Lurking in dark corners of some employee handbooks lay the shadowy Vacation Accrual Cap. This unsung policy, loved by accountants and loathed by vacation-seekers, limits how much total vacation time an employee can accumulate. Think 2 x 2 = 4? It ain’t necessarily so. Not when the numbers are weeks of vacation time, you’re “saving up” for a long vacation, and a miserly cap is in place. To get as much time off as you expect, expect to read this.
Vacation Accrual Caps: Putting a Limit on Fun?
December 29th, 2009Be Schedule Smart to Get That Vacation Approved
December 17th, 2009Paid vacation time on the books won’t always get you on a plane. Your employer must approve first. Tilt the travel odds in your favor by knowing how and when to schedule a trip.
More Time Off at a New Job: Learn About Vacation Escalation Before Flying the Coop
December 5th, 2009Also known as a vacation accrual schedule, vacation escalation determines who earns how much paid vacation time and when. Depending on the situation, this could be the most important factor in choosing a vacation-friendly job. But choose wisely. Look before you leap, know before you go, and for goodness sake, don’t take vacation escalation at face value–the face, or butt, you save will surely be your own.
Travel Between Jobs and Create More Time Off Out of Nothing
November 19th, 2009If you landed a new gig, would you depart on a Friday and arrive the following Monday? Most view this as a natural and perhaps inevitable sequence of events. The vacation-seeker sees it differently. A job change can be a wonderful opportunity to “sneak in” a trip. If you haven’t been able to find time to travel while gainfully employed, take a vacation layover between jobs and fully enjoy yourself.
Time Off Benefits 101 Part III: Odds, Ends, and New Beginnings
November 17th, 2009In parts one and two of this series, we explored basic and advanced more time off benefits. In this third and final installment, we include benefits “fit to print” that didn’t fit elsewhere. Within, you’ll learn how to Leave Without Pay, volunteer with pay, and identify some seemingly too-good-to-be-true time off perks that, unfortunately, benefit very few.
Time Off Benefits 101 Part II: Advanced Options
November 9th, 2009In part I of this series, we discussed basic more time off benefits such as paid vacation time, sick time, paid time off, and holiday pay. In this installment, we explore options known to advanced vacation seekers. Read further to compress your work week–and decompress with more and longer vacations, flex your time independence, “comp” yourself more vacation days–turning rainy days into sunny ones, go benefits shopping with Cafeteria Plans, and purchase a better quality of life through buying more vacation time.
Time Off Benefits 101 Part I: Basic Training
November 9th, 2009“Cui bono?” is Latin for “who benefits.” Who does? You do when you become familiar with time off perks and how to use them. In this three part series, we briefly introduce a bestiary of benefits from Comp Time to Cafeteria Plans. This first installment explores basic time off benefits and what you should know about them. Don’t ask how. Just learn now.
Less Time Off Solution #1: Live in a “Vacationland”
November 4th, 2009Less? Yes. There are occassions in life when the pursuit of more time off isn’t an option; where one deliberately chooses to accept less time off for a greater good. Perhaps you’ve started a new career and need to “pay your dues”–that entry-level job may be long on hours and short on leisure. Time off might be uniformly miserly in your industry or profession, but you love the work. Medical expenses, debt, or investment goals might require you to work for higher pay but a lower temporal quality of life–perhaps you’re saving to retire early and need the cash flow. You run a small business where all the responsibility weighs heavily on your shoulders–some discover that being one’s own boss, while deeply gratifying in other ways, can result in less time off to travel than a salaried position. Customers may be the new “boss” to whom you answer. But settling for less doesn’t leave you without options or hope. The question “How do I get more paid vacation time to travel” may morph to something like “How do I make the most of the time I already have?”
Maine license plates read “Vacationland.” For the time off impoverished and affluent alike, living in or near a vacationland has obvious attractions.
Foundations of a Vacation-friendly Life Part II: Learn More Time Off Fundamentals to Achieve Vacation Salvation
November 2nd, 2009Who gets more vacation time and why? People with more time off from work fall roughly into two categories: those who chanced into it (the “accidentals”) and those who deliberately planned for it (the “fundamentals”). If you find yourself without all you desire, plan to become one of the latter: learn more time off fundamentals to achieve vacation salvation.
Here’s how:
Foundations of a Vacation-friendly Life Part I: Get Financially Fit to Fly Away
October 30th, 2009Life has its share of vacation-related ironies. One is having time to travel but no money: the college student with summers off but financial shackles on. Another is having money to travel but no time: the financially solvent but temporally broke professional. Like some perverse law of physics or a demon’s accounting, the presence of either’s quantity seems to ensure the absence of the other. A worse condition still, not ironic but sad, is having neither time nor money to travel: the worst of all possible worlds.
Bottom line? If you live paycheck to paycheck, you seriously limit your opportunities to vacate, even with ample paid vacation time. With perpetually low funds, you also limit your ability to switch to a more vacation-friendly career or job; one that may pay less but grant you more time off than you currently earn. So take the iron out of the irony and get financially fit to fly away.
Here’s how:
Getting More Time Off to Travel
October 26th, 2009Welcome to the More Time Off Blog: Vacation Intelligence for the Travel-starved. Our singular focus? To help structure your life for longer and more frequent vacations. We’re not a travel guide. You’ll find no instructions on where to go and how to get there. But we do take you to a kind of place: a state where you’re able to do more of what you crave. A journey of a thousand miles begins with… more vacation time. Look to us for insider information and inspiration on finding it. We hold this truth to be self-evident: that whoever and wherever you are, there’s nearly always something you can do to better your temporal lot in life. Stay tuned for those somethings.
Many Happy Beginnings,
Your friends at MoreTimeOff.com