Yeah, I get three weeks' vacation but I can buy additional vacation days in increments of 7.5 hours up to a full week of 37.5 hours. The purchase price is one's pro-rated salary pre-tax and is deducted from each pay check January through November.
The downside is that the purchased vacation can only be used after all regular vacation is taken, and it can't be carried forward. Any unused purchased vacation is paid back in the first pay of December so that the books can be closed cleanly in the calendar year. The implication is that those who purchase extra vacation must exhaust all possible vacation days before November 30, meaning there's no ability to use them to pad one's xmas holidays.
We can only arrange for purchased vacation during the open enrollment period so my group usually buys in to the max knowing we'll get the $$$ back again if it goes unused.
As for ExpressVue, it works really well! It took a little geometry to figure out where to point the dish but we get 88% signal strength and I can keep up with events back home whenever I feel the need. Alas, it's become more expensive: four years ago, it was $9/month and now it's north of $33/month. In Canadian dollars, of course.
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Date: 2006-11-09 01:38 am (UTC)The downside is that the purchased vacation can only be used after all regular vacation is taken, and it can't be carried forward. Any unused purchased vacation is paid back in the first pay of December so that the books can be closed cleanly in the calendar year. The implication is that those who purchase extra vacation must exhaust all possible vacation days before November 30, meaning there's no ability to use them to pad one's xmas holidays.
We can only arrange for purchased vacation during the open enrollment period so my group usually buys in to the max knowing we'll get the $$$ back again if it goes unused.
As for ExpressVue, it works really well! It took a little geometry to figure out where to point the dish but we get 88% signal strength and I can keep up with events back home whenever I feel the need. Alas, it's become more expensive: four years ago, it was $9/month and now it's north of $33/month. In Canadian dollars, of course.