Most American corporate culture sucks.

But really, use-or-lose forced me to change my perspective and get more serious about carving out time away, even if it was mostly long weekends or half-days here and there instead of true vacations. And it really does make a difference in terms of life balance/mental health.

This is the way I have things set up for the employees, it's use it or lose it, and with 6 weeks per year most of them actually don't quite use all of their vacation time. The idea is to encourage the to take the time off when we have some slow periods, because when we are busy, we are really busy.

I get a lot of vacation, and am strongly discouraged from using it in more than week-at-a-time chunks. Like, I have 180 hours banked right now and so could in theory take the 3 weeks in a row that the kids spend with my mother off and be at the beach too, but my boss would never approve it. I might try to sneak 2 weeks. Part of the reason is we're tightly staffed and so if we've got an open position (which we often do for one reason or another) anybody being out makes it tight for everyone else.

Two weeks really ought to feel like a standard amount of all-at-once vacation. Which basically assumes getting more than 10 days/year, which I know is not as common as it should be.

That said, I'm about to take two weeks off for the second time in my employed life (20+ years).

I took 10 days off in January to go to Ireland, I'll be taking 2 weeks this summer, and then another 2 weeks at Christmas.

Oh, fourth time! Twice I've taken two weeks over Christmas, although one of those times it was mostly sick days because I had the flu.

Timelies all!

I get 26 days a year vacation leave. I use a good amount of it each year, between conventions, the Jewish holidays and other trips. The maximum I can carry over each year is 240 hours, which I'm pretty far from.

I wish I could take off more than a week time. I have a dream of a cruise.

Maybe your boss or whoever would have a different attitude if you cite plans that require more than a week, Connie. Like a cruise. Worth running up the flagpole, so to speak, maybe.

It really doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation, to be be able to do what you want with your vacation time.

Timeless!

I've been lurking a bit. But, I need some Hivemind advice. I've been putting off asking for it but I need to get the ball rolling.

I have to move. My new apartment managers have jacked the rent on my one room apartment by $70 starting in April. I have some help from my oldest sister to cover the extra for now. I also got an unexpected bonus from work and my income tax refund came a lot sooner than I thought it would. So I have money for the deposit and stuff.

My problem is a logistical one. you see, I've had bed bugs. I've been through an apartment wide heat treatment and supposedly exterminators are coming in every month, but I'm not convinced it's all working. as late as a month or so ago I still found bites.

I never see any of these critters so I don't know how many of few there are. I don't want to take them with me, obviously. And I don't want anyone who helps me move to accidentally take some home with them.

So, I'm trying to figure out what I need to get rid of and what I can keep. I know anything fabric can be thrown in a washing machine and dried long enough to be safe. And plastic and metal things could be hosed off at a car wash.

But there are other things like books, a family heirloom footlocker, my electronics, a wooden chest of drawers that I don't know what to do with. I don't know how to tell if they are "safe" or if I should chuck them.

I plan on ditching the futon couch I sleep on, but beyond that I just don't know how to tell if things are bug free.

any advice will be very much appreciated. I don't have a timeline yet because I just haven't wanted to deal with it.