My 2019 Vacation Time in Review

Travel

Mar 9

Get on the calendar early and be creative to maximize vacation time within the rules.

A lot of people ask me if I’m ever in the office. They see my social media feed – which, I’ll admit, distorts reality a bit because I never post from work – and think I’m always in exotic locations traveling to fish. I wish that was the case. I manage my vacation time very carefully. In fact, I’m quite stingy with it.

Here are some of the basics:

1) I’ve been at my job nearly 19 years. I started off earning 4 hours of vacation time per pay period. After three years, that moved to 6 hours per pay period. At the 15 year mark, it rose to 8 hours per pay period. There are 26 pay periods in a year, so I earn 208 hours of leave per year. It is not granted at the beginning of the year, but rather accumulates each pay period.

2) I work a compressed scheduled. Out of each two-week pay period, there are 10 workdays. I work eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day, and have the tenth day off, a total of 80 hours in the office.

3) I am fortunate to have 10 Federal holidays off each year, including Columbus Day and Veterans Day, which I recognize that many workplaces do not offer.

4) I am allowed to carry over up to 240 hours of leave. I’ve never hit that mark.

There is occasionally a small bonus pool in my office, for a job well done. My supervisors know that I value time off as much as cash, and last year they gave me 16 hours of leave as an award for working on a special time-consuming project, bringing my total to 224.

Here are the vacation days that I took:

We went to El Salto from January 19-27. Unfortunately, the 18th was my Friday off, so I couldn’t use that, but the 21st was Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday holiday. I had to take four days of vacation, all of them 9-hour days, a total of 36 hours.
In February I went to Lake Picachos from the 14th through the 18th. The 15th was my Friday off and the 18th was Presidents’ Day, so I only had to take one day off, for a total of 8 hours.
March was the Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville. I needed to be there Tuesday March 12th and could drive home Monday March 18th. I really would’ve liked to have taken the 11th off, but it made sense to work and then get up at 4am to drive on Tuesday. I had to take Tuesday-Friday off, plus Monday, a total of 5 days. Fortunately, Friday was my day off and Thursday was my 8 hour day, so that added up to 44 hours.
From March 18th through most of July, I took only 4 hours of vacation, which was necessary to attend a friend’s wedding. I chose to work a half day on the day I flew when I was inclined to take the whole day. Every hour counts. I fished on the weekends and built up over 70 hours more leave.
I went to Alaska from July 27th through August 3rd. August 2nd was my Friday off and August 1st was an 8-hour day, so I took four days that totaled 35 hours.
I went to Brazil from September 5th through September 14th, a total of 7 weekdays, although one was my Friday off, and one was an 8-hour day. That cost me 53 hours.
We went to Springfield, Mo., for the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame Dinner October 3-6, two weekdays, both 9-hour days, which required 18 hours of leave.
We went to Grosse Savanne (La.) and Sam Rayburn (Tx.) from October 11-14. That included my Friday off, a weekend and Columbus Day, so I took ZERO hours of vacation.
We went to Lake Picachos November 7-11. That five-day period started with my 8-hour day, included my Friday off, a weekend, and Veterans Day. In other words, just 8 hours of leave time.
I went to Lake Martin (Ala.) to fish with Steve Kennedy, and then to BASS meetings in Birmingham December 6-10. That included my Friday off and two weekend days, so I took vacation on Monday and Tuesday for a total of 18 hours.

That brings me to 224 hours used for the year, against 224 earned/granted. That means I had exactly the same in reserve on January 1, 2020, as I did on January 1, 2019.Of course, because my vacation time is so valuable to me, I was disappointed that I lost some time that I might have been able to save. For example, originally the Hall of Fame banquet was scheduled for a week when I would’ve had Friday off, which would have saved me 10 hours of vacation (9 on Friday + 1 for my 8-hour Thursday). If my Brazil trip had been a week earlier, it would’ve included Labor Day, saving me 9 more hours.

I really can’t complain, though. We didn’t have out-of-town family obligations, or graduations, or excessive numbers of weddings. I work someplace where as long as I plan far in advance, I have a fair amount of flexibility. Unlike some jobs, I’m not required to use my vacation in weeklong chunks.

Nevertheless, I firmly believe that careful management of vacation time is important. I was able to take two trips to Picachos using a total of 16 hours of vacation time. If I’d moved them forward or back a week or two, it might’ve cost twice as much in terms of time. Of course, there are some situations (like the Classic) where the dates are set in stone, but when they’re not, use that to your advantage. Of the 19 years I’ve been at my job, if I can save 8 hours per year, that adds up to 162 extra hours, which is four weeks off based on a 40-hour week -- and more if you schedule aggressively!