Mohave County Employees get 900 hours vacation time (health insurance, home)

[observer53]

I don't understand why the accrual is so high, either. The supervisor doesn't have to approve a long leave request, so one could accrue hundreds of hours, but it doesn't really mean anything. I'd like to hear from county administrators exactly what the effect of this is in real life.

Holidays would be separate, but I suspect that it does include both sick and annual leave, as they call it PTO (paid time off) and I don't remember seeing a separate category for regular sick leave.

The county workers ARE working, that's how they accrue what annual leave they actually have in real life, not this theoretical maximum number. I don't think you can make a connection between your property taxes (of which a big chunk is school costs, which the county has nothing to do with establishing) and how much leave time any county employee actually has and actually uses.

[JGMotorsport64]

I'm hearing a lot of wah wah wah. Good for them! I can accrue unlimited amounts over years adding up to 150/year. All this means is that there is a cap for how much they can accrue. Choosing to run your own business was your decision.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by jamies

Wow! Well at least we know what's wrong with the country. Instead of being outraged over the ridiculous squandering of our tax dollars coddeling govt workers, I'm told to go get a county job. And implied that "I" am the problem and wrong to complain.

I try to eek out a livng as a small business person and real estate investor in a country and county that hates small entrapaneurs. Nobody pays me vacation time.

And they get 8 hours every paycheck - on MY back. I pay over $4,000 in property taxes alone in this county. Maybe if county workers were working my taxes would be $2,000.

Oh and find me a "full time" WalMart employee. LOL

We got PLENTY of "full time" WalMart employees right in Benson, AZ. I deal with them all the time.

In regards to you not getting "vacation time" because you are a small business person - well, maybe that's because you are not a VERY GOOD small business person. If you were better at running your business, then maybe you'd HAVE employees so that you could take vacation. Sounds to me like you are just bitter about other peoples' success because you don't have any of your own. If you are as bitter and crabby to your customers as you are on this board, maybe that's why.
Just sayin...

Workers DESERVE vacation time. It's good for the workers and it's good for the BUSINESS they work for - that's why smart employers OFFER paid vacation to their workers.

Ken

[teddyearp]

jamies, I feel your pain. And I think we usually agree on things here. On the surface, perhaps Mojave County needs to put a cap on how much vaca can be accrued.

I used to be self-employed from 1985-1997 as well and of course there is no such thing as paid vacation (nor partially paid medical, holiday pay, sick days, 401k's, etc.), but I did manage my business in such a way as to save my money to be able to take a week's vacation on many of those years. I lost income, since it was not 'paid'.

Afterwards, I decided to work for the 'man' (in the private sector) so I could get that 'stuff'. The first job only allowed one year accumulation. My current job only allows two. I get three weeks now, next year I will get four, but I can only accrue 8 weeks max should I chose to go that long without a vacation. I do not see that happening.

A working man NEEDS a vacation. It perhaps wrong that Mojave County Employees can accrue six months worth, but it also sounds to me my friend that you need to find a way to budget one for yourself soon.

I LIVE and WORK for my vacations!

[locolobo13]

Where I work I get approx 4hrs vac time per week. We're allowed to accrue up to around 300 hrs total. It takes several years to do even that.

My boss has to approve all vacations ahead of time. Pretty sure I couldn't get more than a whole month off at once. And my boss would give me the look if I asked for that much. Besides I like to take time off here and there.

When you work for yourself you pay yourself. Usually you take few vacations because it is YOUR business. Just remember there needs to be a balance.

All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
All play and no work makes jack a mere toy.

Give yourself a few days off here and there.

[rich67]

Originally Posted by jamies

County employees can accrue 900 hours - SIX MONTHS paid vacation! I do not know one single person in the private sector who gets a paid vacation.

Yet the county comissioners, without a general vote just raised MY property taxes to cover their shortfall.

Hey, lazy govt employees and political hacks, try this - try WORKING like the rest of us. Not living off our sweat!

Anybody else sick of this abuse?

All these govt people slopping at the public trough need to be stopped. They are destroyng the country.


Supervisors postpone decision on leave policy - News - Mohave Daily News

Let's be honest here. You don't know of anyone in the private sector who gets paid vacation??? Where do your friends work?? EVERYONE I know in private and public get some kind of vacation or personal leave time, so that is just a false statement.
Furthermore, let me explain the accrual process. I am allowed to accrue 500 hours of vacation time before I begin losing it. That's right, I LOSE it. In other words, if I work and work, and I don't take any time off, then any extra time I accrue over 500 hours disappears. So essentially, I am punished for not taking vacation by losing any vacation I don't utilize. Kind of like Verizon and their data plan; if you don't use it that month, you don't get to roll it over next month!
If someone is allowed (and manages) to accrue 900 hours of vacation time, that means...DING DING DING...they worked and did not take any time off for YEARS if not DECADES (depending on rate of accrual).
I WORK for a county entity. I don't sit around and take months off, and if someone has 900 hours of accrued sick leave, I can pretty confidently say they WORKED and did not lounge around for their employed years. This is typical of people who are pissed because they are in a crappy situation with an employer. They get ticked off at people when they see they have it "better" than them, but won't do anything to improve their position, they just GRIPE on the internet, because generally, people are forced to "listen" to them or read their rants.
Do county commissioners get paid too much? You bet they do. Do they misappropriate funds and put the counties into ruin? On occasion, yes. But guess what...the VOTING PUBLIC put them there, and the VOTING PUBLIC continues to vote in the same slime every year. Who is really to blame? The UNEDUCATED voters who only vote incumbent because they don't bother to take the time to research the ballot (which, sadly, it about 70% of the typical voting public these days).
And some employers in the public sector will not let their employees take off more than a month without filing for a leave of absence, so it makes it even harder for them to use all that time in one fell swoop. Most of them cash it out when they retire.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by rich67

Let's be honest here. You don't know of anyone in the private sector who gets paid vacation??? Where do your friends work?? EVERYONE I know in private and public get some kind of vacation or personal leave time, so that is just a false statement.
Furthermore, let me explain the accrual process. I am allowed to accrue 500 hours of vacation time before I begin losing it. That's right, I LOSE it. In other words, if I work and work, and I don't take any time off, then any extra time I accrue over 500 hours disappears. So essentially, I am punished for not taking vacation by losing any vacation I don't utilize. Kind of like Verizon and their data plan; if you don't use it that month, you don't get to roll it over next month!
If someone is allowed (and manages) to accrue 900 hours of vacation time, that means...DING DING DING...they worked and did not take any time off for YEARS if not DECADES (depending on rate of accrual).
I WORK for a county entity. I don't sit around and take months off, and if someone has 900 hours of accrued sick leave, I can pretty confidently say they WORKED and did not lounge around for their employed years. This is typical of people who are pissed because they are in a crappy situation with an employer. They get ticked off at people when they see they have it "better" than them, but won't do anything to improve their position, they just GRIPE on the internet, because generally, people are forced to "listen" to them or read their rants.
Do county commissioners get paid too much? You bet they do. Do they misappropriate funds and put the counties into ruin? On occasion, yes. But guess what...the VOTING PUBLIC put them there, and the VOTING PUBLIC continues to vote in the same slime every year. Who is really to blame? The UNEDUCATED voters who only vote incumbent because they don't bother to take the time to research the ballot (which, sadly, it about 70% of the typical voting public these days).
And some employers in the public sector will not let their employees take off more than a month without filing for a leave of absence, so it makes it even harder for them to use all that time in one fell swoop. Most of them cash it out when they retire.

And, the cash out in Mohave County is limited to 240 hours, which is pretty much the same as the max accrual for annual leave for other government entities. The difference between 240 and 900 is that the Mohave County PTO is, I believe, both sick and annual leave, and sick leave for govt employees is not cashed out when one leaves employment.

[rich67]

Originally Posted by observer53

And, the cash out in Mohave County is limited to 240 hours, which is pretty much the same as the max accrual for annual leave for other government entities. The difference between 240 and 900 is that the Mohave County PTO is, I believe, both sick and annual leave, and sick leave for govt employees is not cashed out when one leaves employment.

Yep, they put a cap on the cash outs for both sick and vacation time. I am allowed 600 hours of accrued sick and 500 of vacation. But I can only cash out 250 vacation and 200 sick at the time of retirement. It's a nice little chunk of change to get kick started on retired life, paying off a car or some debt, so I can survive on basically nothing until SS kicks in.

[Fiddlehead]

I think that 900 hours of carry over describes a rather extreme situation in which an employee took no vacation at all for nearly 10 years.

If we assume that employees accrue about 8 hours a month, it would require 112.5 months to get to 900 hours. So, this is the ceiling for some workaholic who hordes vacation hours with the notion of cashing in upon retirement or resignation. If a person accrues 8 hours a month, and actually uses them each year, it amounts to about 96 hours, or 2 1/2 weeks of vacation a year. Nothing outrageous about that. If it is 8 hours every two weeks, well that would be about 5 weeks of vacation a year. It would be modest by European terms, but more than most Americans get. I could not get the accrual rate from the article, which is probably the real nut. Ultimately, the vacation hours is a benefit that probably accrues more to folks in high demand fields than in less skilled fields, where labor is easier to get.

Capping the accrual maximum seems like it keeps people from hording hours, and actually getting people to take vacations during their work tenure, which seems more sensible with respect to rest, rejuvenation,etc. But you might also say putting limits on what a person does with earned benefits is taking away a "liberty" that was offered as part of the terms of the job.

[gemstone1]

"8 hrs per paycheck" weekly ? every two weeks ? monthly ? It would make a huge difference in accumulated hours. I suspect every two weeks....so that would make 5 weeks a of vacation eligibility per year, say you "banked" 1 week per year...it would take you 22 years to accumulate 900 hours...in other words almost your entire career....not as bad as it originally sounded.

Regards
Gemstone1