How does your boss react when you ask for vacation?

[King Alexander]

I want to know how easy you get your vacation days, that you legally have a right to have.
My new boss is a bit strange: he doesn't want to give me the days for vacation that I have a right to take, rather he prefers to pay me for those days, even now that we don't have so much work because of the summer

I know, there are periods when the work is SO much, that nobody can have vacation obviously, but what about when the work is not so much?

 

[stratego]

Well if you take your vacation for a week you may still be in vacation mode for 3 days after you get back. Maybe your boss doesn't want that.

For me, I've only done temporary jobs where it terminates after several months.

 

[Plexus]

"Mr. Plexus, I'd like to ask for some time off."

"Yea, that's cool Plexus."

That's how it went down.

 

[King Alexander]

Well if you take your vacation for a week you may still be in vacation mode for 3 days after you get back. Maybe your boss doesn't want that.

What the boss wants is irrelevant, because every boss knows that the employee has the right to take a vacation and, as I said, the work now is not much compared with the previous "nightmare" months. Of course, you cannot take vacation when you're needed in the work.
When the work is intense, you need to take some time out of the work, otherwise your work rate deteriotes after many months. You simply need a brake for a few days.

 

[Steph]

It usually goes very well. Two persons decide of the vacation here. Me, (technical director), and my colleague (managing director), who also happens to be a very good friend (he was the best man atmy wedding, he's my son's godfather, and his wife is my daughter's god mother).

 

[MSTK]

My boss asks me to vacation. I say, "Sure, why not?"

I think it has something to do with me really messing up the atmosphere of the work area with Civilization Shinanagans, but I'm "invaluable" for some strange reason...

 

[anarchywrksbest]

"Anarchy you have 30 hours of holidays to take. TAKE THEM OR LOSE THEM, PLEASE!!"

"Okay, I'll have that week."

"OH God, you still have 10 hours left!! Aaaaaargh!!"


She gets a bit mad sometimes.

 

[Masquerouge]

One rule : plan it in advance. Then I can do pretty much what I like, 4 weeks in a row, or sprinke it through 6 monthes, whatever.
But we MUST take our vacations. It's because of the way consulting works ; the only way the work inspectors have to control our working time is to check if we take all of our vacations - they're not going to visit every client there's a consultant at... So our company is really really touchy about that : we must take all our vacations in due time. They learned it the hard way... through fines !

 

[WickedSmurf]

As long as it is well-planned, the boss have no objections. I asked for three weeks off in October this year, when we usually are pretty busy, and it was a go.

 

[Stapel]

If my boss would refuse me my holidays, I would simply go anyway. Up to him to fire me, if he really thinks that's better!

 

[Flak]

Actually our new boss here forced us to schedule our vacations. Here in Austria, you automatically get 30 days a year, and they carry over per calender year. New rule is that we're not allowed to carry over more than 5 days from the previous calender year. Since just about everybody here had a small fortune of vacation days leftover from the previous calender year, we found ourselves scrambling to pile the days in, and still hope to get our projects done on time. Kind of wierd. So for me it's more of thing of having to move around vacation days. My boss has no problem with that as long as the days leftover for the year are less than 5.

 

[privatehudson]

I've never been told I have to change my holidays, but I have been told I can only take a certain amount of time off in one stint, usually two weeks.

 

[Sarevok]

"Mr. Plexus, I'd like to ask for some time off."

"Yea, that's cool Plexus."

That's how it went down.

Are you your own boss?

 

[Grisu]

Never had any problems with that, the only thing that interested him was that not all of our department took their vacations at the same time, so there'd be somebody to replace me while I'm away.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

It's never a problem, I don't ask for that much time off anyway. Mainly because who ever is covering for me will mess things up and I'll have to spend a lot of time when I come back fixing everything.

 

[Leha]

My boss akts as if he never heard about such a thing - "vacation". But since I state it does exists, well, I can have it

 

[downtown]

Given the posistion Im in, I dont even really have to come to work every day if I dont want to. I do, because I like making money, but my boss knows that I am a student temp worker, and doesnt seem to care. If I have something else planned, I just wont go to work that day. For any other job, I know I couldnt get away with this.

so yeah. ,my boss doesnt care if I come at all. as long as my work gets done

 

[dgfred]

I work for my father so I can usually do just about as I wish . I don't take
a vacation because I spend so much time away from work coaching or
watching my 13yr old daughter play sports, and I also take a little extra time
each day at lunch . A vacation too wouldn't be right for
the others in the office.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I don't have a problem taking vacations, the only stipulation is that there must be some 'free' spots during that time. This means that they only allow x number of people to be scheduled off for any given day, so if that day already has too many people scheduled off, then you can't take that day off. If I wanted my vacation during Labor Day weekend or the Fourth of July weekend, for example, I would have to plan that a long, long time in advance, because everyone wants those weekends off.

At my job, if you don't use your vacation days by your anniversary date then you lose them all (vacation hours don't get paid out, unlike deferred holidays which are paid if you don't use them). So we are forced to take vacation, but the silly thing is that they don't remind you to use the hours, so it's free labor for them if you forget to use them all up.

 

[Sanaz]

I want to know how easy you get your vacation days, that you legally have a right to have.
My new boss is a bit strange: he doesn't want to give me the days for vacation that I have a right to take, rather he prefers to pay me for those days, even now that we don't have so much work because of the summer

I wouldn't work in those conditions, because if they don't want you taking holiday, there's little chance that they have any management experience and it would be hard to work with them for a lot of reasons.

We are encouraged to take our holiday time as often as possible, unless we are saving up for a long trip or something similar. Accrued vacation time stays on the books as a liability, so any manager who doesn't understand this basic concept is unfit to be my boss.

Besides, if they don't value my time and commitments, why would I want to work for them?

I know, there are periods when the work is SO much, that nobody can have vacation obviously, but what about when the work is not so much?

It makes for a very bad work atmosphere if everyone feels overworked and overpressured. There may be some specific examples where this makes sense (April for tax accountants, Holidays for retail/resort jobs, the two weeks before a major project is completed, etc.), but in general when things are going full speed is a very good time to take a long weekend.