I almost felt guilty pulling this one off, but they changed the game on us and I think I am just responding to what they are offering. At the end of last year, they mentioned that we would be going to unlimited PTO (Personal Time Off), which doesn't make sense until someone said to me that this is some sort of cop out. Normally, we are supposed to have the number of hours we each have for PTO in the bank or we (the company) can get in trouble with the government somehow. By offering unlimited PTO, there doesn't have to be the same accountability, but....
It opens the door to shenanigans. At the start of the year, yes I had the thought that like anyone else, I could take a ton of time off and who would say anything? Other people are kind of doing variations of this and taking longer vacations or more frequent vacations. Up until now, I can say there was one day a couple months ago that if I was younger I would have toughed it out and come in. I think I tweaked my lower back and felt like a cold coming on or something, so I stayed home on a random Wednesday. Other than that, I have been strict and trying to do what I normally do every year. I started taking the two weeks of Christmas and New Year's off. I then followed that in March with a week for Spring Break, and normally I take one week in July, but since it is unlimited, I added another week, mostly because Wife only gets two weeks off in the summer and this will allow us to hang out together for an extra week since she goes back to work next week, but she is scheduled to be in a conference in Houston. Work is paying for her suite in downtown Houston and my plan is to just go and chill, sleep with the A/C uncomfortably cold as most people do in hotels and maybe see some sites. For the sake of completion, I also have been taking the week of Thanksgiving off the last few years when they stopped paying OT like they used to when they wanted to keep things operating.
There is a little precaution with the incoming hurricane which is being aimed at Louisiana currently, but Houston might be close enough to get a real drenching and maybe some flooding. Either way, we will be in a high rise, so I think we can stay safe. Before that trip, my mom mentioned that my brother is having a pool party at the local public swimming pool, which can be rented in the evenings for private parties and this time they even decided to do it on a Friday. Usually, the Knuckleheads do these parties on Sunday afternoons and then get mad at us for not trying to attend. We also have kids that go to school on Mondays and we work too, but anyways, this is a nice change of pace plus I love the idea of a big pool, so I will definitely take my swim shorts.
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