Vacation Days

sassylu

I work for a small company (less then 10 employees).  My boss only allows 10 vacation days per year, only after you have worked here 1 year . I'm trying to bring him into the 21st century in getting us more vacation time, even though vacation time is not mandatory in California.  We have no sick leave.  We do close between Christmas and New Years so we do use 1 week at that time, which leaves us with 5 days for the whole year (if we don't get sick).  We can take time off wirthout pay, which is not used very often.  When someone is out, we always make sure that job is covered, that's not even an issue.  We have no way of earning any extra days.  10 days is it period. I have butted heads with him over and over trying to reason with him.  We did hire someone new, who did not know of our vacation policy but when he was negotiating on coming here, he asked for 3 weeks vacation and got it.  Some of the employees have been here over 8 years would be really hurt if they knew he had 3 weeks. Does anyone have any suggestions.  Other than that this is a good company to work for, we have a very low turn over rate as everyone does enjoy working here.

bstouder

It's really tough for a small company to give vacation time because of the need to cover available work.  If that's not an issue, like you say, then here is an example of what we do.  Prorated vacation the first year of employment.  Two weeks of vacation after the completion of one year; three weeks pf vacation at the completion of 5 years and four weeks at the end of 15 years.  Of course you can always tell him that most European countries provide 4 weeks of vacation (they call it Holiday) the first year and even Mexico is mandated to give 12 days of vacation in the first year of employment. 

Candycane

Is your boss the owner?  Why butt heads with him if he's already stated no?  My company is the same way- 10 days no matter and no sick time per se.  You have a very low turn over.  ... are employees asking for it?  Or are you just because you know this new hire got 3 weeks?  If you strongly feel that more vacation time is needed... prove to him how this will make the company better.  Would it lower the turn over?  Increase morale without having to increase wages etc?

 

Does this make sense?

6286642

I work for a medium company (around 160 employees) and we only offer 10 days (2 weeks) of vacation after one year of employment.  However we are also given 3 days of sick leave.  After 5 years we are given 15 days (3 weeks) of vacation and after 10 years we are given 20 days (4 weeks) of vacation.  We also receive an extra paid day off for being a non-smoker.  I have complaints regarding the year waiting period more than the amount of time given.  I agree that vacation should be prorated the first year or made available after 6 months.  We actually decreased our allowed sick days this year; previously exempt employees were given 10 days of sick leave.  Effective in 2007 all employees are allowed 3 sick days, there is no distinction between exempt and non-exempt.  I would look at an area survey to see what other businesses are offering but also conduct an internal survey to see what your current employees would find most rewarding and then go to your boss with the results (if they are in your favor).  Good Luck!

Spuds

I work for a small company as well.  It can be difficult to justify adding adds off to an owner.

What I did here was survey (with the owner's permission ahead of time) some small companies in our area.  Some were our competition, some were in completely unrelated fields.  I also talked to a couple of really large companies--just to give an idea of the range.

I gathered all of my data, put it in a spreadsheet format and was easily able to show we were far below what any other companies offered.  The owner also talked to a professional group they were a part of and found the same results.

Based on the data they added an additonal week and a half of PTO for the most senior employees--and smaller amounts for the newer employees.  The longer you are here, the more PTO you accrue.

I don't know if that will work in your situation, but it's the only thing I've found that works to date.

Good luck!