It would be nice if AP agency explained what “2 weeks vacation” means!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today our au pair asked us if time off to take a travel course (those 2-4 day au pair classes in which you earn the credits in a few days) is vacation time, and explained to me that it perhaps shouldn’t be vacation time because it is for the educational component. Anyone care to opine on this? It would be weekday time off, not just weekend. I explained that because travel is not required as part of the educational component, neither is time off for that non-required travel.

Time off for a class is definitely not vacation time and shouldn't be counted as such. That being said, you can tell AP that the class she wants to take conflicts with when you need her to work and that she needs to find another class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today our au pair asked us if time off to take a travel course (those 2-4 day au pair classes in which you earn the credits in a few days) is vacation time, and explained to me that it perhaps shouldn’t be vacation time because it is for the educational component. Anyone care to opine on this? It would be weekday time off, not just weekend. I explained that because travel is not required as part of the educational component, neither is time off for that non-required travel.

Time off for a class is definitely not vacation time and shouldn't be counted as such. That being said, you can tell AP that the class she wants to take conflicts with when you need her to work and that she needs to find another class.

Time off to TRAVEL TO ANOTHER CITY for a travel class isn't vacation time? Why not exactly? Is this your opinion, or what your agency is telling you? If she's able to obtain her educational credits while staying in our city, and could schedule her class around her usual work schedule, why would it not be vacation time if she rendered herself unavailable to work her regular schedule by choosing to take a class that requires her to (1) travel to another city and (2) not be available to work during her usual hours on two weekdays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today our au pair asked us if time off to take a travel course (those 2-4 day au pair classes in which you earn the credits in a few days) is vacation time, and explained to me that it perhaps shouldn’t be vacation time because it is for the educational component. Anyone care to opine on this? It would be weekday time off, not just weekend. I explained that because travel is not required as part of the educational component, neither is time off for that non-required travel.

Time off for a class is definitely not vacation time and shouldn't be counted as such. That being said, you can tell AP that the class she wants to take conflicts with when you need her to work and that she needs to find another class.

Time off to TRAVEL TO ANOTHER CITY for a travel class isn't vacation time? Why not exactly? Is this your opinion, or what your agency is telling you? If she's able to obtain her educational credits while staying in our city, and could schedule her class around her usual work schedule, why would it not be vacation time if she rendered herself unavailable to work her regular schedule by choosing to take a class that requires her to (1) travel to another city and (2) not be available to work during her usual hours on two weekdays?

Whatever class you allow her to sign up for, you need to give her the time off to complete the requirements of that class. This is a requirement. That being said, as I noted, you absolutely do NOT need to allow her to sign up for a travel class.

[Anonymous]

We strongly discourage the travel classes because they are stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today our au pair asked us if time off to take a travel course (those 2-4 day au pair classes in which you earn the credits in a few days) is vacation time, and explained to me that it perhaps shouldn’t be vacation time because it is for the educational component. Anyone care to opine on this? It would be weekday time off, not just weekend. I explained that because travel is not required as part of the educational component, neither is time off for that non-required travel.

Time off for a class is definitely not vacation time and shouldn't be counted as such. That being said, you can tell AP that the class she wants to take conflicts with when you need her to work and that she needs to find another class.

Time off to TRAVEL TO ANOTHER CITY for a travel class isn't vacation time? Why not exactly? Is this your opinion, or what your agency is telling you? If she's able to obtain her educational credits while staying in our city, and could schedule her class around her usual work schedule, why would it not be vacation time if she rendered herself unavailable to work her regular schedule by choosing to take a class that requires her to (1) travel to another city and (2) not be available to work during her usual hours on two weekdays?

Whatever class you allow her to sign up for, you need to give her the time off to complete the requirements of that class. This is a requirement. That being said, as I noted, you absolutely do NOT need to allow her to sign up for a travel class.

Let me ask this a different way: if we tell her that she is can choose to (1) sign up for a local class that fits within her work schedule or (2) sign up for a travel class if she chooses to take vacation time for it, we're then obligated to give her extra time off because we're allowing her to make that choice?

[Anonymous]

If she is free on weeknights or mornings or whatever, she can find a class locally. Otherwise, it should be vacation. Apart from that, the travel days are disguised extra vacation. What a scam!

[Anonymous]

Our LCC confirmed that travel course days are vacation days, and it is NOT a requirement of the program to provide extra days off for a travel course.

[Anonymous]

for those "travel classes", we have AP work 40 hours Mon-Thurs that week, and then she leaves Thu night for the travel class and returns Sunday night, ready to work on Monday. Therefore no vacation necessary.

Make it work people. Don't make the AP use their precious little vacation time for this class. but on the other hand, she shouldn't need to take more than Friday off for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:for those "travel classes", we have AP work 40 hours Mon-Thurs that week, and then she leaves Thu night for the travel class and returns Sunday night, ready to work on Monday. Therefore no vacation necessary.

Make it work people. Don't make the AP use their precious little vacation time for this class. but on the other hand, she shouldn't need to take more than Friday off for it.

That's nice of you, but most HPs would have to take a vacation day from work, so 40 hours on Mon-TH does not cover missing work on Friday. "Travel" courses appear to be paid long weekends by another name.