paid time off question....

Our policy is as such.
1 year, one week
2 -9 years, two weeks
10 plus years, three weeks.
No mor than two weeks at a time and must be submtted in writing and approved 30 days
prior.

I forget the sick day policy. I've never taken more than one week a year in 20 years. I haven't had a sick day in three years nwe don't carry over unused time.

Whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. I just talk to the guy in the mirror to make sure he understands the consequences of my actions.

I don't know of any limit as long as 1) management approves the time off and 2) you have the required leave on the books.

My previous boss went to Hawaii for 5 weeks every August I worked there and still does as far as I know. Then he would generally go back for another 3 weeks every October. He accrued the time at the highest rate due to years of service and had over a thousand hours on the books due to various reasons.

I've taken up to 3 weeks off on a couple of occasions but generally I don't take enough vacation.

One week is not really a vacation. You haven't forgotten about work for at least 5 or 6 days at which point you can really begin to relax. Everyone should take some extended time off some time and you will see what I mean. Until you are gone a week you don't really realize how tense you are all the time even if you like your job.

But on a two-week vacation, it takes you a week to forget about work, then the second week, you start worrying about what you have to do when you get back. I do, anyway.

Do cows have mirrors? And do they really understand the consequences of what they do?
Would they really trust cowboys if they knew what was in their future?

Every place I've been at doesn't like you taking more than 2 weeks at a stretch unless you are about to carry it over. They

don't like carrying over vacation time at all. Unused sick/personal days were dumped to short-term disability.
When I was at Unisys Corp. there was a couple of fellers that had 6-8 weeks vaca a year. Seemed like they were always on vacation. They were the exception of course.

On the job I am currently on, a bridge project, in almost three years I have only taken enough time off to bury both of my parents, seven days total. I have 160 hours accrued, and will be payed and taxed for the time when the job is finished. On the job before this, a power plant, one I was at work for 750 days straight. I was told on another power plant job "If you go home to bury your mother, we'll send both checks to her house". American corporate morality and ethics at it's best.

I'm 48; examining the life span of some close relatives I figure I have less than that to go. I'm not being negative or obsessed with death, just examining the facts.

It's easy to focus on the here and now (the pressures of today); the expectations we place on ourselves.

We should take advantage of the opportunity to have some fun now but I'm just as guilty as most though.

> Whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. I just talk to the guy in the mirror to make sure he understands the consequences of my actions.

Me too! As always.

Have a great week!

>We should take advantage of the opportunity to have some fun now but I'm just as guilty as most though.

I've gotten much better at this over the years. During the 10 years prior to starting my own business, I don't think I took more than a day or two off a couple of times a year. Toward the end of that gig I was arriving at the office around 6:00 a.m. and leaving at 5:00 or so. In retrospect, it wasn't a good way to live; it's especially not a good way to live a long time.

When I first set up shop almost 18 years ago, I had a lot more time that I did work, so you might say that I took a whole bunch of "staycation" time in the first couple of years. During that time it wasn't unusual for my truck to stay parked for a week or two at a time. As business picked up along with the economy, I started working longer and longer hours, until I was working pretty much "normal" hours.

In more recent years I've been taking about a week in the spring, a week and a half during the summer, a week or so around Christmas, stretch an occasional weekend into 3 or 4 days, and take maybe half a dozen single days spread out through the year for things like my son's school or baseball events. I don't get paid when I don't work, but the work/life balance is much more important to me than it used to be.

In the last year work has been very slow, and I've become reacquainted with the "staycation" concept. I appreciate the unintentional time off much more than I did in the early days, but I'm ready for things to pick up to normal speed again!

Sick Leave, after 3 days you need a Doctor's excuse. Vacation, schedule it in advance and take all you have on the books if you want. We can only keep 240 hours of vacation in the bank. I have 87 hours to use between now and 1 January 2011. I have over 1500 hours of sick leave in the bank. We do not have a limit on how much sick leave you can build up.