Extra Vacation Leave: The Path to ApprovalBreaking the restraints of your company's vacation leave policy requires a strategy. The suggested strategy I recommend for getting approval of your request for added weeks off combines two tactics: 1. An accepted HR practice, outlined on this page 2. Well-crafted positioning (and yes, you're going to play the baby boomer card again because it has weight that works.) What you will not do is trade a forthcoming pay raise for extra weeks of vacation. That works for Fridays Off and other part-time arrangements. For example, in Weekend Getaway #1, it's possible to negotiate a 10% cut of your work hours in lieu of a 5% raise. That's a cool value-added trade. But trading money for time is a poor value for Extra Vacation. Here's the logic: • One week of pay = 2% of your annual salary (1 divided by 52) A 4% pay raise is within the range of average raises, so the trade-off in this case would be close to even. What's wrong with an even trade?It may sound acceptable until you take into account that your future pay increases are a percentage of your base pay, a base that would have stalled the year it was traded away. Poor trade-off value. Instead, accept any salary increases that come your way and buy your two extra weeks off. Purchasing Time Off is a Perk?Several large companies—Xerox is among them—allow employees to buy extra vacation days. According to an item in the August 13, 2007 issue of Business Week magazine, “the cost of the extra time is deducted from your pay over the year, often in money-saving pretax dollars.” Who would have thought? Purchasing time off as a perk! Do-It-Yourself PurchaseThough your employer may not have such an offering, it more than likely has an something you can use. It's an accepted HR practice called “leave without pay” (LWOP). Many companies have formal LWOP policies. Check if your employer is one of them and read it carefully to see how your vacation leave request might apply. Your aim: to make your petition conform with employer-wide HR practices wherever possible. So the first half of the strategy you'll use to boost your annual vacation time is to request leave without pay for the added weeks off. It's the most expedient path to approval. What? Without Pay?Having a knee-jerk negative reaction to “without pay”? Let's put things into perspective. • You've determined that you're in a life phase where you're willing to trade money for more time. This is a worthy example of doing just that. Taking two weeks off without pay trades only 4% of your annual salary. • You already get some paid vacation leave according to your employer's policy. And remember, if you deserve them, you should also be regularly asking for merit raises as a way to max your income. • If your financial house is in order, e.g., little or no consumer debt, retirement savings on track, following a budget or spending less than you earn as a regular habit, etc., you can afford extra vacation leave without pay. (If you can't afford to live on 96% of your current income, shift your immediate attention from getting extra vacation leave to building extra savings, with a longer term goal of more time off. Also, some baby boomers will have to make a choice between Weekly Time Off and Extra Vacation to keep a certain level of needed income.) The Exception to the RuleIn most cases, requesting leave without pay is the most expedient path to approval of two added weeks off during the year. The exception? Try bonus time. Do you have a performance bonus or a year-end bonus coming? Before the actual payout, make your request to trade part of your bonus for two added weeks of vacation time. For example, if your bonus represents 10% of your annual salary, take 4% of it in vacation time and the remaining 6% in dollars. Thank you. I appreciate your recognition of the value I'm bringing to the job. This may surprise you, but I'd like to make a request for something in lieu of the bonus [or replace a portion of the bonus]. May I? [Manager responds.] I would appreciate having [part of] my bonus in the form of paid vacation days in the coming year. By my calculation, that would be # days. Could we arrange to make that [partial] substitution for my performance bonus? Make Your RequestIf the bonus trade-off is not an option for you, let's get back on the LWOP path to making your extra vacation leave request.
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