Required to take vacation days during a certain time!

groovygrl

Does anyone have a policy like this at work where everyone must take x number of vacation days at a certain time, eg around Xmas or other times of year, with no option to take the days off without pay or work or work from home etc? I have never heard of this and it sounds odd to me to force ppl to use 3040 percent of your vacation time during a certain week. Thoughts?

MomtobeNJ

I've never heard of that. Blackout periods are pretty common around major holidays and stuff - meaning you CAN'T take vacation the week before Christmas or during a busy time of year. But I've never heard of a company being so strict that they give you a limited time frame in which to take it.

ETA - I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant you could ONLY take vacation at that time and had to go unpaid if you wanted vacation any other time. In that case, I agree with most of the other posters that it's not uncommon. 

EastCoastBride

Yes.  I have to use a week of leave between Christmas and NY.  Our building closes.  But - we get a TON of leave (between vacation, floating holidays, and personal days - I get over 6 weeks of leave.  Add in the holidays we take on the actual date - that's another 9 days.  This doesn't count sick!). 

Saving 4 days for that week really isn't all that hard.

However, if I got (let's say) only 2 or 3 weeks vacation and I HAD to use a week at a certain time, I'd be pissed.  If a company wants to close, then they should just 'give' you that week off on top of your other leave.  When it really comes down to it- that's what I feel my employer does.  We get holidays like Maryland Day, President's Day, etc - specifically so that if we save those days, we can use them for the week off.  

smile50208

I have heard of this before in manufacturing places.  The plants closes down for a week during the summer. You have to take your vacation then.  There is no working options. But you may be able to take the days without pay if you have no vacation left.

itsmevkb

We don't have this where I work but I do know people who work for factories and they have to take off the week between Christmas and New Year's.   And, my husband is a professor and so he basically can't or doesn't take any time off during the school year and is expected to take vacations during the school breaks.  Of course, those are unpaid so it's not quite the same thing.

DaisyJanie

Well, the college where I work is closed between Christmas and New Year's, so what they do is pack half the holidays into that week. So we don't get Labor Day off, but the schedule says Dec 27 is a holiday "in lieu of Labor Day". Which I kind of annoying. But I do get 4 other weeks of vacation a year so I don't complain too much. 

My husband teaches at a community college, and his vacation days are seriously limited. He can pretty much only take his annual leave during Spring Break, Fall Break, 4th of July week, and a few others. They don't have subs, so he can't miss a class unless he's sick. So yes, depending on the job, it's not unusual to have to take vacation at a certain time. 

EastCoastBride

DaisyJanie:

Well, the college where I work is closed between Christmas and New Year's, so what they do is pack half the holidays into that week. So we don't get Labor Day off, but the schedule says Dec 27 is a holiday "in lieu of Labor Day". Which I kind of annoying. But I do get 4 other weeks of vacation a year so I don't complain too much.

This is basically my situation too.  But the days that are slated for Christmas are Presidents Day, Good Friday, Columbus Day and Veteran's Day.  We still get to take Labor Day off.  That kind of sucks that they "take" that from you!  We at least get the holidays that most people don't take off as the holidays to use for Christmas. 

And we don't HAVE to do that.  If I want to take Veteran's Day off, I can.  But I have to have some other kind of leave to use in place of it.  The school just earmarks those holidays more to help people who may be poor planners!  

aeh72

We have a shutdown every year around the holidays (usually between December 24 - January 1).  We have to save our vacation if we want to be be paid for it (it's not perferred, but if people need to take it unpaid or have to work due to client demands, that is allowed).  One year, it required 8 days of vacation. That was a lot to "save" for the end of the year. Thankfully, in recent years we've only had to save about 4-5 days.  Every year I think it stinks that we are forced to do this and then when it rolls around I am so happy to have the time off - the best part about it is that everyone is off at the same time so you don't have those lingering worries about emails and issues you couldn't get to before you went on vacation and who is freaking out while you're gone.

 

 

jf198400

When I was interviewing for jobs, I got an offer from one smaller company that offered 15 days PTO per year (vacation and sick combined).  I was interviewing in October, and asked about whether I would pay able to take time off (paid or unpaid) that Christmas.  They then told me that the company shuts down from Christmas to New Years.  If you do not have the PTO days saved up you have to take those days unpaid.  I thought this was a pretty crummy policy.  In my opinion if the company is closed those days then they should be paid days off.  I ultimately did not accept that job (for other reasons).

blushingbride_08

I had some restrictions that were similar but instead of them saying we had to take days off during a certain time they restricted major holiday time and major project milestones. There was always some major milestone going on so we had a very limited period to take days off. Plus 2 ppl couldnt take vacation during the same period of time. it's one of the main reasons why I left corporate America.

Curls218

We cannot take vacation time during our "busy" months - January - April, then again in September.  So we can use our time during May, June, July, August, October, November & December.  Usually everyone takes a week over the summer then if we've earned a second week people spread those out and either do 2 over the summer (not consecutive) or one on the summer, one in the fall.

We also have "free" vacation time because the office is closed between Christmas & New Year's and no matter how much times this ends up being, we all get paid for it no matter how long you've been here.

If it's an emergency we can take personal days during the months we aren't allowed off (like for the Jewish holidays or I did it for my brother's wedding which was on a Friday in March a few years back).  But if it's just a "oh, I need a day off" they don't approve the request.

Leap08

One year we were required to take 3 weeks off sometime between Thanksgiving and mid-January. We didn't have to take all 3 weeks in a row or anything. If you didn't have enough vacation to cover 3 weeks, you had to take it unpaid. It was during a bad financial period for the company.

I do know of one high tech company (a friend works there) that closes for 1 week around the 4th of July and for 2 weeks at Christmas. You either take your vacation then, or you are unpaid for that time. 

DFico21

jf198400:

When I was interviewing for jobs, I got an offer from one smaller company that offered 15 days PTO per year (vacation and sick combined).  I was interviewing in October, and asked about whether I would pay able to take time off (paid or unpaid) that Christmas.  They then told me that the company shuts down from Christmas to New Years.  If you do not have the PTO days saved up you have to take those days unpaid.  I thought this was a pretty crummy policy.  In my opinion if the company is closed those days then they should be paid days off.  I ultimately did not accept that job (for other reasons).

This is my job except it's a random week in August and I wasn't told about it until halfway through my first year working here!  IMO it is a terrible policy.  I have little to no use for that week off.  We vacation in the Caribbean and this is hurricane season so scratch that.  It is also peak time for most beach vacation towns on the east coast so if you try to do that you pay more.   When I leave this will be a major factor in it. 

groovygrl

Thanks all! I get the shutting down or closed building aspect but I think ppl should have the option to take any or all of it unpaid if you're going to tell them they cannot work. While I get four weeks, I work with many who only get two to three and it would really make me mad if I were them.

Not being allowed to take vacation during certain busy periods is a different situation... Annoying I would think but common in a lot of jobs and not totally unreasonable I don't think.