One female associate ahead of me is pregnant and about to go on maternity leave - the firm is paying for 3-4 months (not exactly sure but I think 4) and then she's planning to take an additional 1-2 months unpaid.