Company policies on vacations

[DC CNC]

What are your policies on vacation?  If someone has 2 weeks available are they allowed to take it all at once?

[AHarrison1]

Ive worked at some places where you were only aloud a week at a time.

Some were based on seniority or work load.

IMHO it is your entitled leave you should be able to use it as you wish

[danatoem]

You should also get 3 paid sick days a year! Most places its use it or loose it I believe!  I believe most places also will not let you carry vacation time into the next year. Its use it or loose it.

[JParis]

4 hours ago, DC CNC said:

What are your policies on vacation?  If someone has 2 weeks available are they allowed to take it all at once?

Yup, can vary from place to place and how busy it is...

If I am trying to take a larger chunk together I try to give as much notice as possible.....other than that, it's usually compnay discretion as there's no law of which I am aware...

 

4 weeks + 3days is nice 

[meatychips]

1 hour ago, danatoem said:

You should also get 3 paid sick days a year! Most places its use it or loose it I believe!  I believe most places also will not let you carry vacation time into the next year. Its use it or loose it.

True.  Luckily I struck a deal with the owner this last year to carry over my entire balance as we had a hot job and I didn't use it at the end of the year like planned.  Instead I stayed and got all the work done.  He appreciated it and carried all my pto over so now I don't know wtf to do as I have an assload. 

[cncappsjames]

My company's policy is you can "bank" up to 40 hours, then the rest of the remaining vacation is paid out at your hourly rate usually on the last paycheck for the year. There's no theoretical limit to the amount of vacation you can take at one time. I've take two weeks in one shot before with no issues. One of our other engineers has take three weeks in one shot again with no issues. My company almost insists on people taking their vacation time. Rested employees are more productive and happier employees.

The more notice you give, the less scrutiny a long vacation gets typically.

I get 5 weeks per year, plus like 7 national holiday days (New Years and/or New Year's Eve, President's Day, Memorial Day, 4th Of July (sometimes the day before or after depending on how it falls), Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after and Christmas Day, and sometimes the day before or after depending on when/how it falls. And I get 10 paid sick days. Sick days are use or lose. I think one year I took 3 sick days... when I had my gall bladder removed.

AFAIK there is no Federal/State policies how vacations are handled... as it should be IMHO. If your company's policy is "use or lose", then schedule it and use it. If they "won't let" you use it, well, there are plenty of good companies that will or do and you have a choice to make.

Good luck.

[PAnderson]

The place I work now and the place before, all managers were expressly forbidden to deny vacation or sick time to people that had it. 4 weeks vacation, 5 sick days and 11 paid holidays. You can carry 10 days vacation forward and 3 sick days. I have never taken more than a week at a time and always carry something forward. But the peace of mind knowing the policy is good is a big deal. Two way trust is huge.

 

Paul

[crazy^millman]

When I worked for people I have taken as much as 4 weeks at one time, but that was traveling to see family in a different country. Now working for myself if I want to take 2 months I can take it. I took off 6 weeks when my mom passed away back at the end of 2020, but that was not vacation that was time off to take care of her why she was in the hospital and then passed away. I didn't make a dime for 6 weeks, but owning your own business these are the things that go along with that. Did take 3 weeks to go visit family in Florida and do some vacation things in Florida end of last summer, but again didn't make a dime for 3 weeks. Next trip might be a 4 or 5 day long weekend on a road trip to a neighboring state. No long vacations planned anytime soon. My company policy is to ask the President of the company my wife and see what she is good with.

[CNC CHRIS]

i only get 7 days of vacation and 3 days sick time. i can never take more than 2 days off because "they" say i have too much work. smh

[Colin Gilchrist]

21 hours ago, meatychips said:

True.  Luckily I struck a deal with the owner this last year to carry over my entire balance as we had a hot job and I didn't use it at the end of the year like planned.  Instead I stayed and got all the work done.  He appreciated it and carried all my pto over so now I don't know wtf to do as I have an assload. 

Start taking Friday's off. You earned it, you should be using it. But I know how it is when your workload is hanging over your head. ("If I take a day off, I'll have more to do when I get back...".)

[Rstewart]

I get four weeks a year and all federal holidays, I'm allowed to carry over 80 hours, anything more is payed out.  Taking two weeks at a time would probably be frowned upon (depending on workload).

[crazy^millman]

14 minutes ago, Rstewart said:

I get four weeks a year and all federal holidays, I'm allowed to carry over 80 hours, anything more is payed out.  Taking two weeks at a time would probably be frowned upon (depending on workload).

Whaaa is what I would tell them.  You have worked hard to have the ability to take off the time and if someone's poor planning is what is creating the problem then you will never be able to take off if you want too. I planned my more than 1 weeks vacations 5-10 months in advance when I worked for someone. Always going to be the end of the world and never going to be able to get it done without you thoughts. Have to decide is family time more important that work? Yes we all need to work to feed our families and keep a roof over our heads, but if an employee does good work and is always going above and beyond then if they have given the correct amount of time to take any length of vacation they have allocated to them then they should be able to take it. No problem should even be given to anyone when following any company guidelines to take their time off!!!

[Aaron Eberhard]

21 hours ago, cncappsjames said:

My company almost insists on people taking their vacation time. Rested employees are more productive and happier employees. 

This is the way it should be...  A good manager should always be trying to make sure people aren't getting burned out.  Most peoples' productivity drops off really sharply and low morale will be more detrimental than having them out for a few days here or there. 

[Colin Gilchrist]

1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

This is the way it should be...  A good manager should always be trying to make sure people aren't getting burned out.  Most peoples' productivity drops off really sharply and low morale will be more detrimental than having them out for a few days here or there. 

So what's Vector Manufacturing's Vacation Policy Aaron? 

Hey, what did you think about Foundations of Manufacturing? Making any headway in that book?

[Aaron Eberhard]

1 minute ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

So what's Vector Manufacturing's Vacation Policy Aaron? 

Hey, what did you think about Foundations of Manufacturing? Making any headway in that book? 

Our policy: 

Yes!  I'm probably about 60% of the way through it.   I wish I had it about 20 years ago!

[Colin Gilchrist]

11 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

Our policy: 

Yes!  I'm probably about 60% of the way through it.   I wish I had it about 20 years ago!

 

Yeah, I know that policy. Fortunately, the place I work for is pretty great about making sure we take time off.

Glad to hear you are liking the book!

I really started to think differently about the role of gauge blocks, how much heat affects the manufacturing process at the microscopic level, and how important it is to keep a clean and organized space while working.

And to think this was all done, a few miles down the road from us at Moore Tool. If you've never seen one, you should check out Moore Jig Grinders, and Moore Jig Mills. Super accurate manual machines with scales in the millionths. They still go for $250K+ these days, and they are hard to find.

[Aaron Eberhard]

30 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

 

Yeah, I know that policy. Fortunately, the place I work for is pretty great about making sure we take time off.

Glad to hear you are liking the book! 

I really started to think differently about the role of gauge blocks, how much heat affects the manufacturing process at the microscopic level, and how important it is to keep a clean and organized space while working. 

And to think this was all done, a few miles down the road from us at Moore Tool. If you've never seen one, you should check out Moore Jig Grinders, and Moore Jig Mills. Super accurate manual machines with scales in the millionths. They still go for $250K+ these days, and they are hard to find. 

I looked them up after reading the book, I'd love to see one in action.  There's a few youtube videos of them, but the accuracy is insane!

[cncappsjames]

6 hours ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

I really started to think differently about the role of gauge blocks, how much heat affects the manufacturing process at the microscopic level....

I love how thermal issues are always a machine's fault. Nevermind that 50mm-75mm aluminum fixture plate and riser that changes 30deg....

Move along citizens. Nothing to see here.

[Colin Gilchrist]

15 hours ago, cncappsjames said:

I love how thermal issues are always a machine's fault. Nevermind that 50mm-75mm aluminum fixture plate and riser that changes 30deg....

Move along citizens. Nothing to see here.

My favorite is "well the parts were coming off perfect at the end of the shift last night, and then I run a part this morning, and the tolerances are all over the place". Yeah, it's 52 degrees in your shop, and your spindle isn't warm genius... 

[Bill Craven]

This was an interesting jaunt down memory lane...

I ran a Moore jig borer back in the 70's for a while until they put me on a SIP Jig bore. (Swiss)   They didn't have digital readouts back then.  It was some kind of illumiated optics.  Super accurate in a  temperature controlled room...

Thermal accuracy:

I shake my head sometimes when I see a young machine tech assembling a machine and holding a spirit level in their hot little hands for too long.  Even Fadal had warnings about shining a flashlight on the tube of a high accuracy spirit level when leveling their machines.

 

There is another company with the name of Moore that makes diamond turning machines.  They can turn mirrors and measure the surface finish in angstroms.  I was contacted by Los Alamos National Laboratories and they wanted to know if Mastercam could hold 6 decimal places of accuracy in it's calcualtions.  Their roughing cuts were .0001s.   They had to have curtains installed around the machines to keep air currents off the machine.  The bases of the machines are thick Granite slabs that 'float' on an air cushion because there is too much "rumble" from the Earth and that was causes bad finishes.  

 

 

[AHarrison1]

On 3/4/2022 at 11:10 AM, CNC CHRIS said:

i only get 7 days of vacation and 3 days sick time. i can never take more than 2 days off because "they" say i have too much work. smh

In a case like this i would actively be seeking another job. 

[sir Camalot]

Quote

Hey, what did you think about Foundations of Manufacturing?

Collin,

What is this book, "Foundations of Manufacturing" that you are speaking of?

[cncappsjames]

17 hours ago, sir Camalot said:

Collin,

What is this book, "Foundations of Manufacturing" that you are speaking of?

Maybe thinking Foundations of Accuracy???

[sir Camalot]

Thanks James,

Looks like an interesting read.

[Aaron Eberhard]

20 minutes ago, sir Camalot said:

Thanks James,

Looks like an interesting read.

Since this is turning into a book review thread, I'd highly recommend The Perfectionists: How precision engineering created the modern world by Simon Winchester.   It's lighter and more expansive than Foundations of Accuracy (which is dealing specifically with respect to machine tools).  The Perfectionists go from the evolution of stone tools to nano-level manufacturing, in sequential order.  The chapters are based on tolerance as society progresses.