Quote Originally Posted by Randi View Post
A week here and a week there is nice, and also to be able to extend weekends.

Wow KAK, 16 days aren't much, and I bet you work more than 37 hours a week. You need to talk to you boss and negotiate.

I think is unfair that the rules aren't the same for everybody.
Yes, it sure isn't. I do usually work 40 hours per week and sometimes a bit more. Ever since the poor economy though, our boss doesn't want us to work any overtime. Since I'm now paid an hourly plus a commission, I'm required to do a certain amount of work per day within my 8 hours. If I can't do this then I will just punch out after 8 hours and then work off the clock which I don't think is fair but if I don't finish my work then I don't get my commission and in my department we have to always finish all of our work. I work at fairly small company of about 40 or so workers. We're actually one of the largest dental labs in our area though. Most dental labs are very small with only from 2-5 employees.

The way the I make the most of my vacation time is to not take it all at once. For the past few years I've been taking off a few days here and there during the summer so that I get long weekends. I usually do this in the months of July and August. Then I only work either 3-4 days a week depending on if I have a 3 day weekend or a 4 day weekend. I use my 10 days during this time and I save my other 5 for the end of the year between Christmas and New Years. Since we also get some paid holidays during this time, I've been able to take almost 2 weeks off sometimes. My holiday birthday is also in Dec. so I always use it during this time too. We work with a limited staff during these holidays so my boss encourages us to use any vacation time that we have left. We're also usually very slow the first week of Jan. so many people take that week off too.

We have an employee handbook that is updated every year but it also says that things are subject to change without notice. We receive the following holidays:
New Year's Day
Presidents Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Day After Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Eve (1/2 Day)
Christmas Day
1 Floating Holiday- Employee's Birthday

We aren't allowed to keep accumulating a lot of vacation time though. We can carry over accrued vacation time into the next year but when our total vacation accrual reaches 150% we will no longer accrue vacation until we reduce the total below the maximum. I do remember there was an employee that had build up so much vacation time that my boss forced him to take some time off. My boss also doesn't like us to take long vacations like a month off at a time. I don't know why people wouldn't just want to use their vacation time every year.

We get 4 sick days a year and we can carry over a maximum of 48 hours of sick leave from calendar year to calendar year. If we are absent for more than 3 consecutive work days due to our own illness or injury, then we must provide a physician's statement verifying the disability, its beginning and expected ending dates. This verification may be required as a condition for receiving sick leave benefits. Also if we're out for 10 work days or more then we must provide a physician's verification that we may safely return to work. When I had my eye surgery I had to do this.

After receiving approval from our supervisor, we can take up to 3 days of paid time off because of the death of an immediate family member. My company defines "immediate family" as our spouse, parent, child, sibling, in-law, grandparent, domestic partner, child of domestic partner, or significant other. When my grandparents passed away I never took any time off. I did,however, take one personal day off when I had to put my RB Pepper to sleep. This was back when I was able to take personal days off though. I guess I should just be glad that I have any benefits at all.