I tried, really I did

[aryanhwy]

Last year, I failed to take all of my vacation hours, and so 60.60 were carried over to this year. And this year, I was scrupulous: Nearly every time I went somewhere for a conference, I stuck a day or two on either end for vacation/sight-seeing, and I declared all of those days. I declared days when friends were visiting and I didn't go into the office. I tried my best to use up as much vacation as possible (vacation hours that are used, the university pays for. vacation hours that are not used, the dept. pays for. the dept. likes it when we take our vacation). I tried, I really did.

And how many hours do I currently have left for the rest of the year? (This is including the fact that I've already declared time off from tomorrow till the end of the week, and the week between Christmas and New Year's is mandatory time off, so those days off don't come out of my personal vacation). 139.40! That's slightly more than 18 days of vacation left.

How do people do it? How on earth can they use up as much vacation time as you get here in Europe??

I'm not sure how many of these 139.40 hours will carry over to next year (there is a cap on vacation hours that can be brought forward, but I don't remember what it is). But if I can bring it all, then somehow or other I've got to find a way to take 371.4 hours (=almost 49 days) of vacation next year. Must start conniving! :)

Comments

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

How do they do it? Simple. Take most of August off and go to either the mountains or the seashore.

[etfb.livejournal.com]

I could give my suggestion in a comment, but I think the Scared Weird Little Guys put it far better than I ever could: Come To Australia!

[katerinfg.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Pennsic, but it sounds like that's your busy season. Estrella or Gulf, maybe?

[silme.livejournal.com]

SCA events in Drachenwald alone would do it for me, but I only get to take time off outside of term time. I get lots of days off, but they're when the college dictates. It would be lovely to be able to take off a Friday or Monday for an event that's not during the summer holidays. :)

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

All of the ways I can think of involve not having a job with such an externally defined schedule as you do :-)

For example, take one day off a week, or even every other week. But that doesn't work when you have a defined class schedule and work to grade in a timely fashion. And papers to write in preparation for all those conferences you get in lieu of having the time to take vacation :-D

[frausensei.livejournal.com]

What a problem to have!

[adelais.livejournal.com]

Reading backwards, so: your suggestion from your next post will help a lot with this, too, eventually.

[armillary.livejournal.com]

I have a simple answer: SCA. I can easily spend all my allotted time, plus whatever else I can wheedle away from my employer.

(Then again, it didn't help switching jobs twice in a year last year ... lost quite a bit of vacation time that way, although my bank account prospered)