At work we are allowed to carry over some of our paid time off. The amount actually has increased the past couple years because of the pandemic. That meant there wasn't necessarily a rush near the end of the year to use up all the paid time off we couldn't carry over into the next year. Saying that, I don't think there ever was a problem any of us at work had getting under that threshold.
The problem was (if I recall correctly) that this carryover PTO usually expires halfway into the following year. Again, it usually isn't a problem. As it stands now, I have about 4 1/2 days' worth of paid time off I have carried over from last year. I would find ways to use it all before I have to. I think last year I took a spare day here and there to use it all before June 30, and maybe before the pandemic I took a first-half-of-the-year vacation.
Anyway, I have looked at the calendar until, oh, about the Minnesota State Fair. No joke, I am filling in for someone in another department virtually every week between now and the State Fair. Furthermore, those days happen to be the latter half of the week -- invariably it's a Friday, sometimes Thursdays are included, a few times Wednesdays, know what I mean? That makes me feel that I can't take a vacation because I am being asked to fill in. What complicates things further is that there is only one other person in my position who theoretically can fill in like I have been asked to fill in, but she does not work Thursdays or Fridays. (There should be someone on my position who has a similar workweek, but that person left for another job in-house a couple months ago, and that hasn't been filled yet. I don't know if the company has even advertised the position yet.) Another supervisor can do the job, but she's already taxed to the gills, and frankly, I feel bad if I go to my boss, "Hey, I know you have me penciled in to substitute these days, but I want to go on vacation. Can you just find someone else to do it?"
OK, now here's another wrinkle. I asked Human Resources for confirmation that our carryover PTO would expire at the end of June. The person -- or bot, who knows? -- says, actually, no, I can keep 2021's paid time off till the end of the year. This may be because we have recently moved over to new HR software and this is a one-time thing. Frankly though, the way the response was worded, I didn't completely believe the answer. But, I looked up my PTO online and, as of mid-December, I would still have PTO from last year.
I picked mid-December because I still need to arrange a trip to see my sister in Hawai'i. That is why I've dithered so much in using paid time off now: I need as many days off I can spare now to be with family on what will be an important vacation around Christmastime. If some of those days can be taken from what I saved from last year, perfect.
However, I've got to be honest: Seeing on the calendar a co-worker take two days off here, then the next week seeing another co-worker take three days off there, and seeing that replicate throughout my damn calendar ... hell yes, I'm getting FOMO. It is very, very difficult to stay disciplined when everybody's taking a vacation except me.
I think I want to go down to St. Louis, by car, just to get away. Maybe it's a week, maybe it's a weekend, but I am now determined to enjoy some free time like everybody else. But I have nothing to do down in the STL except go to baseball Games. The Cardinals are there, and so is an independent baseball club called The Gateway Grizzlies on the Illinois side of the metro area. And so I have been looking at times during the summer where both teams are playing at home. Guess what? There aren't enough. And when I see those overlapping periods when they both are at home and compare them to where I'm scheduled to work -- yeah, I am kind of scared of leaving for that time period and assuming my boss is going to be OK with it. He's actually a cool boss, but I still feel pressure.
Oh -- I did find a week when both the Cardinals and the Grizzlies were playing in the STL, and so I submitted a request for that week off ... and I was told I couldn't because important people are coming through the company that week.
Maybe this is the universe telling me to exhibit some self-control and save up all these vacation days for Hawai'i in December, when I need it. But it's hard, it's real hard. And there is a stripper down there I haven't seen in a couple years who I want to know is OK, and summer's the best time to see her. And so the struggle continues.
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