Anybody else not use enough PTO thoughout the year?

[Gear_Jammer]

This is why making $400/hr sucks!!!

Don't I wish...

[whitetrash]

i get 3.5 weeks a year and have to take them. next year we have the option to "buy" another week. i opted to do it for a little more r&r. even if i dont do anything its nice just to be off work.

i will answer emails while im off but its a rare that i actually need to

[03trubluGT]

There's no such thing as PTO for me. If I'm not working, I can't bill my time and if cant bill my time I don't make anything. That's why I don't go on many vacations.

This is why making $400/hr sucks!!!

[txsr20de]

Nope, I'm draining it dry this week, although I only had a week's worth since I didn't get hired until October.

Next year I get 3.5 weeks of "official" PTO, but like Matt, very few of my days off actually count towards PTO, due to a combination of a cool boss and the fact that I'm always available for IT related support. We can pretty much come and go as we please(within reason) which is nice.

[Gear_Jammer]

There's no such thing as PTO for me. If I'm not working, I can't bill my time and if cant bill my time I don't make anything. That's why I don't go on many vacations.

[Silverback]

Typically any random days off here and there through the year don't count towards PTO/Sick/Personal days. My boss just counts it as comp time since even when I'm off, I'm still answering emails, and helping where I can.

I usually take 3 days the week of Thanksgiving when we get two holiday days, to make a full week. Then in December I'll take a whole week, the week before Dell closes for Christmas. Making two weeks straight that I can travel to see family, and spend it recovering from the year/getting ready for next year. This year Dell's shutdown starts next Monday and we don't come back until January 3rd. I took three days last week to go out of town and see some family. I used my other week of vacation when I moved to Austin, but my boss emailed me and said I had a week to burn before the end of the year, because he didn't count those days I took off, since I was "remote" and still answered my phone and emails.

So technically I didn't burn 5 days (in the system) and they don't carry over, but with the way my boss takes care of me on time off, it's not that big of a deal. Besides I'm a remote worker, and don't have to go in the office but a few times a year if that. Next year I'm hoping to not go in at all, unless absolutely necessary, so I can move further away from Austin, and only fly in when I'm needed.

I do plan to actually start taking a week at a time vacations through the year next year, as I think I move to 3 weeks PTO, and 2 weeks Sick/Personal.

I'm with Eric, if they give it to you, use it, sometimes you really need to just disconnect from work, and get your mojo back. The US actually has some of the smallest PTO time offered as a benefit compared to other countries. We feel like things can't work when we aren't there, but if that's the case, then we need to make sure our backups are trained well enough to make it a possibility.

[03trubluGT]

I used to give the city back time every year.


Not any more.

If it disappears from the books, I use it.

[Sgt Beavis]

HP has a company wide shutdown on the last week of the year. We have to spend part of our PTO for that. I also had an additional week. I'm spending it working on home projects, studying for my next certification exams and a few other things..

[jluv]

I get a decent bit of vacation, and always use it. I'll carry over a few days into the next year, but I never forfeit any of it.

I took on a new role a little over a year ago, and it's pretty demanding. If I am out for a single day, it can be brutal when I get back. There will still be a full day's worth of work that went undone, and I have to get it done along with the next day's work. If I'm out a week, it will mean at least a full week of working 2-3 hours of OT per day when I get back, just to get somewhat caught up. It really is dreadful.

That said, I always take a week off in the summer, and another week off between Christmas and New Year's, and I have a self-imposed policy that I will not do anything work-related. In fact, I pretty much will not allow myself to talk about or even think about work. My time off is my time off. It helps that I spend my summer vacation far out of reach of cell phone service. Yes, it's awful when I get back, but I like being able to completely escape and live for a week as if I don't have any work responsibility.

[ZYouL8R]

I get 30 days a year and can carry over no more than 75 days at the end of the fiscal year. I think I have 58.5 days saved up right now.

[Treasure Chest]

I'm salaried and work for a small company with a large client base. We don't have a set amount of PTO, so we take off with pay as wanted/needed with the agreement that we answer phone calls and take a couple minutes a few times a day to check emails and make sure things are running smoothly. It's a really nice set-up, even if I fielded a call or two on my wedding day, half drunk, and from a hammock on the beach.

[stangin4lyfe]

I think I still got 17hrs to burn before the end of the year.
As for what I do...relax, cookout, eat good, and the GYM!

[SS Junk]

After tomorrow I get a five day weekend, come back for one day and then start ten day vacation using 80 hours. I despise my job.

[Ruffdaddy]

I know this is not on the subject, but does your company have any intellectual propert rights to whatever you are designing on your own time?

No. I have all of my own software. I also don't design for like industries. Lastly, I have the companies IP policies. I'm not stupid about this stuff

[Ruffdaddy]

See though, that's not work related. That's fun free-time stuff for you. The stress level doing that is WAY down than project deadlines, working with people that have different priorities, etc of your "normal" job.

If I had Solidworks/Pro/E at home, I'd probably piddle with it, too.

I should have clarified...it is for money often times just not through my company. Sometimes it's personal designs I want to make into production items. It's just as stressful to write your own proposals and track all progress.