BreakPoint
This is Hooovahh
Dang you know I searched before I posted this because I swear there was a thread on it. Also not sure if it was a subconscience thing or just good ideas, but both Bundle and Spool were on the first page.
Double Edit:...and there I am on the second page my memory needs defragging...
We were working with another division of our company based in another country. We were doing some work for them and giving them feedback on the progress of the work. We were working with a single point of contact and had email back and forth everyday or multiple times a day, and had early or late meetings due to the time zone difference.
One evening we sent out an email asking for details on the work we were doing. In the morning we checked our email and saw there was an auto-reply that this person would be on vacation and won't have access to email. It stated they would be on vacation until mid April...this was in January. No heads up, no explanation, no one else to work with, just gone for 4 months. We never got the full explanation of what happened but not a whole lot got done in those 4 months.
If I told work I would be out for 4 months they would say to say never come back. Heck I think if I tried to leave for 3 weeks they'd say the same thing.
@Hooovahh wrote: Heck I think if I tried to leave for 3 weeks they'd say the same thing.
1 week is bad enough. I even got flack from a few people about taking off on Monday for my daughter's birthday. I'm given 3 weeks of vacation a year, but finding a good time to take it is next to impossible.
And somewhat related: Last year, the engineer I was hired to support decided to retire. He stopped working in February and officially retired mid-April, just burning up his stocked up vacation. He told me the only reason he did that was for the insurance during that period of time.
@Gregory wrote:
At my last company we had discretionary time off (DTO). The recruiter markets it as "as much time off as you want", but in reality it makes people feel guilty for taking time off and they don't have to pay out any PTO when you leave.
GE did that a few years ago. There was a guy who was about to retire and had a ton of PTO stored up. He was betting on that payout as part of his retirement. Then GE changed the PTO policy and the poor guy never saw a dime from the PTO he had accrued.
@crossrulz wrote:
@GregoryThen GE changed the PTO policy and the poor guy never saw a dime from the PTO he had accrued.
Ouch, yeah I have a friend of mine that had that happen to, saved a bunch of PTO and then the policy was changed to the "As much as you want" but heavy on the guilt. He then quit and lost out on that time he saved.
At every job I've had they have allowed for carrying over of some amount of vacation until you are either forced to use it, lose it, or get paid out depending on the companies policy. As a result I will generally try to max out my carry over as fast as possible. This way if I quit or get fired I get a single massive pay as a nest egg. I'm at over 6 weeks vacation now, and I'll be maxing out before the end of the year if I don't take any more.
