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Anybody else having difficulty taking vacation time? 5

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EngineerDave

EngineerDave

Bioengineer
Aug 22, 2002
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I guess this is a good and bad thing. Our company is busy and i work at two different locations for my organization. Other people within my group do similar things but few have to cover as much geographical distance as i do.

In any event in my current group to take anvacation, you must find someone to cover your work while you are gone, we are contracted out to other organizations so not sendingnyour backup is not an option.

In any event i have alot of time built up and its a use it or lose it aituation, but management still needs to approve your time off.

On one hand i should feel goodmthat its tough to replace me, but i am dying for a vacation! Anyone else in this boat?

I havent taken more than a 3 day weekend since early 2009.
 
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I am lucky if I can squeeze a 4 or 5-day weekend in as "vacation" once a year.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?
 
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I've always been able to use my vacation. Sometimes it's a fight, but making sure there are enough people to cover for vacations isn't my problem. I always give my managers at least a month notice for anything over 1-2 days, but if they can't figure out how to live without me for a week at a time a couple times a year they have bigger problems than managing vacation.

I'll not take a specific set of dates if there's a good reason for needing me present. If this got to be the norm rather than the exception I'd start fighting, but haven't had to get to that point yet.

 
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am lucky to even be working with this lousy economy, so taking a vacation is not hard - paying for it and the gas is harder
 
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AT my last company it got so bad that Management introduced a policy of "use it or lose it"... and allowed you to roll over vacations from one year into the next but no further.

I lost a lot of vacation time that way and I was far from the worst offender. The problem for the company is that if you accrue too many vacation days,then they have to find extra cover when you do take your days.
Now if HR wanted to do something useful, they could keep track of vacations and "remind" (enforce) people to take them.... and pigs might fly.

They were not inclined to pay in lieu and they were getting a good deal - they pay you during vacations and if you work, that is like working for free.

On one project, I put my time in the office during the week, then flew to Portugal to aid in some trials (which involved working very long hours late into the night because that was when we could "play" with the plant.)
This went on for some time and when I asked about time in lieu I was told it "went with the job".

It ought not to be your responsibility to find cover while you are on vacation, it ought to be the company's.
You ought also to be entitled to take time when it suits you, provided you give plenty of warning.
You ought to be able to get time in lieu if you have to work unreasonable or unusual hours.

If it ain't in the contract, it doesn't "go with the territory".
These are the lessons to learn and stand up for.
Otherwise management will win all the way down the line.

As a last resort, tell management they'll have to break it to the SO.


JMW
 
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At one time in my earlier career I had risen to the level of 3 weeks vacation. My sister was dying of cancer and I was denied my vacation requests seven months in a row. So I had to make short visits over weekend trips to see her 1200 miles away. She passed away and I was not able to see her as much as I wanted to (but I'll see her again, soon enough).

I'm much more militant and demanding about my vacation now, and I force any so-called "Manager" to do their job and provide cover for me. If you pursue this course of action you, too, will find that the world does not stop turning because you are not available. And the ego-rush you get from thinking that you are indispensible is simply a lot of worthless fluff.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
 
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Just turn in your request for leave, and when it is denied ask for an extension on the time to "use it or loose it." You are doing your part and trying to take what has been promised to you, and what you have earned, but are not being allowed becuase it inconviences someone else. If you do this a time or two (and have it in writing) it won't take long and the bean counters will start to notice how much leave you have accrued and how much they would be liable for if you cashed in and took another job. They will make sure you take the leave then.

Use of product voids warranty.
 
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You have to find someone to cover for you?

That's ridiculous.

It's your management's responsibility to assign someone to cover for you after you inform them of your vacation plans.

 
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Wow I find some of the posts above amazing. I have worked for 36 years and never had any major problems taking holidays.

There are some restrictions, for example many companies shut down for the period between Christmas and new year and some shut down for a two week period in the summer when you are required to take holidays and every company I have worked for does not allow certain people to be off at the same time and it is highly unlikely that you could say I am having three weeks off starting next week, but that seems reasonable to me.

I have in the past “sold” holidays back to the company at 1.5X but that has always been my choice and also something the company wanted or they would not have offered.

The current minimum holiday entitlement in the UK is 28 days (5.6 weeks) a year so anyone not taking holiday for 5 years would have effectively worked six months for free, I find that amazing. I wonder how many would offer to work 10% of the time for free?
 
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If you do move to Europe, expect a significant pay cut. Back when I was shuffling, £1 == £2.5 in salary terms, regardless of the exchange rate.

- Steve
 
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So it's the classic money vs. vacation time choice. Sometimes seems our choices should be more based on what we "like to do" or what type of engineering job we would "like" to have rather than how much money we will make. Of course, everyone needs a decent bit of money to live well but that does not deviate the substance of the point.
(sorry, a bit off topic)

[peace]
Fe
 
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I certainly agree that from what I have read the salaries are higher in the US whereas the rights of an employee are better in Europe. I doubt many would actually believe the maternity rights over here now.

What I find amazing is that given the poor holiday entitlement (by European standards) is that people cannot even get that time off.
 
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No, I have to confess that in my case and in the case of fellow workers we just didn't take our holidays. It was a benefit to management but to be fair, they mostly wanted us to take our holidays (except for the "goes with the territory" manager I had briefly, till they found out he was an idiot even by management standards, and promoted him into another division).

Gee, those were the days, when you enjoyed what you were doing so much you didn't go home at night and didn't take holidays...
at my last job it was 28days, as SG says (he forgot to mention the bank holidays that come extra)... of course, it goes without saying that I virtually never ever was off sick.
WE had one guy everyone called "Sick-Note" because he was always off sick..... so he got his 28days and then some.... (if you were sick during your holidays, you booked extra holidays...or some people did).
Now there is maternity leave to take as well...which can be legally shared between partners...
I'm not surprised the country is going to the dogs...

JMW
 
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PS there was a degree of concern to discover that railway ticket collectors and toll booth operators also had trouble taking their time off.... until it was noted that when they did take a vacation there was always a surge in the takings...

JMW
 
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Not quite sure why JMW is having a pop at me, we normally agree on most things (except that I don't buy the Telegraph).

I have colleagues in one of our American offices that need to "burn vacation". Because they work for a UK company, they get too much to know what to do with and end up spending days at home in their underwear, mixed between "working from home" and other activities.

- Steve
 
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