Companies who don't pay benefits up front each year

[LineSkiCat14]

Companies are continuing to mess with benefits. You sound like you are in a tough spot though. My company (large tech) sent out a survey early this year which was being driven by a large consulting firm. It was sort of "do you prefer this + this or that + that".

Things like unlimited vacation are a ploy businesses are offering to attract people but it is a really a way for businesses to save money. Unlimited vacation will never get used and there are studies that show people will use less when they have that option. On top of that, the company isn't responsible to pay out PTO days when the employee quits or is fired if there is unlimited PTO.

Back to your original question, my company offers vacation accrual as well. We earn so many hours per week...I get 5 weeks PTO and am eligible to carry 40 hours over from previous year. So generally isn't an issue for me....they will also front you the PTO if you are short...if you leave the company before you've accrued those hours back they just come out of final paycheck. I've not taken a sick day in 7 years. If I did, it wouldn't matter as I am salary...unless of course it turned into FMLA or something.

I cannot complain about my company from benefits perspective at all. We get raises annually...5.5% this year (that is on high side)....but I literally did two jobs for 7 months prior to promotion last month. Also got parental leave for two of my kids...4 weeks. Insurance is great. Work is a headache but that comes with the territory.

They have never addressed inflation but no one has really.

Oh you're also in Tech? I'm a Senior Engineer. Interesting.

The unlimited vacation is exactly that, a scam. People are scared to ask for it AND there's something about the financials where they don't have to pay for it at the beginning of the year, where every employee just "gets" their 4 weeks of vacation. Someone else who knows more on this can elaborate, but companies basically save a TON of money if they do this whole "unlimited" vacation.

I worked for one of those tech startups, with the free lunches, arcade room, yoga room, dumb little perks they use to justify not giving you more money. Hated that cheesy and fake culture.

 

[AmericanDragon]

I get like three weeks of PTO a year. Any you don’t use rolls over, but there is a cap on total hours you can have saved up. However I forgot what that cap is. Once you reach the cap they require you to start using PTO lol

I haven’t used all my PTO both years because you can’t use it until it’s accrued, so if I use it all up every year and I get sick to start the year then I just don’t get paid for those days I miss.

But since it rolls over, I’m also like “well I don’t want to take a day off just for the hell of it.” I’m already up to like 100 hours accrued for this year when counting what rolled over. I got a week planned off in May and another in October but that’s it for now. I’m normally on a 4-way work week so having that one weekday off has been a boon for not “wasting” PTO in appointments and stuff like that.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I get like three weeks of PTO a year. Any you don’t use rolls over, but there is a cap on total hours you can have saved up. I haven’t used all my PTO both years because you can’t use it until it’s accrued, so if I use it all up every year and I get sick to start the year then I just don’t get paid for those days I miss. But since it rolls over, I’m also like “well I don’t want to take a day off just for the hell of it.” I’m already up to like 100 hours accrued for this year when counting what rolled over.

Find out if there's a payout if you leave. A few places did this, and it was a nice little payday when I left those companies.

 

[Fancatstik]

I get 365 days a year of vacation, can't beat it

 

[AmericanDragon]

Find out if there's a payout if you leave. A few places did this, and it was a nice little payday when I left those companies.

Yeah they pay you for anything you didn’t use when you leave the company.

 

[HagginHall1999]

Oh you're also in Tech? I'm a Senior Engineer. Interesting.

The unlimited vacation is exactly that, a scam. People are scared to ask for it AND there's something about the financials where they don't have to pay for it at the beginning of the year, where every employee just "gets" their 4 weeks of vacation. Someone else who knows more on this can elaborate, but companies basically save a TON of money if they do this whole "unlimited" vacation.

I worked for one of those tech startups, with the free lunches, arcade room, yoga room, dumb little perks they use to justify not giving you more money. Hated that cheesy and fake culture.

Yep, I'm with ya. Yeah, I'm a Sales Director these days. Managing roughly 1/4 billion...fun stuff 🤣

 

[KYCAT78]

Anyone else work at a company that says "you only get your vacation days when they're accrued each month"? We only get 12 paid vacation days per year. Our company just went to this plan.

They also increased shift differential for 2nd and 3rd shift, but have not given raises (except to sups and upper management) in a year and a half to any shift, with no raise in the foreseeable future.

I really don't like this company I've been a part of for over 5 years. My husband has been there for 3 years. Both of us are area team leads. But I don't know ify work situation with pay and benefits is as bad as I think it is.

What are others' thoughts on this here?

Not sure what you expect but most companies start out with two weeks vacation, after 5 to 7 years give 3 weeks, after 12 to 15 4 weeks. Normally I'm addition to vacation you get so many paid holidays and so many sick days. All of these are normally combined under PTO (paid time off) and accrued on a pay period basis. Nobody normally gives a employee all or part of their unearned leave because employees could take it, get paid for it and then leave.

 

[NociHTTP]

I get 365 days a year of vacation, can't beat it

3 hots and a cot?

 

[bthaunert]

work f’ing sucks

Idk how anyone gets enjoyment or fulfillment from it

I enjoy what I do and don’t dread going to work, but work still sucks.

 

[NociHTTP]

Not sure what you expect but most companies start out with two weeks vacation, after 5 to 7 years give 3 weeks, after 12 to 15 4 weeks. Normally I'm addition to vacation you get so many paid holidays and so many sick days. All of these are normally combined under PTO (paid time off) and accrued on a pay period basis. Nobody normally gives a employee all or part of their unearned leave because employees could take it, get paid for it and then leave.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable, and I've only hinted at other posts elsewhere what a lot of my coworkers are like. I wanted to get others' thoughts, as well as yours, and their experiences and what their benefits are like. At my company, after five years you were supposed to get two weeks paid vacation, but they increased it from 10 days to 12 days, but decreased the sick time. Those are kept separate. If you run out of sick days they subtract from your vacation days, and if you run out of vacation days you get "occurrences". And now the only way to get any real paid vacation is to wait until October to November to head to the beach It's been quite awhile since my husband or I came home on Monday (our "Friday") and said "we had a good week at work". Instead, we spend our three days off work, thinking about work. I just hate change and thus nearly every week we're so tired and stressed from work that we don't get out and look for something else. We sort of work in a niche industry, complicating things.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Yep, I'm with ya. Yeah, I'm a Sales Director these days. Managing roughly 1/4 billion...fun stuff 🤣

Oh shit, very nice.

I'm looking to actually transition that way. Kind of getting burned out on the tech side and looking to get into more of the sales and AM work. I have a few friends on that side of the house at Cisco, Palo Alto, Amazon and MS.

 

[UKGrad93]

My former employer did the accrual method. They had to pay me for 480 hours of vacation when I quit. I had it paid to my 401k. Nothing for my 1000+ hrs of sick leave.

My new job gave it all up front, but are changing to the accrual system. I like working there and it’s fulfilling.

 

[NociHTTP]

My former employer did the accrual method. They had to pay me for 480 hours of vacation when I quit. I had it paid to my 401k. Nothing for my 1000+ hrs of sick leave.

My new job gave it all up front, but are changing to the accrual system. I like working there and it’s fulfilling.

Where I work, if it's not used it's gone, and if you quit or get fired they don't pay you anything that is accrued.

 

[KYCAT78]

I don't think I'm being unreasonable, and I've only hinted at other posts elsewhere what a lot of my coworkers are like. I wanted to get others' thoughts, as well as yours, and their experiences and what their benefits are like. At my company, after five years you were supposed to get two weeks paid vacation, but they increased it from 10 days to 12 days, but decreased the sick time. Those are kept separate. If you run out of sick days they subtract from your vacation days, and if you run out of vacation days you get "occurrences". And now the only way to get any real paid vacation is to wait until October to November to head to the beach It's been quite awhile since my husband or I came home on Monday (our "Friday") and said "we had a good week at work". Instead, we spend our three days off work, thinking about work. I just hate change and thus nearly every week we're so tired and stressed from work that we don't get out and look for something else. We sort of work in a niche industry, complicating things.

I was a accountant/CPA in private industry. I worked 33 years and had to wear a suit everyday. 99% of all workdays were in the office for everybody in the division. My wife who was a Pharmacist in a hospital worked many hours as well. We shared duties dropping and picking up kids, they played baseball, basketball, softball and volleyball and I coached kids in baseball and softball. Of course we had all the other duties the people have with kids, all of which were shared. We did this with the benefits described in the earlier posting. Just saying what your Company is offering is pretty standard and you just have to live your life around it or hunt for other employment.

 

[WildcatFan1982]

Dang. Ours had to accrue as well but they added up fast. I’ve been at my company for 4.5 years and currently have 3 weeks PTO and have used a week already this year. Our only black out date is derby which makes no sense as the majority of people on my team don’t live anywhere near Louisville

 

[MegaBlue05]

I accrue 7.5 hours of PTO every two weeks and started on day 1 with 80 hours of PTO. We can roll over up to 120 hours to the next year, but if we hit 180 accrued hours, we get emails from HR telling us to use the time or lose it.

Not a problem with me because I don’t exist to work and usually use about half of my PTO every year and carry the rest over. Also fully remote and can work a flex schedule where if I have a doctors appointment mid-day, I can login early or stay in late with no questions asked. Total honor system.

I once had a job where you got 5 days PTO total for the first 5 years and then 10 days after that AND there were certain weeks no one could use PTO. That job made you feel guilty for even taking a single day off. Current job encourages it and I’ve never been happier professionally.

 

[WildcatFan1982]

I had a part time job a few years ago and when I said I needed a day off because I had plans (months in advance) I was told I was hired to work, not to take time off

 

[Caveman Catfan]

Start your own business. One way to fix your complaints. Or, find an other job.

 

[bthaunert]

Another good perk where I work is that unused sick days can be put towards days worked towards your pension. A lot of people who have worked here awhile (15+ years) can retire a year earlier than planned and utilize unused sick time to go towards your pension.

 

[Spica Orbit]

I work for our county government.

Think we get 13 or 14 paid holidays. I get 14.5 hrs PTO per month. 35 hours a week is FT, but I work 40, and the extra 5 can be paid or put to PTO. I think mine figures out to 4.5ish weeks vacation, plus holidays.

Health insurance is pretty good, but vision and dental pretty much sucks.

---
When I retired from something similar I had around 800 sick hours, most of which I was able to convert to service time & 700+ vacation hours that I got paid for. I've been retired for almost 9 years now & haven't had a bad second!

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

Start your own business. One way to fix your complaints. Or, find an other job.

Ron Swanson, everyone

 

[WayneDougan]

I have never worked for a company that you didn't have to "earn" your PTO. Meaning, you accrue PTO and then it's yours to use. On top of that, you can go negative in a year provided you have the time to earn it back. So I wouldn't worry about that policy.

My fist job out of college the boss told me I got 5 days of vacation a year. Turns out she was lying and it was 2. But she thought the 2 days policy was so f'ing shady she just went out and made her own policy for her department.

 

[KyCatFan]

I believe other than my time in the military, most other jobs I had to wait a year for the first vacation week. Then at the start of the next year I could take that year's week whenever. Some jobs I had to wait 3 or 5 years just to get the 2nd week. They were some physically demanding jobs that took a toll on my health.

My wife's work does the accrual system. She basically is up to 6.7 hours every 2 weeks. So up to a month a year off and also Christmas week off using some smaller holidays that they don't close for. She's been there for 20 years though. During her first year, she got a vacation at 6 months of accrued time and then at 12 months. Much better than what I had.