At work, we get the usual paid holidays, and we accrue about five hours of paid time off (PTO) every month. I famously don’t take any PTO until I have let it max out at 120 hours. I do this because the company, when I leave, have to pay out that 120 hours. So I try to keep it maxed as a ‘parachute’ in case I get fired or something. But, we also get a free ‘personal day’….eight hours of time to use whenever you want. Use it or lose it. So, tomorrow being the last workday of the year, I am taking off.
Tomorrow is the start of a four-day weekend of trying to get caught up on prep stuff. Filling gas cans, rotating gas, run the generator, reconcile the preponomicon, make lists of things to buy in 2024, do some research, etc, etc.
What I am desperately hoping doesn’t happen is….I just sleep through all four days.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Maybe sleep in one day at least, you deserve it. Our company tried that use or lose it crap, and since I was helping negotiate the contract, told them no way. So we get to either carry it over or get cashed out for all PTO time.
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When I was getting out of the Army I was able to plan and have almost 2 months of leave saved up. It let me have a bit of a safety net while transitioning. Thankfully I got a job after 5-6weeks and had a couple weeks or so of double dipping at the tail end.
At my current job I’m not maxed out but do use a couple weeks as my zero. Getting fired is pretty unlikely but someone getting sick can happen.
People almost invariably hyper focus on the fun/ cool/ sexy parts of preparedness. However by any rational analysis an illness or a job loss is way more likely than whatever your particular apocalypse fantasy is.
My job lets PTO accumulate. Right now I have a little over 200 hours not including sick time and holiday.
My work schedule however creates a lot of extra time others don’t get.
Vacation time, for example, accrues with 1 hour of vacation time for every hour worked. If you work 50 weeks in a year at 40 hours per week, thats 2000 hours. At 1 hour per 25, that means that if I work 2000 hours I get 80 hours of vacation. HOWEVER, I work between around 800 hours of overtime so I wind up with an extra week or so of vacation time.
I have it all saved up but unfortunately my workplace does not pay it out when you quit/get fired, so one must be wary.
The last three tech companies I’ve worked for have converted from an accrued PTO system to “unlimited PTO”. If your manager approves your request, you can take off. But there is no payout if you are fired or quit.
So now I make sure I take a minimum of 5 weeks each year you have to take full advantage of whatever system you’re in.
One thing to keep in mind is the financial stability of your employer. All this accumulated PTO is not funded or reserved. In the event of a bankruptcy you’ll be a general creditor for those funds. If you are at all concerned about the stability of your company another alternative would be take the cash yearly and ladder it in CD’s or equivalent. Also, assuming you’ll be paid at “todays” rate when paid out those funds will be subject to inflation and reduced buying power upon redemption. I think this is great, I never had this option, but I’m just pointing out a risk. As an aside a friend who works for a major national grocery chain (they are not in Alberton, MT, but name is close) had a permanently disabling stroke a year ago. He had accrued PTO and that, plus that the company treated him VERY well enabled a reasonable recovery without financial disaster. So this is a good idea. Happy New Year. Texarkana Slim
They don’t cash out the PTO until you leave.
Buying power may be reduced due to inflation but its offset by the hourly rate being higher than when I started accruing. In other words, if I accrued 100 hours at $X, and accrued the last 20 hours at $X+5, they’ll all cash out at $X+5.
Sleep is good
Extra sleep allows you to focus when you are well rested
Left last job after 2 years without missing a day was told only had 4 days of vacation( not 2weeks)and they couldn’t document what day I had supposedly taken off.
I took the same approach towards hoarding my PTO at my last job. (“Last” job, I hope.) The company got sold, new owners tried to implement changes w/out any notice to the employees that we were going to lose 40% of our saved PTO and have a 35% reduction in our accrual rate. Waited 6 months for them to fix my balances before I found my balls and quit. It took 7 weeks and the intervention of the state labor board but I finally got paid for all 324 hours they owed me.
For the last 10 years I was there my coworkers thought I was nuts to only take just enough time off to stay under the cap, but I had two full months’ of full income coming when I skipped out the door.