When you are young or inexperienced the concept of vacation accrual or max caps can cause problems like this. Hopefully lesson learned. It’s generally best to understand your PTO/vacation policy IN DETAIL. Understand the accrual rate- laws vary and most places give a lot of leeway to how accrual is handled, 3 weeks of vacation a year for example doesn’t inherently mean that on Jan 1 each year or some specific date you’ll suddenly have 3 weeks available. It also doesn’t mean that you can divide that time up equally and assume that each month or day you get X vacation time added. Often accrual is a function of X minutes/hours per hour worked or X hours a day/week, rarely month. You may accrue 3 weeks a year but only be able to “bank” 2 weeks at one time. You may accrue 2 weeks a year but be able to “bank” 3 weeks, and so on. Within the applicable laws the employer has freedom to structure PTO accrual and constraints.
Be aware that some employers do not allow “roll over” of PTO or allow only partial “roll over” at end of year. For example- you may accrue 80 hours of vacation a year and be able to store up to 120, but unused PTO into the next year may only carry over a percentage- meaning that if you have 100 hours at end of year and you can only carry 80%, you would start the next year at 80 hours and be able to max back out at 120 within that year, but you would lose another 20% at the start of the next year. Etc. Some plans offer, or REQUIRE all or some unused time be “cashed out” at end of year. This may be at the employees hourly or equivalent rate 1:1, or it may be a percent such as 70% the hourly rate or have a maximum cap etc.
Because the law varies by country, state/province/employee type/business sector/pay system etc. I can’t speak in absolutes for everyone. That’s why knowing the specifics of your company time off policy are important, and it is a good idea to have at least a passing understanding of the laws or rights that apply to ensure yours aren’t violated. Many places for example treat accrued Vacation as earnings- it may be illegal for a company to “erase” accrued vacation without paying the equivalent as wage (generally not counting hours lost for being “maxed” on accrual,) or if you leave the company they may be required to add unused time off in pay as hours worked.
When you consider a job and get to the point where you are discussing pay/benefits, it’s important to get details on their PTO as that can drastically alter wether a pay package is “crap” or considered good.
For example, even if you are given 10 weeks of vacation accrual a year, if you can only store 2 weeks at a time you may find much of that time lost. If a job allows you to store and carry over large amounts of time off, cash out unused vacation etc, you may find a fairly significant increase in theoretical yearly or course of job earnings. Even for less “long term career” oriented jobs, accrued vacation can be used as a form of “severance pay” in the event you are fired, become unable to work, or need to leave without being prepared. The extra money can be thousands of dollars to help pay bills or otherwise create a “bridge” to keep afloat. It can also be a nice little “windfall” for major expenses or for just to treat yourself a bit assuming you’re in a position to do so.
Understanding how your PRO is accrued will help you avoid problems like this post or losing “an hour here or there..” which can add up to sing midi any losses over a career. Assuming for a simple and unrealistic example that you accrue 120 hours of vacation a month- you might assume that means you accrue one hour a day based on 4 work works of 40 hours each. However- your job may split the accrual over 7 days average or 6. The accrual period may not be a calendar month and not all months are the same length, so if an accrual IS a calendar month- if you get a fixed amount monthly your accrual amount will differ in an average February vs. an average December for example. If your accrual isn’t fixed for the month (it doesn’t need to be- if you get 40 hours a year unless the law demands it, you can accrue less or more in any given month…) then understanding how the system works will help you plan to use time off before it expires if your next accrual would send you over the cap.
It isn’t always practical, or what you want to do, to take a week or two off to prevent losing a couple hours now- but you may be able to take a day off or use a half day etc. to “bleed down” and not lose the time. A day off or half day can be used to run errands or do hobbies, relax etc. you can possibly (depending on your job) use a few hours to come in late or leave early to beat traffic or surprise a loved one or do something you usually get in too early or leave to late to do. Throwing up some days off around work holidays is another good way to bleed time off, giving yourself two days off instead of one, or extending a “3 day weekend” to 4 etc. it maximizes your consecutive time off for minimum consumption of PTO. but that brings up an important caution and to repeat.. why it is good to know your policy…
Be careful about such assumptions though. Does your employer “relieve” your PTO bank when you place the request? When the request is granted? After the time is taken? For example: if you have a limit of 80 hours and get 4 hours accrual per week- you have 72 hours unused. In 3 weeks you will lose time. If your employer removed the time as soon as you schedule the day off and you schedule a day off next to a work holiday in 4 months, you will go down to 64 hours NOW even though you get the day off in 4 months. You won’t lose time off in 3 weeks anymore and you have a lot of flexibility to set your days off. This system allows you to “create” 3 and 4 day weekends etc. through the year to avoid losing time but not “empty” your vacation if you want to be able to have the time off available for unplanned major trips or time off.
In contrast if your work doesn’t subtract the time off until you actually TAKE IT, if you are close to max and place a day a month in the future to try and avoid losing time, you will still lose time until that date or until you take time off before then. Now, if you regularly take long time off or take a long vacation as soon as the time is available you probably won’t have such problems- but if you want to “carry” large amounts of time off for whatever reasons but not lose time, this is a valid strategy (or cashing out small chunks of vacation time as/if allowed- but be aware that there may be processing time for that so if you don’t understand the system and plan/act appropriately you will still lose time off!)
Beating a dead horse now- KNOW YOUR VACATION POLICY IN DETAIL. Ideally have a basic knowledge of laws pertaining to PTO and vacation, and at the minimum know the broad strokes of how your policy works or a general knowledge- if you want to get what you are owed and not waste a benefit you’ve earned.
Be aware that “unlimited” PTO systems can be complex things and laws are all over on these. Generally you can’t “cash out” unlimited PTO (for obvious reasons) and aren’t owed any payment for unused vacation if you have “unlimited PTO.” Also be aware of “time bank” arrangements by which sick/vacation time are pooled. How you manage your PTO wisely may change greatly in such arrangements and knowing these things before starting a job should be considered in the offer. If you are used to 2 weeks vacation (80 hours) then a job offering 100 hours may sound better… but if it is shared time between sick and vacation, if the norm were 5 paid sick days and 10 paid vacation days… 100 hours of..
..vacation would actually be less than the job offering 80 vacation and 40 in sick time.
While the “time bank” can give a healthy and lucky person the flexibility to take a longer vacation- if you become ill or have an unforeseen injury etc, you can also easily burn all your vacation time, and “time
Banks” often offer a total number of hours less than what is often customary in systems that designate sick time and vacation separately.
Live and learn. Do what works for you. Hopefully avoid this poor fellows mistake.
Awesome, but one point. The only state I've worked with that wouldn't let a company 'erase' (versus pay out) vacation is California. Clearing out a balance at anniversary is pretty brutal, though; it speaks 100% to your point about understanding policy as way of evaluating if it's a good work environment.
Exactly. In the US there are a handful of states that don’t allow “use it or lose it” vacation outright or to some degree (such as not allowing accrued vacation to be “lost” but allowing accrual to stop, or provisions by which vacation can “expire” under certain conditions etc.) So California, Colorado, Montana, and some others. Internationally, laws vary widely. Amongst “wealthy developed nations” the U.S. tends to have weaker vacation laws for employees than many peers- Europe being an example of a region known for generous amounts of vacation, or despite “workaholic” stereotypes, even Japan mandates about twice the days off as are customary but not generally legally required in the US. stipulations on time off and specifics vary widely of course, and no major country on the world stage really has a “bohemian” objectively “perfect” time off system- but some are far better suited to certain people and situations or preferences.
Going back to the US, it is again a handful of states which mandate time off be paid out if an employee is terminated. For the most part those states line up with the ones that don’t allow “use it or lose it” policies- more or less. That said, labor laws change and there can be all sorts of specific cases or constraints, so it is indeed a good idea to be informed on the policies where you live and of your company. Since laws on pay and benefit plans or employment contracts also vary place to place- it’s also good to be mindful of those facts. In some places employment can be terminated at any time without reason or notice so long as ot doesn’t violate protected class or other specific laws. In other places severance, notice, or specific procedures must be followed. This ties in to employee contracts-
Some places will treat a change to your position, pay, benefits etc. as a new contract and some won’t. In places where employment is “at will” there are high odds that an employer can change the terms you were hired under and continued employment means you accept the new terms whereas to reject them is to be fired or quit essentially. These are important things to know in general but pertaining to PTO they are very important too. Say for example that you signed on at 120 hours accrual a year and a cap of 120 hours. You have saved up 120 hours of PTO. Your company decides to switch to a “flex time” or “untracked” aka “unlimited” vacation system. Depending on the laws where you live and work, they may or may not be legally allowed to force this on you or some consent or negotiation may be required etc.
Likewise, depending on the prevailing laws of the land, you may not get anything for those 120 hours saved.
A state like California in the example would generally require an employer to “freeze” your PTO accrual. You wouldn’t get any more but you probably wouldn’t lose any for taking time off unless it was medical leave. So that 120 hours would sit for however long you were at the company until you left as long as you didn’t take extended medical leave, and you’d be paid an extra 120 hours when you left. Another place that allows “use it or lose it” type vacation- your company may or may not decide to give you something for those hours. They could just vanish leaving you in exactly the same vacation position as any other coworker wether they had 120 hours saved or just got back from a 3 week vacation.
There are nuances to how these systems work and approval in company policy for time off etc. but overall, being aware of these laws and policies can help prevent or allow you to plan to mitigate getting hosed or taking losses on your time off.
Okay, but what you are trying to do is very specifically what business is not allowing. Like, the EXACT THING you want to do is what they don't want you doing. You can't be gone for long periods. I will say most jobs have 2-5 weeks paid vacation off a year, but maybe some jobs only have a few days, so perhaps OP is just trying to save up a couple of weeks. But a couple of months? No, no, the caps are so you can't do that. A lot of companies (especially IT) will do PTO payouts. If you're above a certain amount of hours, you can just cash out once a year.
I sympathize with the heartache, though. That kind of thing hurts when you realize you were mistaken. You can figure out a way to make time away happen. Let the frustration wash over you and percolate and a solution will eventually bubble out so you can have the thing you want.
I can say this is very true in America and somewhat true in some other countries. Speaking just fo America and countries similar in their vacation systems- even when there is “unlimited PTO” it is more intended for maybe 1 “long” vacation or 1-2 shorter ones and then a smattering of half days and single days off through a year. It depends on the company/industry/job title to a degree- but the idea in general is to structure vacations to lose the least obstruction to business. That’s the “trap” of unlimited PTO often times- you could take 10 weeks off a year in theory- but many jobs are such that you are either needed for day to day things that won’t allow that much time off without causing noticeable disruption; or if you’re able to take that much time off and not be “missed” you may have just shown you aren’t terribly needed.
It depends like I said- and certain jobs are naturally X weeks/months on, X off- etc. many sales or metrics based jobs may be more forgiving as well if quotas are exceeded or met- but it is true. Even where companies don’t carry the liability to have to pay out unused PTO, having large amounts of unused PTO floating around is frowned on. If an entire department or location all take off long stretches you can easily end up operating most of the year constantly understaffed despite theoretically adequate staffing, or end up with a large chunk of your work force gone at any given time. So as you say, sympathy goes out, but trying to do exactly what the system doesn’t want you to do usually ends worse for us than it does for the system.
Here in Australia you usually get a minimum of 20 working days (4 weeks) annual leave and you can generally negotiate with your place of work if you want to bank one year's worth. Generally most places don't like to have to back fill your position for more than a month and a half (6 weeks).
Welcome to the work force. "Use it or lose it" vacation policies are pretty standard, and those few places that allow "banking" will almost always place limits on how much you can accumulate. They do this for the simple reason that they can't have people gone for extended lengths of time, unless there is some sort of long-term emergency.
Where I worked, the vacation policy was pretty clear...you didn't have to look very hard to discover that unused vacation days didn't carry over. That was noted in several places, and you'd see it while you were looking for other details.
When you consider a job and get to the point where you are discussing pay/benefits, it’s important to get details on their PTO as that can drastically alter wether a pay package is “crap” or considered good.
Be aware that “unlimited” PTO systems can be complex things and laws are all over on these. Generally you can’t “cash out” unlimited PTO (for obvious reasons) and aren’t owed any payment for unused vacation if you have “unlimited PTO.” Also be aware of “time bank” arrangements by which sick/vacation time are pooled. How you manage your PTO wisely may change greatly in such arrangements and knowing these things before starting a job should be considered in the offer. If you are used to 2 weeks vacation (80 hours) then a job offering 100 hours may sound better… but if it is shared time between sick and vacation, if the norm were 5 paid sick days and 10 paid vacation days… 100 hours of..
While the “time bank” can give a healthy and lucky person the flexibility to take a longer vacation- if you become ill or have an unforeseen injury etc, you can also easily burn all your vacation time, and “time
Banks” often offer a total number of hours less than what is often customary in systems that designate sick time and vacation separately.
Live and learn. Do what works for you. Hopefully avoid this poor fellows mistake.
A state like California in the example would generally require an employer to “freeze” your PTO accrual. You wouldn’t get any more but you probably wouldn’t lose any for taking time off unless it was medical leave. So that 120 hours would sit for however long you were at the company until you left as long as you didn’t take extended medical leave, and you’d be paid an extra 120 hours when you left. Another place that allows “use it or lose it” type vacation- your company may or may not decide to give you something for those hours. They could just vanish leaving you in exactly the same vacation position as any other coworker wether they had 120 hours saved or just got back from a 3 week vacation.