mrken30

I work for a non-profit so a certain number of volunteer days are required from the company. There is a huge push to get people to volunteer. It's manager dependent on whether you have to use PTO for the volunteer days. They want people to put down volunteer days they do outside of work aswell.

Beaverstate

Depends on the industry and company I suppose. My son started as a temp for an IT company 3 years ago. Once hired on he received 5 weeks vacation per year. He just took the month of October off for a vacation to Baja California Gulf side.

mrken30

I think the Tech industry gives reasonable vacation time/benefits. I do miss being able just to pull a beer once in a while at lunchtime.

glowie

So I read one comment where someone says the wife renegotiated from 15 to 20 days, saying her old job had more, so to match that.

How common is negotiating about vacation time?
I'm currently on the hunt for a new job (still having my current one). I now get a (for American standards) generous package: 11 holidays (bank industry), 15 pto, 1 floating and 10 sick days (I got that right after 90days in the company, been with the company for 1 1/2 years now). After 3 years of employment, I'd get a "raise" to 20 pto days.
It's a Canadian company in the USA.

But, since I firstly don't really like the job and secondly the US branch was/is to be sold, no one knows what's coming next.
Me being German I was used to 30 days before, with unlimited sick, but I can arrange myself with the 15 days, much less would be a pain.

I have an interview this week, if an offer is extended is it okay to haggle over vacation time if it should be less than what I have now?

dj6372

If I schedule overtime for the weekend, my employees have to book a day's vacation to not work!!
Mandatory overtime makes my job easier but it sucks for my guys/gals.

mrken30

I think it depends on the company. I was in the same position as you and unfortunately the company I moved to is large so they do not make exceptions to vacation for 99% of employees. It would be too difficult to track in their automated systems. The managers try to work the system locally and tell employees to take time off without putting it into the system. Smaller companies may be more flexible.

Giantaxe

I know people who have managed it. I've tried myself in the past, but met a reluctance to do it. I do remember with one job they ended up giving me more money and suggested I take unpaid leave instead.

Pulaski

On the contrary, an automated system should be easier to manage, especially if it just means giving a new hire the same as someone with, say, ten years service. A hiring manager at my employer can waive the usual lower vacation entitlement for a new hire, but are unlikely to do so for a lower level position. However when hiring someone with relevant experience then it is certainly possible. That said, I don't believe it is ever offered voluntarily, and very few people ever bother to ask. As a non-financial benefit it is much easier to approve than, say, a higher starting salary.

mrken30

The systems we have allocated vacation based on start date and job grade. This is automatically generated and updated once a year by batch jobs. It is possible I supposed to put in an earlier start date but that causes other issues. They could also change the grade , but again that has its own issues.

Pulaski

Right, if you run a totally inflexible system then one-off changes would be difficult, and I wouldn't recommend §çrewing around with either the start date or grade just to change the number if days vacation. I doubt most large or very large employers would choose to run a totally inflexible system like that.

kins

If they want you then it's certainly worth trying. A friend is trying to hire someone at the moment and he certainly would give him more vacation time if that was what it took.

mrken30

It may be an indication on the flexibility on whether the hiring manager offers you the position or if an HR person offers you the position. Going through a third party does not make things simple. Also HR people are sometime hard to deal with at the best of times.

Our PTO administration is outsourced which may be why there is no flexibility. To book time off we need to call a third party. Same with our benefits.

At the end of the day it doesn't hurt to ask for extra vacation, either paid or unpaid.

glowie

Thanks a bunch for all the responses.

I haven't read (but didn't search in detail) a lot about people negotiating the vacation days, mostly the salary. I know already the ballpark of the salary, but besides the glassdoor info of one employee who said it's a generous pto policy, I have no clue about the vacation time. (And if they would do the higher pay with then me taking unpaid, I can live with that as well)

But yes, if it is lower than my pto time now, I will definitely ask, if they say yes I'm happy and if not than I tried at least.
Anyways, need to get through the interview and offered the position first

mrken30

The other thing to be aware of, quite often there is no contract unless you are very senior and sometimes managers will agree things they are unable to keep because of corporate policy. But again, at least you tried.

Giantaxe

Or the manager who made an "unwritten" agreement gets fired, moves to a different role etc etc. Really, if you don't have something in writing - e.g. in an offer letter etc, it's probably not worth the paper it's not written on.