We had a discussion onn this group recently about the benefits of PTO vs vacation, sick and personal time off. Now I am interested in getting a general feel for the normal levels of holiday, sick and vacation time in an office based employment environment. We offer 8 official holidays plus two company designated floaters that we use to pad and fill gaps, (for instance between Christmas and new Year), 5 sick days, and 15 vacation days. This applies from first day of employment with no changes over time for seniority. I was recently challenged by a new senior employee candidate who was unimpressed by the generosity of our package and claimed that we were out of line with the norm!
What do you think? Are we? It always seemed generous enough to me by US standards.
Holiday and PTO
Answers
If that is a major concern with them, I'd look elsewhere. I don't know a good, dedicated exec who manages to take more than 2 weeks (or 10 days) off in any year.
Regardless, for my part, our company is 15 days PTO, 10 company holiday days.
We have 8 holidays, everyone gets 2 weeks paid vacation, and salaried employees get paid time off during the all company shutdown between Christmas and New Year's Day.
15 years ago we rolled our 6 sick days and 3 personal days into PTO along with the 2 weeks of vacation, effectively giving our employees 19 days of PTO immediately. We also provide an additional week of PTO with each 5 years of service, along with our 8 paid holidays each year. It seems I can never use all the PTO I have available (we do pay out/roll over unused PTO), but as a long time employee it is a great benefit and lets me know my employer appreciates my hard work.
Our company has 7 paid holidays and 2 weeks PTO. Sick days are as needed. We are a new-ish, small company and there are no provisions for earning extra time off. I negotiated 4 days off for Jewish holidays before I started and was denied a 3rd week of PTO which I requested after my 3rd year of service because I 'already get more vacation time than everyone else.' Even EARNED vacation time and any sick days are frowned upon by the owner.
8 holidays + two floating holidays, 5 sick days and 3 weeks of PTO sounds excellent to me - All things equal, I would leave my current position for that amount of paid time off.
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i observe all the jewish holidays, which add up to 14 work days this coming year. i don't ever have a problem with this because i don't have a choice about going to shul but i'd be really put out if i couldn't take at least a week at some point during the year.
So really you offer 20 days off plus paid holidays? That's about the norm, whether it is called PTO or not, that I have seen at both large and small companies. At a large company I did see PTO go from 20 to 25 days after five years with the company but that is about it...
Our company offers the same vacation/PTO to new employees regardless of their positions. The new President and the new bookkeeper (me) get the same PTO- 10 legal holidays and 13 vacation days per year (no seperate sick leave). I am the only one who has taken unpaid leave, but that was approved for the Jewish holidays, sick kids, etc. The most "senior" employee (person with the company the longest- 26 years) gets 25 days per year of PTO in addition to legal holidays and she is a secretary.
Generous combined vacation / time off allowances a la European style always sound great from the employee perspective, and in theory reward loyalty as the allowance generally increases over time. However from a company point of view they can become huge problem as companies have to staff up to cover the extensive gaps, and pay off holiday entitlements that may be built up by key employees who do not, or cannot be spared from their jobs to consume their holiday accrual. Just out of interest, can anyone operating in the USA beat your total of 35 days off a year?