Work Benefits: vacation time

[Jesse and Hema 2]

Whether or not they are flexible enough to give you unpaid time off when you want/need it is the deciding factor in my opinion. If they pay ok and you can still escape to visit your family and whatnot when you need to, it's still a pretty good deal. Especially since you seem to like the other aspects of this job. Not always easy to find a job you like...

[bora bora 1]

I'm a teacher so I have vacations + vacations + holidays + the summer off ...sorry to brag.

But five days for the 1st 2 years does sound low - my sister works in a bank and gets 2 weeks of paid vacations a year + floating holidays. Her boss is even letting her use two floating holidays + a week so we can go to Brazil for 10 days.

This reminds me that my husband needs to talk to his boss about holidays....

[JVKn'CVO 11]

Whether or not they are flexible enough to give you unpaid time off when you want/need it is the deciding factor in my opinion. If they pay ok and you can still escape to visit your family and whatnot when you need to, it's still a pretty good deal. Especially since you seem to like the other aspects of this job. Not always easy to find a job you like...

Very true! I have to look more into the personal days policy, Because the pay is good and Austin's job market is tough

I feel very lucky to have found a job I like, specially this being my first job in the US, but of course I miss my home country and my friends so I'm...torn between 2 things that are important to me!

I'm a teacher so I have vacations + vacations + holidays + the summer off ...sorry to brag.

But five days for the 1st 2 years does sound low - my sister works in a bank and gets 2 weeks of paid vacations a year + floating holidays. Her boss is even letting her use two floating holidays + a week so we can go to Brazil for 10 days.

This reminds me that my husband needs to talk to his boss about holidays....

That's so great! How's your husband doing with his new job? Is he happy?

Saludos,

Caro

Edited March 22, 2008 by JVKn'CVO

[athena_ny 1]

Honestly, it sounds low, but most vacation time is awarded on a company wide basis, so negotiating for more probably won't get you too far. See how flexible they'd be with you taking unpaid.

The US had no mandatory vacation or personal time laws; heck, I don't even get all national holidays off. I've worked at jobs where I am given no time at all off (I was contract to hire too, except they didn't tell us there was a hiring freeze so I was a temp for 6 months - everytime I needed time off it counted against me), so having any at all is a blessing.

My first year I had 5 personal days and 6 vacation.

[bora bora 1]

Whether or not they are flexible enough to give you unpaid time off when you want/need it is the deciding factor in my opinion. If they pay ok and you can still escape to visit your family and whatnot when you need to, it's still a pretty good deal. Especially since you seem to like the other aspects of this job. Not always easy to find a job you like...

Very true! I have to look more into the personal days policy, Because the pay is good and Austin's job market is tough

I feel very lucky to have found a job I like, specially this being my first job in the US, but of course I miss my home country and my friends so I'm...torn between 2 things that are important to me!

I'm a teacher so I have vacations + vacations + holidays + the summer off ...sorry to brag.

But five days for the 1st 2 years does sound low - my sister works in a bank and gets 2 weeks of paid vacations a year + floating holidays. Her boss is even letting her use two floating holidays + a week so we can go to Brazil for 10 days.

This reminds me that my husband needs to talk to his boss about holidays....

That's so great! How's your husband doing with his new job? Is he happy?

Saludos,

Caro

Caro, thanks for asking. My husband is happy with his job - his boss is really nice and respects my husband. It's a small business and my husband's work is valued a lot . He was kind of "jumping" around looking for a new job that he liked...and he was often working with illegal immigrants and did NOT like that.

He has found what works for him, and even got a raise after 3 weeks of work (which he didn't ask for).

[JVKn'CVO 11]

Honestly, it sounds low, but most vacation time is awarded on a company wide basis, so negotiating for more probably won't get you too far. See how flexible they'd be with you taking unpaid.

The US had no mandatory vacation or personal time laws; heck, I don't even get all national holidays off. I've worked at jobs where I am given no time at all off (I was contract to hire too, except they didn't tell us there was a hiring freeze so I was a temp for 6 months - everytime I needed time off it counted against me), so having any at all is a blessing.

My first year I had 5 personal days and 6 vacation.

That's an important point you bring up. I'll look more into personal time off, which sounds like it's my best bet. Thanks Athena

Caro, thanks for asking. My husband is happy with his job - his boss is really nice and respects my husband. It's a small business and my husband's work is valued a lot . He was kind of "jumping" around looking for a new job that he liked...and he was often working with illegal immigrants and did NOT like that.

He has found what works for him, and even got a raise after 3 weeks of work (which he didn't ask for).

Good for him! Congrats on the raise!

Saludos,

Caro

[motu 5]

One thing that no one has mentioned. Try asking your boss for overtime which you do not cash - instead you take time off. Entiende? Means you make a deal with your boss that you would put in overtime when needed and would take days off later instead of cash. Very common practice in many organizations - I was able to accumulate 100 hours one time (almost two-and-a-half weeks and took off when I was ready for vacation.) Good Luck

[Vi Mazzella 4]

Caro:

What about asking for extra time off without paid??? I'm from Peru and I requested some extra days without paid and they were ok about it.

Just 5 days??? that's not enough. Right now I'm working in a differente company and I think I'm very lucky, they give me 3 weeks!!! . I already requested two weeks for Christmas .

Buena suerte!!

Vi

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I just started my job and I get immediately:

10 vacation days

10 holidays

10 sick or personal days

So, I get 6 paid weeks off of work a year altogether. More next year if I do not use all of my sick or personal days this year. They don't start tacking on more vacation until after 5 years of service though.