BootsnAll Travel Community

Hi--

I am trying to figure out my travel schedule for 2008. Ideally I want to go to Turkey and Morocco for three weeks, take off various other days to run marathons and ultramarathons (Jay Challenge in VT, Boston Marathon in Boston, Sarasota Half Marathon, Moab Ultramarathon, others--but these will be covered by personal days or working remotely); go to Burning Man; and now I possibly might be going away someplace else with my honey (details have not been decided and won't be for a while). I have hesitated to buy my Turkey/Morocco plane tickets because of this final option and am not sure what to do.

So I realized it just sucks b/c my job only gives 3 weeks vacation. If I wasn't going on the final trip, I'd be okay. Sigh. I know they do pay me and this is the U.S. I'm living in...

Just wondering if anyone has ever successfully negotiated getting additional (unpaid) vacation days. I was also trying to see if I could work remotely (and about 15% of our employees work remotely so it's not a really odd option) for some of my trips. What are tactics for getting management to agree with you?

My boss is fairly flexible and quite nice and I haven't taken a vacation (except using personal days for long weekends and marathons, which is how I'll be doing my races again this year) in almost a year, and didn't take off at Xmas, so they really appreciate it.

Sorry for rambling--thanks!

Yes.

I talked my boss into giving me 5 weeks unpaid leave and used 3 weeks vacation to go to the Philippines for a total of 2 months last year.

Basically, my job is pretty laid back, and I had worked there for years (seniority counts for something I guess), so it wasn't THAT much hassle for them. They hired a freelancer to have an extra body while I was gone, but it's not like my department couldn't have managed without me anyway. (And the unsaid in my case was: if you don't give it to me I'm going anyway, because this is a "roots trip" )

Cherie, I'd suggest asking for some unpaid leave this year. The worst that can happen is that they say no. It's all far enough off that hopefully they can plan around it, and it helps that your boss is flexible + you haven't been on vacation for awhile.

I wouldn't offer to work remotely unless it sounds like the unpaid leave can't be done, then offer that as a compromise.

Good luck!

Has anyone else at your work taken unpaid leave? You may want to ask them how they approached it.

I will differ only a little from CIB's suggestion, in that the working remotely option would be good on those days where you are going to a race. I assume you would travel on a Thursday evening/Friday morning, and then have most of Friday to bum around/go to the expo/etc. In that case, I would do the remote work option. And make sure to get a few things done (even if it means holding on to something so you can deliver it that day).

I don't know that the fact that you haven't taken much vacation really comes into play here (other than you may have some days stocked up). You're taking time off now, and it is affecting work now, so that's what your boss' concern will be, not what did/not happen in the past. Just reassure your boss that it won't affect your work, that you will have everything in order before you leave, etc.

I've never asked for unpaid time, so I don't have much advice to add on that front. In my company, any unpaid leave is typically more long-term and related to military service or medical problems.

However, I have read in a few places that it's sometimes possible to negotiate extra vacation days (paid and permanent!) in lieu of your next pay raise. You might try some variation on that theme if you're looking to increase your 3 weeks on a more permanent basis. In any case, good luck and let us know how it works out!

I agree with Liforce. I was also going to recommend that next time you have a review and they are willing to give you a raise, you could ask if you could sustitute vacation days for Salary. If you make say $2000 a week before taxes then its usually an even trade-off to sacrifice $2000 of the raise for the extra week of vacation. I have definitely heard of people negotiating this successfully. The problem will be if you are not due for a raise for a while your plans will be up in the air. If your boss is cool you could ask for a meeting and ask if when the time comes if he will consider it so you will have an idea of whether it will pan out.

lastly, you can usually go over your vacation time, but this means taking less in the future(so a sad option). Good luck!