Jaquandor asked his readers: “How do you allocate your vacation time?
“What I mean is this: suppose you get, say, three weeks of vacation time a year. Do you take three entire weeks off? Or do you scatter the days off throughout the year by taking a three-day weekend here, a four-day weekend there, and so on?”
Here’s the truth: vacation is difficult for me.
When I worked at FantaCo (1980-1988), I always felt that if I left for too long, I’d come back to chaos. So when my boss insisted I use some of my time, I took off eight consecutive Wednesdays.
Taking off a day in the middle of the week actually had real advantages. I took care of banking, going to the post office, and other weekday stuff difficult to do on the weekdays. I saw a lot of movies. And the weekends were my own.
I have taken some vacations of a week or more in my current librarian job. But the last time I took off two full weeks was in 1998. The first week I visited my friend Sarah in Detroit, saw the Henry Ford and Motown museums, and saw the Tigers in their now razed stadium. I also went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Week two, I was GOING to stay home, do a major cleaning and paper purging. But I ended up going to Washington, DC, trying out for the game show JEOPARDY! and ended up seeing a lot of the sights there.
I had a four-day weekend recently, and it was fine, but returning to work on Tuesday was DIFFICULT.
This past week, I was away with my family from Saturday-Thursday in Vermont. Yet I went to work on Friday (today), instead of attaching it to the following three-day Labor Day weekend, because coming back to the potential of 1,000 work emails was too daunting.
But next year, we’re trekking to northern Ohio, to go to a family reunion. The Daughter wants to go to the Rock Hall, which I wouldn’t mind visiting again. I want to go to see the Football Hall of Fame in Canton. It’ll be at least 11 days away, and I’m actually looking forward to it. And dreading the return.
BTW, per The Wife’s wishes, which make sense to me, I don’t mention when we’re going away on social media, only when we’ve returned.
Vacation – GoGo’s
Vacation-Connie Francis
Is this a good time to mention that all full-time employees in New Zealand get four weeks of annual leave (vacation) each year? We also get 10 and a half public holidays so, gee, math was never my best subject, um, New Zealanders get 30 and a half paid days off per year.
All of which makes for creative usage, like folks talking many three- or four-day weekends, or parents taking turns taking time off when the schools are closed for their breaks.
I’m with your wife: I never mention we’re going away, and only talk about it when we return—unless, maybe, someone is staying at our house while we’re away.
I’ve topped out at five weeks of vacation as a senior employee, get eight paid holidays (plus two floaters that accrue) and three personal days a year. I generally take one one-week vacation a year, make a number of three or four-day weekend, and use others as “mental health” days. I usually wind up carrying one week over into the next year. If I’m going on a long trek such as overseas I take a two-week vacation. Vacations are more limited due to financial availability rather than the availability of benefit time.