Forced Vacation

I thought I may have jumped the gun yesterday.  Our probable vacation plans were in jeopardy just mere moments after I posted it to the blog.

I am pretty sure I have blogged about this before, but it is frustrating each and every time it happens... and the majority of the time potentially screwing with our plans, which given my inability to make up my mind is a pretty big deal... so the blog is a good method of venting. 

Ever so often (but with increasing frequency), Todd's company forces him to take vacation time.  Now, this is not done in the benevolent "aww, you need a break and deserve a rest" spirit.  It is all about profits and usually short-term/quarterly profits.

If I understand it correctly, vacation time is a pre-paid expense at the start of the year... so when vacation time is taken, it is not a new output of cash.  It's the equivalent of taking money out of the "Christmas Club" vs. the checking account... and all Wall Street cares about is the checking account.

Yesterday's directive was that all employees must take 40 hours of vacation prior to then end of first quarter.  The end of first quarter is March 28th... and yesterday was January 21st... meaning that by the end of this week, first quarter will be more than 25% over!   

Ok, I can understand company's controlling it a bit... say not allowing or limiting "rollover" vacation time on an annual basis... but in general, I think it is crappy to play around with people's (earned!!) vacation time at all...  and mondo craptastic to force it over such a short time period... particularly for those with kids in school.

Before we went into full panic, Todd figured out he had enough time built up and will accrue enough in the interim to not put our anticipated late springtime vacation into the dumper.  I guess one of the "advantages" of what has become a typical 60+ hour work week for Todd is feeling he can't take vacation time... thus the nice surplus... though he "joked" that this "vacation" will likely end up being telecommuting vs. going into the office.   

Comments

[Beth]

I hear "Sin City" calling you both! A trip in the Mini to Vegas, baby. A long weekend of Thu-Tue blows (uses) 32 hours. And Todd must leave the work in Arizona. His new mantra for the long weekend... "Must leave...work at home. Must pull lever of slot machine."

Sound like a plan? :)

[landry]

I was just in Paris in December and its *ridiculously* expensive when you get there because Paris is expensive even without the conversion. So upon adding in the conversion it gets almost funny.

ive been to Europe dozens of times and when i came home my sister asked me how it was and when i said "expensive" she said "what do you mean? you live in NYC!"
and London is no better.

oh and hi