Vacation Poor

Vacation Poor

April 25th, 2010 @ 1:05 pm by Mrs. Pretzel
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Mr Pretzel and I are equal in so many ways, but vacation balances is not one of them. He is vacation rich, I am vacation poor. Usually this isn’t a problem. In the past I’ve had just enough vacation to join his family on vacation for a week, visit our relatives, etc. I knew way back in September when her proposed that 2010 would be vacation heavy and I started to plan out our vacations.

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I worked backwards from the wedding—setting aside a whole 2 weeks; one pre-wedding, one post-wedding.

We have a lot of guests flying in to Seattle the week before the wedding and Mr Pretzel and I really want to be able to spend time with them. Then I set aside some time to travel to my FBIL’s wedding. At this point I was doing OK, as I had 1-2 days unallocated. My planning was paying off.

You know what they say about the best laid plans…

When some bees decided to go to Vegas, I was so tempted. I checked my calendar and saw that I had enough extra vacation days to join them. Yay! I swarmed Vegas with the others.
Mr Pretzel’s family offered to throw me showers in Fort Wayne IN, so I had to “borrow” a day from the post-wedding time.
Two months ago I got glorious news that Bridesmaid H was tying the knot in June in Vegas. There is no way I would miss that, so another couple days come out of my post-wedding time off.

Last week my manager called me up and asked why I had requested more time off that I had in my vacation bank.

BLINK

“What?”

I had just finalized our Minimoon plans (coming soon!) and I wanted the whole week prior to the wedding off as well as Monday through Wednesday after the wedding.

“What do you mean I am short?”

(Well, short of vacation time—I’m definitely short in the vertical height arena.)

6 hours. 6 effin’ hours.

I am 6 hours short of the vacation time needed to have a stress free week before and a minimoon after the wedding. I quickly turned into a tight pretzel knot of stress and frantically texted Mr Pretzel to tell him I might have to work 1 or 2 days the week before the wedding. His answer was short and sweet. “No way— take unpaid time off.” Oh. That sounds simple and very practical.

My heart stopped racing and I talked with my manager about taking unpaid time off for the 6 hours that I am short. “No problem,” he said as I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders.

Later that day Mr Pretzel ran into my manager. Pretzel Manager apologized to Mr P for making me take unpaid time off but Mr P just smiled and said, “That’s OK, but I wasn’t going to let her work the weekend before the wedding or else she’ll be a giant stress ball.” Aww, I love that how considerate he is. He also promised not to work the week of the wedding either because he knows it would stress me out. So immediately after the wedding my vacation balance will be a big fat goose egg (until I accrue more) and Mr Pretzel’s will be over 40 hrs. *Sigh* It’s hard being the constraining factor on vacations.

Is your vacation balance constraining your honeymoon plans? Did you decide to work the week leading up to the wedding or not?

Tags: honeymoon, seattle |

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51 Responses to “Vacation Poor”

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Member

farmersdaughter (message) 1,675 posts, Bumble bee

I would not have had enough vacation time for our destination wedding and honeymoon…so I just decided to quit my job a week before the wedding - problem solved! (Its not as bad as it sounds - I’m going back to school in August so I’m quitting about a month earlier than I would have anyway!) The FI has to take some of our time unpaid, though.

4/25/10 @ 1:15 pm (reply)

Member

rawrkitty1022 (message) 516 posts, Busy bee

I feel like I battle with vacation on a daily basis too. I haven’t been at my job a year yet, so technically I haven’t acrued ANY paid vacation days yet. But with planning a wedding from like 6 states away, and living 1500 miles away from my fiance…taking a day or two off a month is a MUST. It seriously stresses me out big time. Luckily my boss has been kind (or forgetful) and he allows me paid leave when I need it as long as I work Saturdays to make up the hours. Whew!

4/25/10 @ 1:20 pm (reply)

Member

lemondrop (message) 1,193 posts, Bumble bee

Yes, I didn’t have enough time off before or after the wedding to do much of anything. So I put in my two weeks notice and quit my job so I would have 2 weeks off before and unlimited time off after. It is something I have been wanting to do for a while anyway, since it is not the most positive environment to work in anyway. I am so glad that I did, in fact I wish that I had done it a month before the wedding to give myself more DIY time. Now I am in a new job, better environment, and married.

4/25/10 @ 1:25 pm (reply)

Member

Caligirl20 (message) 35 posts, Newbee

We have PTO (15 days) that we can use for when we’re sick and for vacation. We have a week event that was planned before our wedding (5 days). So that left me with 10 days. A couple got eaten up when everyone at work had to use them for Holiday Shutdown. Then of course, I’ve managed to get sick and had to use a couple of days. Right now, I’m looking at the Friday before our wedding off, and the Monday and Tuesday after our wedding off (3 days). We’re now trying to budget for so that I can take the whole week before the wedding off without pay (someone had to lobby for me that the company allow this).

4/25/10 @ 1:35 pm (reply)

Guest

Crystal

I have requested the Friday off before our wedding and then 7 work days off afterwards so we can go on our honeymoon. I don’t think I could take the whole week off prior to I’d do better being at work! LOL..

4/25/10 @ 1:47 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Hot Dog (message) 317 posts, Helper bee

How stressful! But I’m glad it all worked out I’m not anticipating any vaca issues on the work-front! *fingers crossed*

4/25/10 @ 1:58 pm (reply)

Member

Rgeddy (message) 2,186 posts, Buzzing bee

Glad you got it sorted! I currently work as a contractor and thus have NO vacation time. Every weekday that I’m wedding prepping or on our honeymoon will be no dollars in the bank for us. Its a huge bummer but at least my FI gets standard vacation days.

4/25/10 @ 2:04 pm (reply)

Member

stephbolt (message) 204 posts, Helper bee

@Rgeddy: I feel your pain. I am also a contractor with no PTO. I’m working Monday and Tuesday (and would have worked Wednesday too if we didn’t have to travel to our wedding locale to get our license that day). I couldn’t afford to lose two straight weeks of paychecks.

4/25/10 @ 2:31 pm (reply)

Member

ktbrady (message) 1,054 posts, Bumble bee

Ugh, I’m really feeling the vacation hours crunch too. I am going to be out of vacation time SOON - I am a state employee but my job asks me to travel out of the state to do training, so I have to take vacation time to do that (since I get paid from the state of Alaska, or, this time, the country of Ireland). So I am using 56 hours of vacation for that…then in July I am going to Paris with my little sis for a week…then a family beach trip in August. So I will have zero hours then and will have to start accumulating hours again…hopefully I will have enough for the wedding by the time it rolls around!

4/25/10 @ 2:32 pm (reply)

10.

Bee

Mrs. Pug (message) 3,753 posts, Honey bee

it is totally worth taking the unpaid time–i’m glad mr. pretzel supported you in that option!

4/25/10 @ 2:39 pm (reply)

11.

Member

krissybee (message) 3,921 posts, Honey bee

ugh i worry about how this all will play out. i really don’t want to work the week before the wedding and i still want to go off to our honeymoon like 4 days after the wedding (not months later). AND i’ll be starting a new job a year before the wedding. eek.

4/25/10 @ 2:40 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

Jessica

I’m taking two days off before the wedding, then going back to work for a week before heading off for our two-week long honeymoon. It has sucked not to be able to take time off for the past few months, but I REALLY wanted the long honeymoon break!

4/25/10 @ 2:53 pm (reply)

13.

Member

Miss Stars (message) 22 posts, Newbee

I don’t know how we’re going to do it…I only have 2 wks of vacation. However -based on convos w/ Star Bosses…I think they are going to be pretty lax w/ the whole situation and let me take extra days. By the time the wedding rolls around I will have been there for 3.5 yrs and I’m hoping ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the extra time I’ve worked will count for something!!

4/25/10 @ 3:16 pm (reply)

14.

Hostess

Lillindy (message) 7,974 posts, Bee Keeper

My job is HORRIBLE with vacation time. We don’t have a ton of it and even if you have it, they still sometimes deny your time off request. I got lucky for the week before and after our wedding. BUT, for our 1 year anniversary, I ran into a number of problems. I feel your pain and it sucks!

4/25/10 @ 3:25 pm (reply)

15.

Guest

kristen

4/25/10 @ 3:31 pm (reply)

16.

Member

mander411 (message) 735 posts, Busy bee

ugh, yea I am down to two vacation days to use for the rest of the year bc of all the time I need for the wedding/HM. And BIL has a Friday wedding so I need that day off also, and two other Friday weddings this year I think I need to call in sick for oh and a Sunday wedding 10 states away so I need to day after off - ugh. So stressed about this! no le-way at all

4/25/10 @ 3:57 pm (reply)

17.

Member

Kippie (message) 107 posts, Blushing bee

Good for you that you worked out your vacation time!

I have a lot more vacation time than you guys are used to. I will be enjoying 4 weeks of vacation time. One week prior to our wedding and three weeks after.
I have 25 vacation days a year and every month an additional day off.

4/25/10 @ 4:03 pm (reply)

18.

Member

lalalalaland (message) 8 posts, Newbee

I am opposite, my FI is the constraining factor…He gets 2 weeks paid leave a year, I get 8!!! It totally sucks that for 6 weeks, I am home all day alone or traveling on my own without the other half. I think he feels bad about it, but I try my best to keep myself entertained without bugging him

4/25/10 @ 4:07 pm (reply)

19.

Guest

Kristen

@Kippie: do you live in europe?

4/25/10 @ 5:13 pm (reply)

20.

Guest

kristen

@Kippie: ahah, i just saw you do. Makes sense now!

4/25/10 @ 5:14 pm (reply)

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