Putting in for vacation time at work

[dclpluto]

Admittedly, I was a SAHM for many years, and don't have as many years in the work force, or the experience with office culture as some. So here's my question....

DH and I are planning our 20th anniversary trip. Its a BIG deal for us. DH's workplace does not allow employees to take more than 1 calendar week off at a time. I mean, SOME employees are allowed, but DH says that he is not one of them... Can you tell I hate the people he works for?? He is not a fan of them either, but money is money....

So my question is, do lots of places not allow more than 1 calendar week off at a time?


ETA - The reason its an issue is because I was trying do a Disney vacation + a cruise at the beginning. But the 3 day cruise only goes from Fri-Mon which, for me, is no big deal, but apparently a huge deal-breaker according to my DH's stupid-head owners... Sorry, I'm salty rn lol

I see you are from New Jersey. By New Jersey law you get 5 pto days a year. Take the week vacation than take a pto day for Monday. Problem solved. You can not get punished for taking a pto day by the New Jersey pto rule.
To answer your question I can only take two weeks off at a time even thou I get six weeks vacation.

 

[GreatLakes]

I used to work places with strict time off policies and I wouldn't even consider it again. Where I work you can take as much time as you have earned, in some cases even more. In my role I'm never really 100% detached but my direct reports just need to make sure the work they need to do gets covered, they coordinate long PTO windows with co-workers, and we aren't at a point in a project with any blackouts.

 

[starry_solo]

I don’t think the OP gave us enough information in the original post. How long has the husband been working at this job. It’s one thing if he’s a long term employee, it’s another if he’s only been there a year and hasn’t built up any seniority

 

[amylevan]

I see you are from New Jersey. By New Jersey law you get 5 pto days a year. Take the week vacation than take a pto day for Monday. Problem solved. You can not get punished for taking a pto day by the New Jersey pto rule.
To answer your question I can only take two weeks off at a time even thou I get six weeks vacation.

That’s not exactly how the law works. You are entitled to 5 PTO days per year HOWEVER your employer can require reasonable documentation if you use earned sick leave on three or more consecutive workdays. And vacation isn’t one of the covered reasons.

 

[dclpluto]

That’s not exactly how the law works. You are entitled to 5 PTO days per year HOWEVER your employer can require reasonable documentation if you use earned sick leave on three or more consecutive workdays. And vacation isn’t one of the covered reasons.

The New Jersey pto days are your days to use as you want. You can use it because you are sick you can use it just because you want the day off. It’s your time. They could take the week vacation than Monday use the pto day.

 

[meggiebeth]

In the UK it’s normal for two weeks at a time to be granted - any more and many employers will require you to get special permission. We do have a statutory entitlement to taking about five weeks’ paid vacation each year though so employers are expected to be reasonable!

 

[amylevan]

The New Jersey pto days are your days to use as you want. You can use it because you are sick you can use it to go to the moon it’s your days.

Technically speaking, no they are not. The law specifies that they can be used in a variety of ways, but they can ask for documentation for certain reasons (over 3 consecutive days or taking certain stipulated days.). They aren’t legally a free for all, although most employers are using as such.
https://www.nj.gov/labor/worker-protections/earnedsick/law.shtml

 

[Robber Baron]

I see you are from New Jersey. By New Jersey law you get 5 pto days a year. Take the week vacation than take a pto day for Monday. Problem solved. You can not get punished for taking a pto day by the New Jersey pto rule.
To answer your question I can only take two weeks off at a time even thou I get six weeks vacation.

Typically, if you have to resort to state law to get a vacation from you're employer, things never work out well for you.

 

[kymom99]

I’m a teacher and when I first started we didn’t even get personal days. Now you can accumulate 4. Some principals would make up their own rules about when you could use them but the contract and union has the real answers. It was still hard to go up against your boss in those cases.

My husbands work has really relaxed on some silly guidelines since Covid. It was a case of this is how it’s always been and newer management has begun looking at the reasons behind them. Several years ago he had to beg to be off for our son’s move in day at college because it was a time when no vacations were allowed. They did end up allowing it but they aren’t as difficult about those kinds of once in a lifetime things anymore.

 

[JenBush]

Where I work, you can take more than a week off, but because of deadlines and the business cycle there are certain weeks throughout the year that you can’t take off unless it’s an emergency. Most people don’t take more than a week and a couple days at a time purely because taking more than that much time off will be a huge headache when they get back.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

OP it will be industry dependent, role dependent, etc.

A question I had was is the issue with only some able to take more time off due to favoritism or due to role dependent aspects? There's also official policy and a policy that seems to be the one in practice.

When my husband was out in the field on power plants sites you really don't get to use vacation time and that goes for many many many months. You may be able to take a half day or a day IF there's a good reason but generally you're working a lot without vacation time. But it's not uncommon for those once done to take a few weeks to a month off in between projects. That does mean however you could go a long time without it. Like 6 months, like 9 months, like 18 months, etc. But when he was in the office this was not at all the case and his PTO highly flexible. It's a tad less so in his current job but still very flexible and unlikely he would be sent out to a field given his role and his new company's scope of work.

You could ask the boss too, unfortunately special occasion or not if it's role dependent why he can't get it off that may just be your answer, wouldn't hurt to ask though.

 

[jrmasm]

Admittedly, I was a SAHM for many years, and don't have as many years in the work force, or the experience with office culture as some. So here's my question....

DH and I are planning our 20th anniversary trip. Its a BIG deal for us. DH's workplace does not allow employees to take more than 1 calendar week off at a time. I mean, SOME employees are allowed, but DH says that he is not one of them... Can you tell I hate the people he works for?? He is not a fan of them either, but money is money....

So my question is, do lots of places not allow more than 1 calendar week off at a time?


ETA - The reason its an issue is because I was trying do a Disney vacation + a cruise at the beginning. But the 3 day cruise only goes from Fri-Mon which, for me, is no big deal, but apparently a huge deal-breaker according to my DH's stupid-head owners... Sorry, I'm salty rn lol

Did your husband ask for the additional time off or is he just assuming it won't get granted? And did he mention that its for a 20th anniversary trip?

 

[Robber Baron]

I have worked for 2 companies that had this '1 week vacation' rule. Honestly, I think it's just to cover their bases somehow.

If you wanted more than a week, you just had to ask, and I have never heard of one being refused.

 

[debster812]

My husband is a union delivery driver. He has 6 weeks vacation and 5 personal days. They start choosing vacations in November for the following year. It’s done by seniority, and they have a certain number of people who can be out each week. They can choose all their vacations consecutively (so DH could take 6 weeks in a row), but if you split them up, you make your pick, the rest of the list chooses, and then cycles back to the beginning. DH is #2 on the list so will typically never have an issue w his first choice.

I work for a construction comapany in the northeast, so I am typically “laid off“ from Jan-March. I do also take 10 days off in August, but work around our busiest times, and will check in 1-2x a day with my co-manager, just to make sure everything is running as planned. Plus taking 20-30 minutes per day, makes for a much smoother return when I get back

 

[aprilgail]

It would depend at my job- you picked vacation in seniority order so if you were senior enough you could take 5 weeks in a row if you wanted but the newer people got what ever was left so if there were 2 weeks together they could get them but more than likely not. My first few years only thing available was a week in Jan and a week in Oct- sort of sucked but then once I got some seniority I would take 3 weeks in the summer, thanksgiving week and christmas week.

 

[Darcy03231]

For many years I was only allowed to take one week at a time. I've since changed jobs and can take two weeks together, but not at certain times of the year.

 

[SC Minnie]

We can take more than 1 week at a time but like others we have to be careful not to take those during certain busy times of the year. I've only taken 2 weeks at a time once. I did talk to my director before confirming my vacation though.

We have a group calendar with everyone's vacation and travel. We're supposed to check that calendar before requesting any time off to make sure your back up or too many people aren't taking the same time off.

 

[disney-inspired]

My current job, staffing agency, was the first place I worked that had a generous PTO policy. I've been there for 6 years and never had an issue getting my time off approved.
My role is considered revenue enabling (Onboarding) and I work with a team of 3 other people and we work out of a shared inbox so coverage is never an issue.

Employees with 0-4 years of service get 17 days, 5-9 years get 22 days, and 10+ years get 27 days.
Then we get 8 paid holidays.

Also, it definitely helps that I'm in California since by law we can roll over unused hours.

They just announced that they will start shutting down for the week between Christmas & New Years and it will be considered 'other with pay'. I volunteered to be a part of the bare bones crew since I WFH anyway and they are giving me those 4 days to use elsewhere.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We don't have a rule about when or in what quantity we can use our vacation time. I just tell them the dates I'm going to be gone. My longest absences are usually just 2 weeks, and if I were going for much more than that I would certainly talk it over with my manager ahead of time, but it would be shocking if it was any issue. Lots of people take more than that at a time. I would hate if I could only take 1 week max at a time. It's hard to travel further distances with expensive flights when you only have a week to enjoy it.

 

[lifesavacation]

My husband has worked for his Fortune 500 company for a little over 27 years. He gets 5 weeks of vacation. More than a week at a time would never get approved. He's allowed to take 3-one week blocks and then the rest has to be taken in individual days. We just went to Greece and he wasn't approved for 2 weeks. He took a one week block and we buffered with weekends and then he took 2 single days and then had to call in sick without pay for a day. Sucks, but he's less than 3 years until retirement and the retirement benefits are worth it so we put up with it.