BugandBug

Hi guys

Sorry if this has been asked before. For those of you who moved to the USA and were used to healthy 5 weeks of annual leave, how did you manage the crazy lack of leave and absurd sick days in the USA?

Did you negotiate more leave in exchange of salary? Dod you just take unpayed days off? Were employers understanding? Or did you just suck it up?

steveq

I get three weeks of vacation and six weeks of sick leave. Its more than I was ever able to take when I worked in my own company back home.

tom169

I have more time off here than I did in the UK. Over 30 days altogether.

civilservant

3 weeks PTO and 8 Federal Holidays here.

Less than I got in the MOD back home, but for the US, excellent.

Hotscot

Lots of three day weekends.
The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is practically one long holiday for many.
And for a year or two when I moved here it was like being on holiday all the time with the novelty.

Winston_the_Great_Dane

I managed to get 15 days paid time off, 2 personal days and 5 paid sick days in exchange for some salary. 6 federal holidays also given, means I'm not much worse off than the UK.

I reconcile it with knowing we'll have a nice summer with time in the pool after work and not feel the need to run off to the med for some heat and outdoor leisure time.

BenK91

I have more days off than I did in the UK. I also WFH whenever I need to so that flexibility helps an awful lot. If we're travelling for work they will usually let us tack on a few extra days at no cost to your PTO allowance (my manager is visiting one of the offices in AUS right now and has tacked on a weeks vacation at no cost to his allowance).

I'm also paid significantly more than I was in the UK, so I wouldn't complain if I did have crap PTO.

dj6372

I depends on the role you get as well, my hourly paid guys n gals get 0 days for the first 3 months, then can accrue up to 5 days in a calendar year, after 5 years they accrue up to 10 days. Sick time attracts points, and then to the various levels of verbal/write ups etc.

Overtime is mandatory, even at weekends...................

I'm lucky I get 15 days plus 8 days holidays.

Make use of the weekends, tack days to make a 4 day weekend.

You soon get used to it (ish), I doesn't seem to hurt so much as your co-workers are generally in the same boat.

One good thing is you don't have to worry about covering vacations!!

robtuck

20 days for Vacation time and 5 days Sick Leave plus 8 Federal Days.

It's a little lower than I've had in the past but pretty good for over here. WFH about 50% of the time as well, so commute time is easy enough, and choosing Georgia has meant weekends feel much more like a holiday for about 75% of the year. Living on a sub division with a Community Pool is nice as well.

We drove down to Florida last year and I was able to work during the entire drive down while my wife took to steering wheel - it clearly helps to have a job where this is possible.

scrubbedexpat091

When I worked in the US last with vacation is was 2 weeks, and I struggled to even use the 2 weeks, I would rather have been at work vs at home bored. (didn't have money to travel.) so most years, I just took the pay out in cash vs taking the time off. (employer didn't allow time to roll over to the next year, was use it, or pay out.)

celticgrid

While the limited vacation offered seemed bad, for the first couple of years there wasn't a lot of ways to use it; the focus was on getting everything settled down and starting from scratch again after a self-funded transatlantic move. So I let it build up. The employer had no limit on how much you could carry over. It became a useful 'bank' in case of being 'released'. Eventually things balanced out and I used some of it for proper vacations. Now we've switched to an unlimited scheme the banked days are meaningless, so they will be paid out in cash, which will be put somewhere to hedge against them deciding they don't want me any more, so that objective stays valid. As there's no longer the concept of carry-over I think I may be taking somewhat more vacation days than I have historically. Mind you, here we are in February and I've not taken any yet!

ivanidea

I dreaded the move to the USA. My friends in IT were complaining about being on call 24/7, with only 1 weeks vacation time, and that was only if they were allowed to use it!
I get a job in IT for a non profit, and they give 28 days PTO. 8 are required for federal days, and the rest are to be used when I want. The same as I had at my last job in the UK. The only difference is I would have to use PTO if I was sick.
I also dreaded paying for health insurance, but again, I work for a good company who pays for most of my comprehensive cover.
Also, they are paying 9% into my 403(B).
I will try and stay at this company for a while.

odonabit

The problem comes when you want to early retire.... I retired at 54 in the UK coz of the NHS right ?
Wife retired in the US at 57 and has to pay 12,000 per annum insurance until she is 65 =$ 96,000.... out of after tax savings...

ivanidea

Retirement healthcare is the big worry.
My wife wants to get British citizenship, so we may investigate that nearer the time, although that will probably be another expensive and time consuming task.

odonabit

'



Got my wife a UK green card in 20 minutes at The British Consulate in Chicago in 2006...Bit harder now but still nothing like moving West.....

Thing about the NHS is it's awful in awful areas and great in rich areas... I went Emergency in Leeds at 2pm and they told me I would be seen at 8pm !!!!

Got in my car and drove to Harrogate 25 minutes away.. " Come in, take a seat, let me get you a coffee, I will bring the doctor to you straightaway !"

You can go to ANY hospital but people don't know that...