Unused Vacation

[Disoblige]

What's your company policy on unused vacation days that surpass the annual approved carryover?
Use them or lose them? Get paid out/carry over more and get a slap on the wrist?

Not talking about personal days or anything, strictly vacation.

I hear people talking about "use them or lose them", and some saying it's illegal to not pay out vacation days, etc. Hard to find a true answer. Maybe the answer is "it depends". And most don't want to ask in case it brings unnecessary limelight to themselves.

Curious to hear your thoughts/experiences.

[ExtraSlow]

Employers have an obligation to ensure vacation earned is used with 12 months of when it is earned. If there is a balance owed when employment ends, it can be paid out.
It cannot disappear, that's not an option.
https://www.alberta.ca/vacation-pay.aspx

[Tik-Tok]

Employers have an obligation to ensure vacation earned is used with 12 months of when it is earned. If there is a balance owed when employment ends, it can be paid out.
It cannot disappear, that's not an option.
https://www.alberta.ca/vacation-pay.aspx

That's only for the government minimum. Anything over and above can be "use it or lose it".

[ExtraSlow]

That's only for the government minimum. Anything over and above can be "use it or lose it".

I think there's still an obligation for the employer to attempt to force the employee to use the vacation before they "lose it".

I use my vacation though, no firsthand experience.

[flipstah]

Ours changed from carry over to use it or lose it.

Became a liability when some people had 6-8 weeks of vacation in the bank

[Disoblige]

For those with first hand experience, anyone tried to carryover more than you should and see what happened? Did you actually lose them, or did they just end up asking if you wanted to carry them over or get paid out?

I find that most people get scared by the "use it or lose it" notice and just use it. But they don't try to leave a few days and see what happens because they don't want to risk it.

[ExtraSlow]

What's with people not taking vacation days? That is madness. I think I carri3ed over 5 days once, which was the amount allowed at that job, but usually very close to zero. In fact, I did carry over a negative balance of 1.5 days once. Was pretty proud of myself for that.

[sabad66]

Worked for two majors and both had the policy of allowing to carry over 1 week max and only until dec 31 the following year. Difference between the two companies was the cutoff date - current one is dec 31 but previous company it was March 31 the year after.

Outside of the 1 week it’s use it or lose it. Being that they are both major companies, I assume their hr legal team know the legalities of it.

Both have rare exceptions where they allow unused to be paid out, but it’s super hard to get it approved by the VP. Never heard of anyone being successful with it.

That said, every manager I’ve had allows for a bit of flexibility within reason and I would allow that with my team as well if they ask. I.e. book it off in the system before cutoff but take the day(s) off after the cutoff as long as it’s within a month or two.

[ThePenIsMightier]

If you work for a place that has bullshit "blackout periods" for vacation, I'd have more balls about rolling them over.
"Oohhhh! We gots da big Projex and all hands on derk fur the work!! No vacay until further notice!" can suck my ass until they have a mouthful!

[88CRX]

Had a use it or lose it policy at old company... so I requested all of January off. They let me carry it over and was ultimately partially used and the rest paid out when I quit.

[ThePenIsMightier]

What's with people not taking vacation days? That is madness. I think I carri3ed over 5 days once, which was the amount allowed at that job, but usually very close to zero. In fact, I did carry over a negative balance of 1.5 days once. Was pretty proud of myself for that.

People scared for their job will hoard vacation because their shitty employer will ask them to burn it to fill gaps between projects. That's incentive to hoard as an insurance policy.
Worley does this.

[suntan]

Ah, I miss the old days when places would let you carryover for centuries. Had one person on a team take 3 months off to burn off her old vacation days lol.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Up to 80hrs of vacation time carried over per year, anything above that is paid out. Same for banked time, but anything over 80 is paid out twice yearly instead of just end of year.

Back when I worked for the UofC, I remember long-time union guys there that had literal years of holiday banked to use as extra-early retirement.

[sabad66]

For those with first hand experience, anyone tried to carryover more than you should and see what happened? Did you actually lose them, or did they just end up asking if you wanted to carry them over or get paid out?

I find that most people get scared by the "use it or lose it" notice and just use it. But they don't try to leave a few days and see what happens because they don't want to risk it.

Yup, happened once in my old place and they do actually disappear from your available leave hours. That was SAP. I assume most HR systems like work day, peoplesoft, etc can also be configured to do it.

[ExtraSlow]

Actually, now that I think of it, I have a family member who has something like 200 days of banked vacation. I doesn't work Fridays in the summer any more, but he's not making a dent I think. He gets like 6 weeks a year now too.

[suntan]

There's nothing stopping companies from doing that, it's just that all that vacation ends up as a liability on the balance sheet.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Yup, happened once in my old place and they do actually disappear from your available leave hours. That was SAP. I assume most HR systems like work day, peoplesoft, etc can also be configured to do it.

It's as if SAP is some sort of System Against People...

[jwslam]

Had a use it or lose it policy at old company... so I requested all of January off. They let me carry it over and was ultimately partially used and the rest paid out when I quit.
I wasn't allowed to have my last day of work fall on a vacation day...
had taken the last two weeks of June off. Noticed them early Jun that I would be leaving Jun 30. Was told that they would accept my resignation earlier and pay out my vacation. Lost some LTI's that vested late Jun :banghead:

[sabad66]

It's as if SAP is some sort of System Against People...

Which is why many organizations Suffer After Purchase.

[ercchry]

Ah, I miss the old days when places would let you carryover for centuries. Had one person on a team take 3 months off to burn off her old vacation days lol.

Worked for one company that prior had merged with one of those companies… they tried to kill off all the inherited managers… but one guy was more expensive to fire than to keep since he had carried over every single vacation day for something like 20yrs, became great job security for him and also triggered them to implement a corporate policy that stop allowing infinite carryover :rofl:

[Swank]

We're allowed to carry over the full allotment for one year, anything unused after that is paid out but you also face disciplinary action for not getting your shit together over the course of a year enough to get it used up. I carry over in case something unexpected comes up where I need more time off. My employer would be accommodating no matter what but I prefer to manage my own backup plan.

[suntan]

Which is why many organizations Suffer After Purchase.

Expensive.
Buggy.
Requires customization. SAP labour is expensive.

[D'z Nutz]

Unless things have changed, and I don't believe they have, we're allowed to carry over a year's worth of vacation to the next year but even then it's a bit of a wishy-washy rule cause it's not heavily enforced since there's nothing really stopping you from carrying over more. Management is even cool if you carry over more than you're "allowed" as long as you have a plan to use it the following year and you've run it by management, ie: you're going to take a month or two off in the summer to travel. There have been situations in the past when HR forced management to just tell someone not to come in until X day forcing them to use their vacation, but that has been pretty rare.


What's with people not taking vacation days? That is madness. I think I carri3ed over 5 days once, which was the amount allowed at that job, but usually very close to zero. In fact, I did carry over a negative balance of 1.5 days once. Was pretty proud of myself for that.

I get 5 weeks+ of vacation. While I do take vacation days, I basically accumulate them as fast as I use them since I have to burn off PLDs too. I will give management some credit: HR was urging people to use vacation days over the last two years and management pushed back saying they're not going to force their employees not to work when they can't go out and do things or travel.

[suntan]

I think it's more of a guideline than a rule. Like if you're carrying over a couple extra days no one's going to care anywhere. It's when you have 20 weeks that the bean counters start frowning.

[killramos]

I’ve always worked in a “you can carry a week, otherwise you need management approval”

I essentially never take my days though and end up taking something resembling December off.

[ExtraSlow]

I used to get 4 week plus 12 flex days, that was the high water mark for days off. I've never beaten 4 weeks since then, but a guy can dream.

My wife gets 4 week plus 26 days, but she's smart and works in the public sector.