people who travel often & for over a week, how do you get so much vacation time at work? or is your job flexible?

[hereforthechurros]

Business owner so technically never not working but can also work from anywhere so it allows for a lot of travel luckily. My husband has been with the same bureau for 15 years so he has 6.5 weeks off every year plus every Friday off. We purposely found fields that would allow us to travel, as we have family all of the country, so most of our time off is actually not spent at wdw. I still balk when I see people spending weeks and weeks at WDW, especially if they don’t go anywhere else!

 

[brewhome]

My company (a bank in the Northeast) starts Full Time people with two - four weeks of PTO depending on level of job and officer title in which they are hired. We also have an option to purchase up to an extra week of PTO (we pay for it from bi-weekly payroll deductions) and we can also sell up to a week back in some circumstances. We also get additional PTO added for long tenure; I’m at 24 years so I get 6 weeks of PTO now. Plus 11 paid holidays, and if they don’t all fall on work days, then we get “Floating Holidays” to be used like PTO. We can carry over up to a week of PTO into the next year but it has to be used within a certain time or we lose it.

 

[tex1989]

I have six weeks (30 days) of vacation, 9-80's (off every other Friday) 9 holidays, and basically three months of sick time at full pay and then 6 months at half pay (long term situation). I also roll six weeks a year that I could technically take (accumulation of past years where I did not take it all) and finally six weeks in a transitional bank that I will be paid for when I retire or leave the company. I have the time to take but being away from work for that amount of time would prove problematic.

 

[DebbieB]

30 days PTO + 9 holidays. This year has been hard spending them with vacations canceled. Have 6 nights coming up at CBR, then 8 nights at BWV/GF in November. Off between Christmas and New Years.

 

[OffToDWD]

I have 30 PTO + 2 community service days + 9 holidays. My husband has about 20 PTO so I usually take my kids on separate mini trips each year. I took about 6 months off (I used all my PTOs and then was unpaid) a couple years ago and took my kids around Asia and Europe.

 

[fabfemmeboy]

My partner is a full-time uni student, so he usually has a month off between terms when others are in school. At his old school, it was January which was awesome because we could travel when it wasn't hot. At his current school, it ends up being September. I'm self-employed, and the one and only good part about it is that I get to take vacation when I want, so we line it up that way. Before I was self-employed, I was a contractor in the legal industry which meant that if I wanted/needed time off they couldn't deny it. It was unpaid, of course, but it was flexible. And occasionally I had a project that was done remotely, so I could work from Disney - which is what I'll be doing on our trip this year. Partner will have a few remote synchronous classes, I'll have one telephonic hearing, and between it we'll ride some Mountains.

 

[DCLMP]

The dream! Americans just accept their lack of mandated PTO

Not always. My dh gets 35 days off. 10 sick days and 13 holidays. It really depends on the company and how long you've been there. I only get about 4 weeks, but I've only been with my current employer 2 years.

 

[paradesintherain]

Not always. My dh gets 35 days off. 10 sick days and 13 holidays. It really depends on the company and how long you've been there. I only get about 4 weeks, but I've only been with my current employer 2 years.

That doesn't disprove my point. European countries give PTO by law, no matter how long a person has been there. Here, we have to shop around and hope that a company has good benefits.

 

[Bullseye]

Five weeks of vacation. We do one long WDW trip annually (11 nights) and then usually take the rest throughout the year around holidays or whenever.

 

[Disney_Alli]

I currently earn vacation pay at 6% of my hours worked. This works out to be basically 3 weeks a year... if you work a 9-5 schedule (or really any 40 hours a week).

Personally I work 6pm to 6am 4 on 4 off so for the price of 48 hrs of vacation time I can take 12 days off in a row - which I've done numerous times. When I started I knew I'd be taking at least 3 weeks off for my wedding and was only making 4% in vacation time. I was able to take 24 days off (in a row - for the aforementioned wedding) after working for the company for about 20 months.

Our company's policy is also that you cannot take more vacation time than you've earned (ie unpaid time off) they will terminate you and you can reapply on your return with no guarantees. Two or so years ago they added in 5 "sick" days that can be used however you like but are unpaid. They also allow for leaves of absence in certain circumstances - like when I had to rush to Ireland to visit my ailing brother-in-law with my husband.

...but all this could change very shortly as my current "job" I suppose was sold. Sounds like the new company has decent benefits but whether we keep the seniority and things is still up in the air.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

To be honest, it's a real problem for me. I switched companies and one thing I gave up was seniority of vacation time. My new company I only have 2 weeks + 5 personal days. I have DVC which handles about 10-14 days of vacation in a studio. In short, if I use all my DVC points, I have only 5 days of vacation over the entire rest of the year, and my company does not allow flex time - that is if I need to take a day to do stuff like go to the doctor, I have to use time for it, even though I work 60 hours a week otherwise. So 5 days over a year for all the time I have to go to the doctor, bring my dog to the vet, or handle any other business is... not much.

It is indeed a struggle.

 

[KenHutch]

Well in December I hit 40 years of service with the federal govt so I earn 5 weeks a year. Plus I only take real time off every 3rd year when we do Disney. To be honest my bosses are overjoyed when I do take the time off. I normally donate 3-4 weeks of vacation to people who need it most years. I just don't take time off

 

[alliecat523]

My current job is work from home with unlimited vacation time. So I can work from anywhere as well as take time off. Husband is self employed so he can also work from anywhere and take unlimited time off. While it is awesome there are some limits and I don’t abuse it.

Previously I had 3 weeks earned throughout the year and then company wide shut down for a week at Christmas.

 

[dreamit]

I work for a large company. Vacation time is based on years of service and grade level. I receive 4 weeks vacation time and have the ability to purchase an additional week. In a few more years, I’ll max out at five weeks with the ability to purchase one additional week. We also have 10 paid holidays and can receive an additional paid day off based on a charitable donation (charity of choice). We receive a number of paid volunteer days that can also be used for things like chaperoning school field trips which saves on the vacation days. Sick time is in its own bucket. Most large companies in my line of work offer similar paid time off.

 

[Befferk]

My husband gets something like 6 weeks a year, and at my "day job" I take pretty much whatever I want. I do own my own business as well, so there are still certain things I need to do while on vacation. So I always have my laptop with me.

ETA - both my DH & I have been at our jobs roughly 10 years. So seniority plays a big part. Plus my boss at my day job is just awesome.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am a paralegal and do other work on the side. I have been in my paralegal profession for 30+ years and have no set days of vacation or personal time and am paid salary. I don't usually take off work unless it is an absolute necessity so when I want to take my vacation, my boss can't say much because I don't take off any other time. My husband does not get any paid vacation or personal time at all so when we are gone, he has no paycheck for that time. I do try to work my Disney vacation around hunting season since my boss is an avid duck hunter and, around Thanksgiving since we will be closed almost all week anyway. This trip with be a total of 16 days with 14 of those being at Disney. My side job pays for the majority of our vacation (with the exception of this year since I lost a lot) and then I supplement with various craft items that I sell year round.

 

[nkereina]

I work in banking and receive 5 weeks of PTO, plus the bank holidays which we can opt to use as a floating holiday which essentially gives us 3 additional PTO days. DH is a manager in construction and can take PTO as much as he wants, but his schedule is so busy that we're often having to plan around it so he never takes much at all.

When we travel to Disney, we usually go for at least 10 days. But, as an example, we will leave on a Thursday and come back on a Sunday (over a week later), so we're taking advantage of two weekends using 7 PTO days. Or, we will leave Wednesday evening so that we can work either a full or half day on Thursday and still arrive in Orlando by 8-9pm. We often prefer this versus getting up early on Thursday to fly and it gives us a full day on Thursday as well.

 

[DisneyLover83]

I work at a public accounting firm.... been here right under 4 years and I get 20 days a year PTO, 2 Floating Holidays because we work on 2 federal holidays and 7 sick days a year.

 

[disneyfiend42]

I have worked in healthcare for about 10 years and I accrue about 20/hrs a month in ETO.

 

[Lisa P.]

I see a lot of posts here by people with fairly generous Paid Time Off. Around here, unless you work for a very large company or in a government job, most people don't get that much PTO. Most employers in our area are small businesses. They tend to offer 2 weeks per year plus public holidays and minimal sick time. After 3-5 years with a family-owned business, they may add a 3rd week PTO. Also, with the closing of many textile and manufacturing plants ~10 years ago (they were moved overseas), many people here juggle 2 part-time jobs, with even less PTO. Well-paid jobs with decent PTO and benefits have increased significantly here in the last couple of years before the shutdowns.

As a nurse educator in hospital staff development, my PTO accrual was pretty good. But DH had his own IT consulting business for many years and every vacation day was an unpaid day off. Now he works for a family-owned business - just 2 weeks paid and 1 week unpaid per year, total. He loves his job, his boss, his co-workers, he earns a good living and his health insurance is fully covered, no premiums... makes the poor PTO worthwhile. But no, we can't go to WDW for 2 weeks at a time either. Frankly, we know so many people who've never even been once so we know we're blessed to travel as much as we do.