Sure, but of those 50,000 words, a tiny subset has to do with PTO or leave (and I’d bet that that section of the contract is specifically mentioned in the table of contents). Homie decided that he wanted to do something special with their leave time. Something out of the ordinary. Then, they chose to not ask their HR department, their supervisor, their co-workers, or consult their presumably readily available company policy archive to research for themselves whether their plan was viable.
I understand not wanting to victim blame, but, as presented in this story, this individual is a victim of their own negligence, and that is something that we can hold folks accountable for.
Yeah, we had our explained clearly in orientation, and it’s in the employee handbook, also available in orientation or the company handbook. I manage people, and if they ask me, I’ll pull out the handbook and show them. It’s not hard, there’s a nice table of contents and everything, and the relevant section is like 2 paragraphs.
In fact, I consult it periodically and find cool stuff that I wasn’t aware of (but also not relevant to me), like bereavement leave (apparently extra PTO if someone dies, and you get different amounts based on relationship), or our profit-sharing plan (X% of compensation to retirement plan, has a vesting schedule; separate from matching plan and bonus).
Read through your benefits, you might just find something cool. If not, at least you’re not doing your actual, boring work…
My current contract is one page long. But granted, it is based on a tariff that was negotiated by unions, so it doesn’t list all those details and just refers to said negotiation results.
Got to disagree with you here. Employers will do anything and everything to fuck the common man over. My manager was frequently taking advantage of grade schoolers who were just old enough to work and making up rules, or not telling them about how breaks work, encouraging them not to take their paid breaks etc. This is not on OP IMHO.
If OP has an employment contract and can read, then it’s entirely their fault. This is something that’s easy to check and is written down so that both sides are clear what the terms are. Even if they can’t read they should have asked someone to read it to them.
I have worked two jobs where I haven’t been presented a contract. I’m sure there are contracts that were signed, but when youre a stupid young teen they assume you dont know anything (I didn’t). I currently am unemployed as I’m taking the summer after college Graduation off. I know what to look out for now but when I first started I was clueless.
A lot of companies don’t have a contract (mine just had an offer letter), but they’ll have a benefits description, which will have stuff like the PTO policy. Read that every so often, and do it on the clock.
That said, the vacation expiration rules haven’t always been around. They started showing up back in the 90s/00s, as accounting firms started counting these days as liabilities and businesses started trying to minimize how many days were outstanding on their books.
I did know a few public school teachers who did exactly this. They’d save up vacation for five years and then take a paid semester off.
Can’t do it anymore, but it wasn’t always this way.
Yup, it was a shift because unlimited vacation was from the boomer era where employers actually treated employees fairly well. Companies started realizing that all of the boomers who had been with the company for two or three decades all had like two years of vacation time saved up. And when that gets counted as a liability (because the employee can just fuck off and disappear for an extended period, while you keep paying them,) it was a big incentive for companies to begin limiting vacation.
Lots of the boomers were grandfathered in so they got to keep their vacation banked, mostly to avoid the “half of our entire staff just walked out of the all-hands meeting and put in for 2 years of vacation time each, because we announced we’d be clawing back any unused time at the end of the month” dilemma. But new hires get fucked with vacation time caps, and big limits on how much they can get paid out if they quit.
I’m talking about the time period where one person (with only a high school diploma) working 40 hours a week could reasonably support a family of three or four, with a modest house and two vehicles. And then after staying with the same company for 25 years, that person could retire and receive a pension (not a 401k that they had been forced to invest their own money in) which was paid for entirely by the company. Because pay wasn’t absolute shit compared to the cost of living.
What a dumbass
Why would you make fun of people for not knowing things?
There was a time when you didn’t know either.
Anon was probably told when he started his job.
Yeah, told in a 50,000 word contract that would take 6 lawyers to figure out.
Meanwhile the average person is just looking for a fucking job and doesn’t have the time to worry about what the contract says.
Sure, but of those 50,000 words, a tiny subset has to do with PTO or leave (and I’d bet that that section of the contract is specifically mentioned in the table of contents). Homie decided that he wanted to do something special with their leave time. Something out of the ordinary. Then, they chose to not ask their HR department, their supervisor, their co-workers, or consult their presumably readily available company policy archive to research for themselves whether their plan was viable.
I understand not wanting to victim blame, but, as presented in this story, this individual is a victim of their own negligence, and that is something that we can hold folks accountable for.
Yeah, we had our explained clearly in orientation, and it’s in the employee handbook, also available in orientation or the company handbook. I manage people, and if they ask me, I’ll pull out the handbook and show them. It’s not hard, there’s a nice table of contents and everything, and the relevant section is like 2 paragraphs.
In fact, I consult it periodically and find cool stuff that I wasn’t aware of (but also not relevant to me), like bereavement leave (apparently extra PTO if someone dies, and you get different amounts based on relationship), or our profit-sharing plan (X% of compensation to retirement plan, has a vesting schedule; separate from matching plan and bonus).
Read through your benefits, you might just find something cool. If not, at least you’re not doing your actual, boring work…
My current contract is one page long. But granted, it is based on a tariff that was negotiated by unions, so it doesn’t list all those details and just refers to said negotiation results.
Got to disagree with you here. Employers will do anything and everything to fuck the common man over. My manager was frequently taking advantage of grade schoolers who were just old enough to work and making up rules, or not telling them about how breaks work, encouraging them not to take their paid breaks etc. This is not on OP IMHO.
If OP has an employment contract and can read, then it’s entirely their fault. This is something that’s easy to check and is written down so that both sides are clear what the terms are. Even if they can’t read they should have asked someone to read it to them.
I have worked two jobs where I haven’t been presented a contract. I’m sure there are contracts that were signed, but when youre a stupid young teen they assume you dont know anything (I didn’t). I currently am unemployed as I’m taking the summer after college Graduation off. I know what to look out for now but when I first started I was clueless.
A lot of companies don’t have a contract (mine just had an offer letter), but they’ll have a benefits description, which will have stuff like the PTO policy. Read that every so often, and do it on the clock.
Assuming it’s a true story.
That said, the vacation expiration rules haven’t always been around. They started showing up back in the 90s/00s, as accounting firms started counting these days as liabilities and businesses started trying to minimize how many days were outstanding on their books.
I did know a few public school teachers who did exactly this. They’d save up vacation for five years and then take a paid semester off.
Can’t do it anymore, but it wasn’t always this way.
Yup, it was a shift because unlimited vacation was from the boomer era where employers actually treated employees fairly well. Companies started realizing that all of the boomers who had been with the company for two or three decades all had like two years of vacation time saved up. And when that gets counted as a liability (because the employee can just fuck off and disappear for an extended period, while you keep paying them,) it was a big incentive for companies to begin limiting vacation.
Lots of the boomers were grandfathered in so they got to keep their vacation banked, mostly to avoid the “half of our entire staff just walked out of the all-hands meeting and put in for 2 years of vacation time each, because we announced we’d be clawing back any unused time at the end of the month” dilemma. But new hires get fucked with vacation time caps, and big limits on how much they can get paid out if they quit.
Lol what are you talking about
I’m talking about the time period where one person (with only a high school diploma) working 40 hours a week could reasonably support a family of three or four, with a modest house and two vehicles. And then after staying with the same company for 25 years, that person could retire and receive a pension (not a 401k that they had been forced to invest their own money in) which was paid for entirely by the company. Because pay wasn’t absolute shit compared to the cost of living.
In most countries stacking does work