Leave Time - What's Your Limit? (Arlington: insurance, how much, home)

[Workin_Hard]

Today's a liberal leave day for the government and some here may be burning an extra day of vacation. Some may be home with the kids who are out of school due to the weather.

Companies are trying to reduce liabilities in various ways, and many are reducing the amount of accrued leave time an employee can carry over from year to year. My wife just had hers slashed from 240 hours to 120, the excess of which must be used up sometime in the next six months. A friend told me her company only allows 40 hours to be carried over from year to year. My company is gradually reducing over a period of years and we've been told it will bottom out at 400. Our limit for 2010 is 500 hours. Once that limit is reached, no more may accumulate so an employee is in effect giving back that time to the company if it is not used. I'll carry about 380 hours into the new year and will gain some floating holidays Jan 1 so I'll not use any more leave time for awhile. I look at my accumuated leave time as money in the bank in case of extended illness (until disability insurance kicks in) or layoff.

What's your company's limit and how much do you carry over? Some of my co-workers use all of their leave each year and some think carrying 40 hours is a lot. Others are pushing the limit and burn only enough to not lose any.

Is anyone ticked off at the school closures that force you to use leave time to stay home unexpectedly? (I think closing schools for the whole week as is the case in many areas this week is excessive.)

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by Workin_Hard

Today's a liberal leave day for the government and some here may be burning an extra day of vacation. Some may be home with the kids who are out of school due to the weather.

Companies are trying to reduce liabilities in various ways, and many are reducing the amount of accrued leave time an employee can carry over from year to year. My wife just had hers slashed from 240 hours to 120, the excess of which must be used up sometime in the next six months. A friend told me her company only allows 40 hours to be carried over from year to year. My company is gradually reducing over a period of years and we've been told it will bottom out at 400. Our limit for 2010 is 500 hours. Once that limit is reached, no more may accumulate so an employee is in effect giving back that time to the company if it is not used. I'll carry about 380 hours into the new year and will gain some floating holidays Jan 1 so I'll not use any more leave time for awhile. I look at my accumuated leave time as money in the bank in case of extended illness (until disability insurance kicks in) or layoff.

What's your company's limit and how much do you carry over? Some of my co-workers use all of their leave each year and some think carrying 40 hours is a lot. Others are pushing the limit and burn only enough to not lose any.

Is anyone ticked off at the school closures that force you to use leave time to stay home unexpectedly? (I think closing schools for the whole week as is the case in many areas this week is excessive.)

We only can carry over 40 hours into the following year and that carried over time must be used by August 1.

[ajzjmsmom]

My husband can carry over 240.

No, I am not ticked off about the school closures, here in Arlington there are no safe places for the kids to catch the buses. Overnight I am sure all that slushy mess turned to ice on all our little hills around here making busing relatively dangerous. At least at my kids schools, parking is already at a premium so can't imagine what they would do for parking with all the snow that has accumulated.

All the school districts websites that I have looked at in this area advocate having alternate child care in place in case of school closures.

[arielmina]

I work in HR as a consultant and almost all of my clients are doing away with big carryovers and banks and frankly it's an accounting issue. I am not an accounting, but basically they have to carry all that time and potential expense on their books year after year, which is why you see most companies cutting down on carryovers. I had one client (a non-profit) do this this year, they used to carry over unlimited, now they can only carry over 80 hours per year, which i still think is alot. I use all my vacation every year because I have small kids. I don't even know if I can carry over, since I used every last bit

But yes as you saw in my earlier post, i think it's very tough on working parents when the kids are out of school unnecessarily and I feel for anyone who doesn't have time to use in these situations (like me!) so be thankful that you still have some to use here in late Dec.

[anonymous703]

Count my company in with the reduction in carry-over balances. We used to be able to carry-over 320 hours (40 days) and that has been reduced to 120 hours (15 days). We also used to be able to cash out accrued leave -- no longer. Whatever isn't used is lost.

[OrangeFish]

We can carry over 10 days. However, I have (6) days that I am losing anyway, even with my taking off the last two weeks of the calendar year.