MetaChat - Holiwhat, Now?

Right now I'm freelance, so zero.

Normally, around 2 weeks, plus or minus.

posted by dersins 31 July | 14:07

25 plus eight bank holidays:

1 Jan

Good Friday Bank Holiday

Easter Monday Bank Holiday

Early May Bank Holiday

Spring Bank Holiday

Summer Bank Holiday

Christmas Day Bank Holiday

Boxing Day Bank Holiday

posted by chuckdarwin 31 July | 14:08

2 weeks = 10 days?

posted by chuckdarwin 31 July | 14:09

0

I get pretty pissed off when they force me to take off work (unpaid) on Christmas and make me work on July 4. I mean, I don't give a shit about Christ, but I care deeply about Washington, Jefferson, and the rest of those firebrands.

posted by Hugh Janus 31 July | 14:13

I get four weeks paid vacation, plus three and a half days called "personal" days. Once I hit 25 years employment (and sad to say, I should have hit it already but I quit once) I'll get another week of vacation.
Also, most holidays are paid days off for full-timers. If we decide to work (or have to, depending on circumstances) on a holiday, we get paid time-and a half on top of holiday pay. Oh, and Sundays are time-and a half for me, but the extra money isn't worth missing family time, for me.

posted by redvixen 31 July | 14:18

NONE! NO VACATION, SICK, HOLIDAYS... no work, no pay. Ain't the good ole USA just great!?

posted by mightshould 31 July | 14:25

I am a post-doc, so really, I have no idea how much time I'm entitled to. Because we just work unless we have a reason not to. One year I took 7 weeks off, one year I took 3 days off.

posted by gaspode 31 July | 14:30

10 vacation, plus 7 sick? Plus 8 holidays. BUT it accrues, you don't start with the vacation and the sick, you earn it. So, I earn 10 days in a year. I don't start the year or an anniversary date with 10 days.

Less generous than my last job, but about normal for the USA, chuck-d, plus they pay short & long term disability and have exotic things like Bereavement Leave.

But yes, I take vacation days to DO things like go to doctors appts or wait for the handyman to show.

posted by rainbaby 31 July | 14:31

13 'holidays' (quotes because these include things like the 3rd of July--my employers like long weekends), plus about five or six weeks of PTO.

posted by box 31 July | 14:31

6 weeks plus 8 personal/sick days, but I get no holidays off, so if I manage not to be here on a holiday, I have to use a vacation day to do it.

posted by BoringPostcards 31 July | 14:31

10 vacation days (which accrue) plus 20 hours of "personal holidays" plus 8 federal holidays, plus sick time. I actually get a lot of sick time (I accrue 2.5 hours per week, or 16 days a year), but it's nearly impossible to spend it, so I don't know the point.

posted by muddgirl 31 July | 14:36

Vacation and sick days accrue per two-week pay period, so, let's see...

Vacation:
6 hours per pay period x 26 pay periods per year = 156 hours, or 19.5 days, almost 4 weeks

Sick:
4 hours per pay period x 26 pay periods per year = 104 hours, or 13 days, just over 2 1/2 weeks

Plus 10 Federal holidays.

It adds up to almost 11 weeks (did I do the math correctly?)! I tend to take the sick days incrementally--2 hours off to go see the doctor, 1/2 day at the dentist, stuff like that, so I never have very much accrued.

posted by mrmoonpie 31 July | 14:51

I earn 20.X hours a month for vacation and sick time combined (~6 weeks a year), plus the 6 or 7 national holidays (01/01, Memorial Day, 07/04 (if it hits a weekday), Labor Day, Thanksgiving Thurs. & Fri., 12/25).

If I worked on the Medical School side, I would earn 13.X hours a month in vacation (~4 weeks), get 20 sick days that renew annually (but do not accumulate), the 6/7 holiday days, and 4 "season" days that are supposed to be used between 12/25 and 12/31 (when students typically go home), but can technically be used anytime between 11/15 and 02/15.

posted by blackkar 31 July | 14:59

* 10 vacation days - I can only carry 5, I think, over to the next year.
* 15 or so sick days; I get mixed up on the math but it tops out at 30 no matter how long you work.
* Holidays: New Years Day, Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.
* No personal days or anything like that.
* I'm salaried so I don't get time and a half no matter how many hours I may work. I work for a nonprofit so there are no bonuses. Also, I'm poor as a church mouse. Go figure why I do this. Probably because I can pretty much dress the way I please and have purple hair and tattoos.
* I do get 1 for 1 comp time if I work weekends or events or holidays so all in all it's better than my last job, where I got no time off at all for the first year and didn't get Christmas Eve or Martin Luther King Day. Also, at that museum comp time maxed out for the year at 40 hours (5 days) and all events and overtime after that were considered part of the job. To put that into perspective, I routinely had my 40 hours of comp time accrued by mid February each year. I worked 400 hours of overtime one year there for no compensation whatsoever - pretty much all events, attendance compulsory.

posted by mygothlaundry 31 July | 15:04

Oh, and yeah, I'm taking a precious vacation day on Friday to, be still my heart, get the oil changed, new inspection & a couple of new tires on the car. Yeah. I know how to have fun on my vacation!

posted by mygothlaundry 31 July | 15:06

20 vacation
12 sick (I have a little over 6 mo. sick time saved)
The usual holidays, other than President's Day, which I have to work.
About a week's worth of misc time, like sick kid and other.

posted by danf 31 July | 15:07

ZERO, a big fat whopping ZERO. However, I am a temp., so that's why I get NOTHING. Wait, next to nothing... after I complete 1200 hours I get a "bonus" equal to whatever my last paycheck was. So, it's kind of like getting a week off, but it isn't, not really.

posted by getoffmylawn 31 July | 15:08

15 days, because I've been here so long.

posted by small_ruminant 31 July | 15:08

MGL! vacation day for oil change! I hear you. That's what those special days are for isn't it?

I iz in yr boat, 'n rowin uphill...

posted by mightshould 31 July | 15:12

15 vacation days
15 paid holidays
2 summer days
3 personal days
6 sick days

posted by smich 31 July | 15:47

26 days + bank holidays. In November it goes up to 28 days + bank holidays. That's over one month off a year! Woo! No idea about sick - I'm almost never ill so it's not something I've ever thought about.

posted by TheDonF 31 July | 15:47

I think I'm at 25 days now, so 5 work weeks, and it'll jump up to 26 in September, but that includes sick leave because it's "Personal Time Off" which encompasses anything. Still, it's awesome for a guy like me who has no kids, can work from home when ill, and rarely gets sick to begin with.

posted by cmonkey 31 July | 16:11

Like mygothlaundry, I get 1 to 1 comp time for any hours worked over the standard, so I could save up some extra time for vacation. On the other hand, my attendance is strictly monitored, so if I come in late, that counts against my time off. Getting the oil changed, taking off early for Christmas shopping, going to my daughter's school play, whatever, counts against me, in 15-minute increments. I think it all works out fairly, though.

posted by mrmoonpie 31 July | 16:31

15 days plus 3 personal holidays. But they are very flexible about hours and working from home so I seldom have to take a day off to run errands or wait for the cable guy. I'm not sure what I'd do if I got 6 weeks off a year, I have a hard enough time taking the three off that I do get. We keep getting yelled at for not taking enough vacation time off because the left over days cause a debit on our financials. Engineers just like to work, I guess.

posted by octothorpe 31 July | 16:42

I'm on the same approximate work schedule as muddgirl.

posted by pieisexactlythree 31 July | 16:53

I get January + February off at the university I teach at, but they don't actually pay me a full salary, more like 1/2, sort of.
Not that that's the main source of my income, either.

posted by signal 31 July | 17:12

4 weeks vaca
4 weeks sick
11 holidays

I would accept (even) less pay for more time off.

posted by theora55 31 July | 18:19

9 weeks in the summer
a week in December, February, and April
another two weeks or so in holidays
10 sick days a year that accumulate in a "bank"

Pays to be a teacher.

posted by Pips 31 July | 18:33

We have a benefits package at work that we can use to buy different benefits, such as health care for spouse/children or vouchers to pay for childcare. Because I don't have a partner or kids, I can use my benefits money to buy extra holiday instead.

So I get 35 days, plus the 8 standard UK bank holidays. And as I work from home two days a week, well, that's almost like having extra holiday too.

posted by essexjan 31 July | 18:43

As a temp, I get no paid time off.

And that fucking BITES.

It BITES, I tell you.

posted by jason's_planet 31 July | 18:49

I accrue 8 hours vacation a month, for a total of 12 days. And 6 holidays. And... 5? 7? days sick leave.

posted by rhapsodie 31 July | 21:17

I'm at about 20 days PTO a year, it's combined vacation/sick, my company doesn't separate the two. Plus most major holidays off with pay- Christmas, Presidents, Memorial, the Fourth, etc.
Not too great, but a lot better than most people my age I know who are at a similar level in their careers. Mine's accrued, too. So if I work OT I get more (but as long as I don't run out of time and take unpaid time off I still get at least my minimum).

My company has other decent benefits, though. Really good "family leave" (since it can be if you/spouse had a kid, sick family member, etc), long term disability, paid life insurance, paid bereavement leave, cheap insurance, etc.

A friend of mine's company lets her "buy" an extra week of vacation, though. Neatest policy. You sign up at the beginning of the year and they just deduct a week's pay from your checks split up throughout the year, and you get it when you take your extra "bought" week of vacation. (and yeah, we could all do that with a savings account, but it's a cool thing to offer since so many places don't let you go beyond your vacation day limit in terms of taking time off.)

posted by kellydamnit 31 July | 22:55

I get 20 days per year of recreation leave (which is paid at 117.5% of my normal salary) which accumulates forever, 10 days of sick leave which accumulates forever, a couple or so days for family emergencies (not sure exactly). If I work more than the required 37.25 hours per week, I "bank" the time and can take it off whenever I want - there are limits, though, on how much I can bank up. I get long-service leave, too - not sure how much per year, but after working here for 10 years, I get three months off with full pay or six months with half-pay. I get all gazetted public holidays, plus an extra day off with pay between Christmas and new year. I can take time off without pay if I want - anything up to 12 months is fine so, if I decide to drop out for a while, I can do so secure in the knowledge that there is a permanent, full-time job waiting for me whenever I want it.

I'm taking two weeks off at the end of August, which is all coming out of banked time and will have saved up enough leave and banked time by December that I am taking two whole months off (December and January) on full pay.

Yes, I do actually go to work sometimes. I ain't ever quittin' this job though - I would sell my soul to the devil first.

posted by dg 31 July | 23:23

15 days paid vacation
Bank holidays
1:1 comp time (some quarters I keep track; other quarters, I just guesstimate in a "I feel like I worked a lot less week, I will work less this week" sort of way. This quarter is one of the latter quarters).

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 31 July | 23:48

I get pretty pissed off when they force me to take off work (unpaid) on Christmas and make me work on July 4. I mean, I don't give a shit about Christ, but I care deeply about Washington, Jefferson, and the rest of those firebrands.

Hugh, my favourite is Thomas Paine! He started TWO Revolutions. In the end, no one wanted to claim him because he was such an outspoken atheist [the penalty for such chatter being death at the time]. I'd put flowers on his grave, but his body is lost.

posted by chuckdarwin 01 August | 03:34

Thanks for all the replies; I feel pretty spoilt now.

posted by chuckdarwin 01 August | 03:36

31 July 2007