Surf off Sutro Baths, San Francisco
Brip Blap posts an interesting rumination on the question of why Americans tend not to take all the vacation time they’ve earned. I sure don’t: my most recent paycheck says I have 324 hours coming (with almost seven hours accumulating each pay period, that will come to more than 350 by the time the job ends), and I’ve used 138 hours so far this year.
Do you take all your vacation time? If not, why not?
Personally, I don’t because I get so much vacation time that if I took it all, no work would ever get done around that place. Or so I’d like to think. 
But the truth is, several factors come into play:
• The university will pay me for 176 hours at termination. I don’t want to accidentally eat into that time.
• I get a lot of holiday time anyway, as a state employee.
• My job allows me to telecommute. Cutting out that 44-mile round trip to campus is almost the same as a vacation.
• My house is every bit as nice as any resort, with lovely outdoor sitting areas (and indoor ones, too) and a beautiful pool. So most of the time I am on vacation, even when I’m working.
• There’s no one to take care of the house and the dog while I’m gone.
• I’m too cheap to spend money on hotels and restaurants.
• I’m not fond of camping.
• I don’t enjoy traveling alone and have no one to travel with.
• I hate eating out alone.
• I’ve already traveled plenty and, having seen quite a lot of the world, feel little need to see it again.
• And I really, really, really dislike airports and airplane travel.
Got any better excuses?
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
i actually feel a little guilty when i do take any of my vacation time. i work at a small company and i’m the only person who does my job so if i’m not there it doesn’t get done.
i’m no where close to the maximum amount of vacation time i can accumulate but i know the guy in the office next to me is always close and the hr woman is always coming by to tell him he has to take some days off so i know the company won’t let me get to a point where i start losing vacation time.
@ Carrie: Gosh. An HR person who’s on the ball? There’s a pearl more precious than all her tribe!
To me, not taking your vacation is like taking a voluntary cut in pay. When I was working, I took my holidays. I worked plenty of unpaid overtime, so I’d already taken that cut in pay! I needed the escape to rest up and come back to fight again… Glad to be done with all that, at least for now.
@ Shelley: Well said!! That’s kind of how I feel about Creative Malingering: I may not be laboring with all my energy now, but it makes up for the many years of underpaid exploitation. I put in too many 12-, 15-, and even 18-hour days with no overtime, six and seven days a week, for too darned many years, to feel guilty about reducing the number of hours I actually work now.
I’m with you on most of your reasons not to travel: hate airplanes, have to make arrangements for the dog and cat, don’t want to pay to stay in a hotel, would rather cook than eat out (even with friends), etc. And I like my house just fine most of the time. I take just enough days off to make sure I don’t lose any vacation time.
Funny, when you wrote, “…I may not be laboring with all my energy now” I had to wonder because after reading your blogs, it seems to me you work like a dog! Sometimes I am exhausted (yet amused) just reading your schedule.
@ Kaye: LOL!!! Sometimes it seems that way to me, too, until I realize the dog spends most of her time chasing balls, strolling around the block socializing with small children and swooning for cats, and sleeping.
Soon, though, the worst of the work will be over, and since the government forbids “early” (snark!) retirees to make a living wage, I’ll be looking at a year-long vacation. Comparatively, anyway.
I am an elementary school counselor so my vacation time is my summers. I have an allotted amount of sick days each year and they almost always get used…sick wife..kids…me….I am blessed to have my summers.
If you died tomorrow the company would go on without you. If the company is going broke….you will be laid off. Think of yourself first and take the vacations for goodness sake! If you do not want to travel have a rest at home. By the way….if you have no money but do want to travel check out hostel traveling…..it is not just for the young backpackers either.
@ fetu: In general, that’s true. Certainly GDU will go on without me or any of my staff, though it will be somewhat diminished in the absence of the innovative service we were developed to provide. However, when I walk out the door all work by my office will stop, including the project we’re now trying to finish for the best of our editors. I really don’t want to leave him hanging in the breeze, especially since he’s not associated with GDU: he’s on the faculty of a different university.
Late to the game here, but I always kept track of my vacation time knowing how much the company would pay out, and would schedule time off accordingly. Because of legitimate medical issues, I usually managed to save my vacation time while still having plenty of days off. The trade off was I had to spend part of that day at the doctor’s, but I had to do that anyway. Win-win, and the payout by the time of the layoff was *fantastic*.
@ Revanche: I’ve been incredibly lucky that my health has held up well over the past years. Since retiring state workers get paid for unused vacation time, it’s counterproductive to use that instead of vacation time. In fact, In the past I’ve used vacation time when I was sick, so as not to squander the $15/hour future payout on the sick leave.
I think that’s funny that some places pay out for sick vs. vacation time. It soon just becomes a small matter of accounting, more than anything, I think.