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First, thanks for all the comments. I've been reading them and wanted to respond to the PTO cap: So one thing that I'm unsure of is the cap for PTO. 10 days is what I would START at. I don't know what the maximum number of PTO days is, but it's definitely more than 10 days. What I know is that 1 year of service or less=10 days of PTO.
If you think that the issue will be for this year only, then maybe when you are offered the job, tell them that you have a pre-planned trip from Dec. 24 - Jan. 2 this year, and ask if they can accommodate that. And in future years, you will probably have enough PTO.
I always think it's funny when I ask somebody how much PTO they get, and they proudly add on the "9 holidays" or whatever. It says a lot about the current state of America that holidays are now considered a benefit. We are doomed.
Yes, I heard this all the time when I lived in the Midwest, where people are taken advantage of by employers and yet still act so blessed to have such a good job. The place I worked back there also offered a measly 10 days PTO per year to use for vacation or sick- so no additional sick time on top of that. There were of course the usual 7 or so holidays throughout the year, so people proudly stated that they actually got 17 days off per year. That was a company voted by its employees as one of the top 100 places to work in America- goes to show how people just think they need to be slaves and should never expect more in terms of benefits! I look back on that now and just cringe.
Heck, I would ask for 20 days. 15 days PTO combined sucks
If it's such a great place to work, why do they only give 10 days?
I would definitely ask for more days, too! I would worry about work/life balance at a place that only offers 10 PTO days, regardless of career level. Heck, I got 20 days at my very first job out of college, plus we had flex-time so I got an additional day off every other week. I never worked two 5-day weeks in a row, ever. Now THAT was a good place to work in terms of work-life balance!
If the employer is who I think it is VTHokieFan will really need to manage his work-life balance. There is so much to do on campus and with various off campus activities employees need to tear themselves away to go home.
If it's a larger company with an employee handbook and stated policies, the chance is zero. They will be accused of discrimination.
OTOH, if it's a small company with no stated policies IN WRITING, you might be able to do it. I have several times, but it's been many years. Here's how I successfully made it worked. I waited until I had the job offer. We agreed on an annual salary. Right then and there, I divided that annual salary by 52, subtracted one week from the agreed upon salary, and asked if they would pay me the lower amount in exchange for an extra week off. Worked every time with smaller companies.
Only in America is asking for more than 10/250 days off considered lazy.
I definitely agree with that. However, I think that's gonna be tough. Most companies are very firm on PTO. If they make an exception for you, people will probably notice. A higher salary, people don't talk about their salary. People do talk about time off. Someone will ask, "how are you able to take so much time off?"
BTW, I'm not hating at all. One of the main reasons why I picked one job offer over the other was the PTO. I provided 10 days for the first 5 years. The other starts with 16 and I gain 1 add'l day with each year of experience. So at year 5, that's 40 combined add'l days off.
Ask for a higher salary and see if you can purchase PTO. The idea of paying to take time off bugs me but if you can afford it. That's an option.
I had the exact same situation as you, and i asked for 15. They said OK. In my situation, the pay was good, but not exactly what I wanted. But it was close and i knew it was at the top of their budget. So asking for more money was probably not going to work, but PTO doesn't really have any out of pocket cost to them. Likely your work will still be there when you return.
I would just say to be careful and protect your health / sanity; if you burn out, you will also get poor performance reviews, possible termination, and possible health issues.
For perspective, US armed forces get 30 days of leave (in addition to sick leave as necessary).
I negotiated a benefit package I could live with and actually gave up some in wages to get it...
The first 5 years all was good... then the benefits I had negotiated started to fall by the wayside...
One was an additional week of vacation starting with 20 years of service... well at 19 years of service corporate said no one would be getting the additional week of service unless they already were eligible...
I've learned the hard way that things can and do change and there is little that can be done other than look for other employment...
Also learned that working in the private sector without a Union contract didn't leave much in the way of recourse compared to the time I did work in a Union shop...
For the first time in 23 years I am working without accruing PTO... I hit the max and request for time off are denied since they have no one to cover my position since reorganization...
Acting Administrator said I am to keep track of my time for future use as Comp Time... we have multiple projects right now and there really isn't anyone with the knowledge to step in...
Interesting times for sure...
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