Pete Robbins at Casa Vieja Lodge Guatemala sailfish heaven

As I’ve described before, I am a dedicated optimizer of vacation time — I don’t hoard it, but I use every legal and ethical hack in the book to make what I’m granted go as far as possible. Of course, 2020 was a challenge to anyone looking to maximize vacation. On the one hand, we had forces preventing us from going anywhere (and I hate the idea of a “staycation”), but we needed the release more than ever.

On top of that, flexibility was of paramount importance – certain places were closed, other places required testing or exceptional preparation to visit, and airplane travel was frequently impeded.

Hanna and I only saw one trip canceled – our December trip to the Amazon. Brazil just didn’t do their job to make it feasible or comfortable. On top of that, we had to postpone our traditional June journey to El Salto – but we rescheduled that for November and ended up extending it, a net gain.

My only real regret is that for a variety of reasons I ended up taking some vacation time that wasn’t strictly necessary. In many cases I could have taken the same trips while using less time if I’d scheduled them a week earlier or a week later to coincide with a Federal holiday and/or my every-other-Friday off of work.

Pete Robbins Bear Trail Lodge Naknek Alaska Arctic Grayling

The Framework

As a reminder, here are some of the basics of how I accumulate time off work:

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.
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.
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.
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 once again gave me 16 hours of leave as an award for working on a special time-consuming project, bringing my total to 224.

The Details

The pandemic hit us in full force in March, right around the time of the Bassmaster Classic. In fact, as I drove to Alabama the first day of March I was only vaguely aware of it, and assumed it would pass quickly, but by the time I drove back a week later I had a bottle of hand sanitizer in my Suburban’s drink holder.

I front-load my vacation heavily from January through March, not for any real reason other than that period encompasses the worst of our winter and the fishing around here is good in April and May. That means I didn’t fully feel the pandemic’s wrath against travel until we learned that our June trip to Mexico would not happen. After that, it was a guessing game and a matter of risk-tolerance.

January – El Salto

I would have loved to have scheduled this trip over the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday, which would have saved me 9 hours of vacation, but we could not make that happen. I took an hour off on Friday the 10th to get to the airport, and then we were gone the entire following week, which was my four-day week, requiring 35 hours of vacation time (9+9+9+8).

Total: 36 hours

February – Guatemala

Monday the 17th was a Federal holiday that I would have loved to use, but Mondays are my mother’s most important work day of the week, so we committed to come back on Sunday the 16th. That meant burning 9 extra hours of vacation, but it was worth it for this amazing trip. We left an hour early on Tuesday the 11th to get to the airport, and then 9 hours on Wednesday and 8 hours on Thursday (Friday was my day off).

Total: 18 hours

March – Bassmaster Classic

I thought about heading down to Alabama the weekend before the Classic to fish for a few days, but ultimately it made more sense to work on Monday, then drive down on Tuesday for the rest of the week. B.A.S.S. was kind enough to schedule the tournament on my Friday-off week, so I used 26 hours of vacation (9+9+8). I drove home the following Monday, but ended up working my subsequent Friday off so I would not have to use any vacation that day.

Pete and Hanna Robbins at Lake El Salto Mexico on Vacation

Total: 26 hours

July – Alaska

After the Classic, I was home for a LONG TIME. Fortunately, our fishing on the Potomac and several local lakes was very good this spring and I made the most of it, fishing just about every Friday off plus a number of weekend days. After wondering if we’d be able to go to Alaska (they initially required a 14 day quarantine, which would have made it impossible), we made our plans when they allowed visitors to enter with a recent negative test. Alaska Airlines also liberalized their refund policies, making it a no brainer. We would have loved to use the July 4th holiday as a “bonus” day, but that wasn’t feasible. Instead, we left work early on Friday the 10th (3 hours of vacation time) and then took off the entire following week, which included my Friday off (35 hours).

Total: 38 hours

October – Santee Cooper

As the year entered its last quarter, I realized that for the first time in my life I might have some vacation I’d have to burn at the end of the year. I also got itchy to use a Federal holiday to go somewhere. Monday, October 12 was Columbus day. The preceding Friday was my day off. That would give me a four-day weekend without using any leave. I saw that the Elite Series was going to be at Santee Cooper that weekend, and since I so rarely get a chance to work a regular season event I called my bosses at B.A.S.S. to see if they needed my services. It turned out to be a chance to spend time with friends and earn a few bucks, and the only days I had to take off were Wednesday (9 hours) and Thursday (8 hours). That’s a good arbitrage in my book.

Total: 17 hours

October – Maine

Our close friends Greg and Jennifer have lived in Maine for over a decade and we hadn’t been up to visit since their second kid was born (he’s 11 now). We had planned to drive up to see them, but with airfares at $137 it was cheaper and quicker to fly. Since both guests and dead fish start to stink after three days (and they had work/school, we went up on Friday the 23rd (my day off) and went home on Monday the 26th (9 hours).

Total: 9 hours

November – El Salto

As noted above, there was no way we could take our June trip to El Salto due to border closings and health advisories, so we rescheduled our entire group (plus a few) for the week before Thanksgiving. Then our families understandably made it clear that they didn’t want us in their houses for the holiday just a few days after returning from a foreign country and traipsing through three airports. It took us about 5 minutes to check if we could stay at El Salto another week. There was space, it cost about $100 to change our plane tickets, and it was a done deal.

We went down to Dallas on a Friday afternoon to fly to Mexico Saturday morning (more on this strategy some other time). That required 2.5 hours of leave. The following week I had Friday off so it used up 35 hours of leave (9+9+9+8). We came home the day after Thanksgiving, and while that wasn’t a day off for me at least I didn’t have to take any vacation on the holiday itself (9+9+9+9)

Total: 73.5 hours

Pete and Hanna Robbins Dolly Varden trout in Bristol Bay Alaska

The Totals

In case you don’t have your calculator, slide rule or abacus nearby, all of those numbers above add up to 217.5 hours of vacation time.

Considering that my 8 hours per pay period, plus my “award” of 16 hours at the start of the year, added up to 224, I actually ended this year with more vacation time than I started it with (and I’ve built up a decent cushion over the years).

I suppose that the OCD time manager in me could regret that I didn’t make use of the Federal holidays so close to my January and February vacations, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. I got to go to a new place (Guatemala), had an incredible trip to Alaska (Hanna’s first time) and spent two consecutive weeks at El Salto, something I never thought I’d be able to do. I also used 43 hours of vacation (26+17) to cover Bassmaster events at Guntersville and Santee, which in turn paid for some of the other travel. Under trying circumstances, I feel that I was a good steward of my time.

On to 2021!