Career and Kids

Managing sick time and vacation time during the holidays

by mike on December 7th, 2006

December is a rough month for working parents. Between colds and school holidays it feels like the kids are never at school. At work, the holidays are always hectic, too, with end of year and holiday activities.

And, of course at most places any sick days not used before the end of the year will be lost so there seem to be a lot of people *cough* sick this time of year.

I know of a lot of families that save up their vacation time so that they can be home with their kids for as many days as possible while their kids are out of school.

Before the kids were in school, I normally tried to use up my vacation and sick days before December began by taking off a several days at the end of the fall. I did not do that this year for some reason.

I have decided to not use my vacation and sick days until next year for a variety of reasons.

First, my sick days calendar resets on my hire date, not on January 1st. If I use up all my time now, I would have several months before I could catch a cold again.

Second, my office is running an incentive plan where we get a bonus if we work full time over the holidays and an extra bonus if we work overtime. Since I had a couple easy overtime projects, we decided to make the most of it.

Third, I am working from home until the beginning of January so I see my kids a lot during the day right now. Plus, the second I log out for the day, I am home and ready to play.

Fourth, my wife watches the kids on the days she does not work and my mom watches the kids on the other days so we do not have to pay anything extra for daycare when they stay home from school.

What does your work schedule look like for the rest of the year? Are you making any changes to your schedule because your kids will be home more over the holidays?

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POSTED IN: Holidays