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Think of it from the customer perspective. "Um, sorry, your hardware won't be delivered for another three weeks because buenos was on vacation." The customer doesn't care that you (or anyone else) took a vacation. They just want the project/ software/ hardware delivered as per the schedule in their contract.
You work for a business, not a day care. They aren't there to cater to your vacation plans. You plan your vacations around them. They actually aren't even required to give you vacation days. If you are not happy with this, then find another company or another line of business. Better yet, start your own company, and adjust your project schedules to all of your employees' vacation plans. See how that works out for you.
Definitely sounds like it is time for a new job. I can understand working on a project and asking for you to tie up your end. However, having an entire year blacked out for vacation is unacceptable.
A well-planned project should include both planned and unplanned time off, unfortunately, not much planning is being done these days, companies just want the job completed as fast and as cheap as possible without any regard for the well-being of the assigned resources. When there is a plan in place, it accounts for the fact that people have personal life outside of work, a great manager will make sure that people are cross-trained and there is enough coverage should someone be out. It sounds like the place the OP works for has poor planning practices, time to look for something new, or, speak up.
I work in a very small office - it is just me and my boss and warehouse people. When I take "vacation" it is really just "postponement" because my work (mail, invoices, billings and everything else) will be waiting for me on my desk. Orders will be processed by the boss so customers are not waiting - but the invoices that would usually mail the next day are waiting for me to return to produce. The mail is a huge pile on my desk. And every other task I would usually do is just waiting for me to complete on my return
So - I rarely take more than a day here and there. A big vacation for me is to take a Friday and a Monday and call it 4 days off.
Not complaining - it feels like job security to me .
Vacation policies should be negotiated at time of hiring.
And put in writing.
If you agreed to the company policy, you have no beef. If the company is not following its own policy just for you, then you should discuss it with your superior.
The OP is in Sunnyvale and should have lots of employment options. I say take your vacation right after applying for, oh say, 10 positions. What can they do, fire you? In that case they loose a critical performer and you have already started your job search.
Sounds quite typical for a salaried, upper level position. Wouldn't be the case for most hourly "worker bees."
If you are in upper mgmt, a senior project director, or similar position, where you and you alone are responsible for your duties, then of course you need to be a bit ahead of schedule before you can go on vacation. Actually, being "on vacation" just means shifting the work time around---you'll do some extra before the vacation, you'll do some work during the vacation, and then you'll work hard to get completely caught up as soon as possible after the vacation. Nobody else will be doing your work for you, but hopefully you get paid the big bucks that make it worthwhile.
Is it normal that a boss/employer requires you to do overtime, or otherwise complete the work that you would have done if you didn't go on vacation? - at time when you are about to go on the vacation.
They want the project schedule to not have any lapse just because I am going on a vacation. They want me to make sure that I will do everything in advance. This also means overtime before going on a vacation.
Another thing is about when I can take and when I cannot take a vacation.
Project schedules seems not to include vacations. Some projects last for more than a year, and they put no vacations in the schedule. Some companies only let me to go on vacation at times of lower workload or no critical delivery, which means really just maybe 5 weeks out of 52 when I can take my 3 weeks total annual vacation. For example this year it is either mid august or end of December, but the rest of the year I cannot take a vacation, I was told.
both of these seemed to have happened to me at more than one employer.
How legitimate is it, how common is it?
I'm a Computer/Software engineer, and this is typical for my company. They do schedule in vacations if the vacation has been requested before the project starts. With my company, there never ever seems to be a "good" time to take vacation, but the higher ups always complain because no one takes vacation or they wait until the end of the year to take vacation. We can only roll over a week of vacation, and the rest is lost.
I typically have no problem with working some overtime if I am behind because I am behind due to my own poor planning. More times than not, the schedule is far behind already because of management issues. Many times, and it always happens around scheduled vacation. there seems to be some sort of crunch to catch up when management did not do its part.
Companies can dictate when you can take vacation if they wish. Vacation is a benefit, and they don't have to give it to you if they don't want to and dictate when you get it off.
Sounds quite typical for a salaried, upper level position. Wouldn't be the case for most hourly "worker bees."
If you are in upper mgmt, a senior project director, or similar position, where you and you alone are responsible for your duties, then of course you need to be a bit ahead of schedule before you can go on vacation. Actually, being "on vacation" just means shifting the work time around---you'll do some extra before the vacation, you'll do some work during the vacation, and then you'll work hard to get completely caught up as soon as possible after the vacation. Nobody else will be doing your work for you, but hopefully you get paid the big bucks that make it worthwhile.
Where I work, upper management can typically do what they want, when they want, and get things accomplished when they want regardless of vacation. Typically, most of their duties have little to any bearing on when a project gets complete. My bosses aren't writing code or are rarely doing any real hardware design. I'm not sure what size company the OP works for, but where I work, for a given project usually one or two software individuals are on the project and their tasks are divided accordingly. If one of those individuals goes on vacation, it directly impacts the project. The project manager, on the other hand, besides dealing with status updates and making some project related decisions, can go on vacation without impacting the delivery dates.
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