How often do you take days off work?

[Deleted member 17990]

Lately I have been taking one day off every 2 weeks and kinda feel shit about it even though I am not using any paid leave for it. I just haven't felt motivation to come in because I have had nothing to do lately.

Boss is cool about it, obviously if he refused because they were busy I would still go in but work for me has just been dead lately.

For reference I work as an junior engineering assistant and most of my job is asking other people for jobs, and lately there has been none so I have found myself not really doing anything at work.

 

[erekiddo]

As much as I can.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

Once in a blue moon. Rarely if ever.

 

[Violence Jack]

Only if I'm sick, my son is sick, or I'm going out of town. I have a much less stressful job than I did, plus I want to carry over as much as I can.

 

[Biteren]

not as often as my boss would like, i work with cool people but ive been using more often nowadays

 

[LProtagonist]

I get two personal days every school year which I make sure to use. Other than that, when I'm sick. I probably take about 2 sick days a school year when I'm not actually that sick but just need a day.

 

[Robin]

You should never feel bad about taking time off from work unless you're actively ignoring reasonable considerations for other workers that can easily be adhered to. And if you're sick, you're sick. I personally take two extra days off a month which sounds similar to the time you take off, it's your personal time and you should use it.

And honestly, preemptively any incoming posts about civic responsibility or work ethic can fuck right off.

 

[Wrexis]

Jeez half the replies are basically never. Spot the Americans.

European here. I work hard and I don't like the lazy European stereotype - but I take my 22 days.

When you retire are you really going to look back and say "I took too many days off work"?

 

[ArrogantBastard]

Teacher, once a six weeks (We get 5 local and 5 state). So 6 days from Aug-May.

 

[sprsk]

My migraines make it at least once a month but typically only half days.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

My workplace has been shortstaffed so long that I only take one or two weeks off per year. Me being out almost inevitably means one of my coworkers has to work overtime to cover. I haven't felt guilt-free about time off in years.

My overall available balance of time off would actually amount to about 2.5 months of paid time off if I were able to use it all at once.

And we all work mandatory overtime normally anyway.

 

[Anno]

Every few weeks I guess. I have 32 days this year and will absolutely use them all.

 

[Forerunner]

When I have use or lose. For the most part, holidays give me enough of a break.

 

[Goddo Hando]

i work from home, so never really. i just take naps on company time

 

[Bessy67]

I get 24 vacation days and 8 paid holidays so however often I need to in order to use them all.

 

[Lkr]

I try to have a day or two off per month at a minimum.

 

[tiebreaker]

Don't feel bad about it.

 

[Rosebud]

As much as I can.

Click to shrink...

Yep.

 

[Protome]

Not as much as I should. I tend to forget, then my team lead chases me up about it mid year and I end up taking them all over the course of the second half of the year.

 

[vypek]

Every few months or sometimes around a holiday to make it a long weekend. I usually do several days at once so I don't really end up peppering them through the year that much

 

[Booshka]

I work per diem and pick up as much as I need to and during school semester not much. I don't work nearly as much as some of my coworkers who are picking up shifts nonstop, but I dont have kids and have low overhead. I'd rather not spend money and have more free time than work a bunch to buy random shit and eventually burn out.

Very lucky to have healthcare through my wife and steady finances to have this kind of employment situation. My work also offers shift bonuses regularly so I can make up for the hours I don't pickup.

 

[Faenix1]

Last time I took time off was because I had to due to COVID, otherwise almost never. *shrug*

 

[NESpowerhouse]

like 1 week per year

 

[BringBackSonics]

I tend to save them up for trips. But this summer I'm sort of taking every other Friday off.

 

[Supreme Bean]

The whole sick days thing is different in the US from everywhere else. I will always be paid when I am off sick.
In 5yrs at my current place of work I missed 1 week with covid, but other then that I have not taken any time off. I'm a teacher and ethically it doesn't sit right, I would be placing a burden on my colleagues and depriving my students.

 

[clmartin]

Pretty much never unless we've got a family holiday planned.

Touch wood but I'm rarely sick so my sick leave balance is at about 90 days.

 

[Bigg]

As much as I can.

If you're salaried and your boss is cool with it then there's zero reason not to.

 

[Qikz]

I always take a day off if I feel sick enough that I can't work (WFH) or I feel down enough that I can't be bothered which is rare but I've done it before to take a day to relax.

Paid holiday I usually take 5 days every 3 months or so with a few days dotted in between (get 25 minus bank holidays in the UK - so try and take bank holiday weeks off only using 4 and go from there). The weeks off give me chance to recharge. I've had this last week off.

 

[Tanerian]

Ideally only when I have to.

Otherwise I like to save up my annual and sick leave all the way to the cap, then take off whatever I get over the cap =p

We get like a 500hour cap on both.

 

[HeartlessNobody2134]

Never until recently. Before getting my recent job, with my old position I was allowed to take days off but couldn't get paid for it.

It was especially worse towards the end of the year with holidays.

Right now I'm just stacking up leave until I can take a good week off, maybe even two.

 

[Red Comet]

Scheduled? 4-5 PTO days a month typically. Unscheduled? Not very often. Maybe once every other month or so.

 

[Lari]

I'm my own boss, so technically never. Even on my time off i'm usually thinking about work.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

Using my first vacation day of the year in a few days.

 

[Tavernade]

I get somewhere between 3-4 weeks-ish of PTO a year and usually use them all in week-long chunks every few months. I used to take off for new game releases but every time I did the game would get delayed/be broken on release so it began to seem cursed.

 

[shaneo632]

I work for myself so any day off is unpaid, so not a lot. I make sure to give myself about 30 holiday days per year but taking "personal days" or random days off is just lost money to me.

 

[MrToughPants]

We can get up to 150 sick days paid no loss of seniority. So I take sick days whenever I'm sick, tired, bad DOMs from working out or just sick of work. 🤷

 

[Protoman200X]

It can vary, but I usually have two types of days off:

1. Sick Days, where if I'm feeling under the weather and such, I take up to 2-3 days to fully recover. Staying in bed, taking my medicine, and just trying to get better when I go into work the following day.

2. Personal Mental Health days. This is self-explanatory, as there are days when deadlines and trying to make my quota can get to me, so I have to have time to mentally reset myself or else I lose my cool and become super irritable. Usually it's one or two days every 6-7 months, depending on the workload and/or deadlines on the production that I'm on. Other-times it would be up to a week if it gets really bad.

Also, when I save up my vacation hours and combine that with my sick days to take an extended vacation, which I did one year when (after getting approval from my production supervisor), I was able to take three weeks off for a vacation near the end of my contract. So I got paid handsomely while taking some much needed time off.

 

[ScatheZombie]

I have a very generous amount of PTO by American standards so I usually take 1-2 days a month plus 1-2 weeks around Christmas through New Years.

Our PTO is also weirdly broken up into 5 different categories - PTO, Vacation, Personal Time, Wellness and Sick.

We can generally use them interchangeably without much complaint but the intention is that PTO and Vacation are meant to be planned time off in advance, while Personal, Wellness and Sick are spur-of-the-moment time off. The only real difference between them is PTO can rollover, nothing else does, and PTO and Vacation days are based on years-with-company while Personal Time and Sick are flat.

Wellness is a new one they added with Pandemic WFH and we just get an extra 5 days a year to use whenever. The implication is that eventually those will go away but they renewed them again this year and already plan to renew them next year again so who knows.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

I'm taking tomorrow off.

I take whenever I can.

 

[16bitnova]

I currently get 26 days of PTO a year and use every last one. If you get PTO, use it. Time is the one thing you can never get back.

I tend to take a few at the beginning of the year. Especially since there is no holiday day off from MLK till Memorial Day. A couple later on if work becomes too much. Save most for the summer. And some for the fall. If I save enough then I'll take some off in the winter. But I usually use them all up by then. lol. This time I have Christmas week scheduled off and promised my wife I'll save it for the holidays. It's gotten A LOT easier to save them since switching to a 4 day a week schedule though. Currently off till Friday:) Videogame sessions here we come!

And I'm so close to reaching 10 years at my company which will then award me with 30 days of PTO. Just in time for The World Cup being throughout the U.S. I plan on taking 3 weeks or so traveling around the U.S and catching some games! It's been a dream of mine to watch some World Cup fixtures in person.

 

[Clay]

As much as I can.

If you're salaried and your boss is cool with it then there's zero reason not to.

Click to shrink...

Yeah. I take days off pretty regularly, often just on a whim. I have an awesome boss though, and he's totally cool with it if I say "I don't have anything going on today, I'm available if anything urgent comes up but I'm taking a personal day."

It always blows me away how different life is for people with salaried positions. I worked retail while getting my degree and it was such a nightmare. Rude customers, shitty coworkers, and you're often denied time off even if it's for a legitimate reason like your health, or attending a funeral, or an emergency. It's just insane to me that I now make several times more and have perks that would have seemed outrageous to me when I working retail.

But yeah, unless you're in a stupid situation where people on your team are going to take notice if you're taking time off and label you as a slacker or something, or if you're legitimately busy enough that it's not feasible to take time off, you should take as much time off as possible. I've talked to so many people who will admit that they only really work for a few hours per day, but also rarely take personal days, and it just seems sad. Seems like it would suck to spend a huge chunk of your life at a desk for no real reason.

But I understand I'm really lucky to be in the situation I'm in. And to be specific I take something like one or two personal days per month, plus two or three extended 3-5 day breaks.

 

[UltimateHigh]

a day off? never heard of it.

 

[dyreschlock]

A day or two off every 2 or 3 months, maybe?

 

[Yourfawthaaa]

i work from home, so never really. i just take naps on company time

Click to shrink...

This

 

[DarthWalden]

Between actually holidays, I'll happily take a few days off here or there when things are not busy.

I absolutely hate not being busy at work and I'd rather just take a PTO

 

[scottbeowulf]

Every single day I can take off, I do.

 

[mopinks]

I'm self-employed, so never

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Never. Even if I'm sick I come in. I would have be physically unable to move to not go in. Even my annual leave I've never once taken all my allowed holiday in a year. Not once in 7 years. Close, but never all of it. The idea of taking a day just cos I can really aint me.

 

[Skai]

Never, but it's my families business to be fair so I don't like taking days off if I don't have to.

I mean I'l take a day or two off every 3-4 months when I go to Vegas, but nothing major.

 

[Beautiful Ninja]

I got 29 days of PTO, I'm gonna use 29 days of PTO.

Any longer time off, like a week+, I'll schedule weeks/months in advance with my management. But if I got to take a day on an emergency or just not feeling it, I'm taking a day. But by years end, my PTO balance will be 0.00 hours.