About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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February 24, 2014
One of the few perks of my current job was one that sounds good, but that I was pretty skeptical about. Unlimited vacation!
SURE… sounds great but I didn’t really like it because as a certified workaholic, when would I take that time off? It didn’t seem very likely.
A small part of me, the part that’s still insecure about stupid stuff like looking lazy for taking time off, wanted to insist on having 3 weeks totally off guaranteed instead of this weird yawning abyss of “unlimited” stuff. Probably so that I wouldn’t feel guilty for choosing to take time off. And what is that about? Is it the ingrained need to have “budgets” for everything? That sounds irrational but think about it: if you don’t have set accepted norms, then socially speaking, there’s a compulsion to follow the crowd. If the crowd doesn’t take a week off, then you don’t take a week off.
Long term and from an objective perspective, with an unlimited days off policy, you wouldn’t get paid out at the end of your employment period for unused days. While I never relied on that, I always felt like that was a bit of a bonus for me since I could never really take my vacations anyway. At the end of one job, I took home a check for more than 300 unused vacation hours. That was delicious.
Over a year later, I’m now curious whether my skepticism’s panned out, so I decided to do an informal collection of data.
I went through our timeoff log, and took down the number of days that people logged as holidays, days off, or travel days (just semantics). I didn’t take down everyone’s time, just a representative cross section.
Counted:
1. Days off that span weekends since we all work weekends regularly enough that we often notify each other when we AREN’T going to be available on the weekend. For example, if we were marked off from Monday through Sunday, that’s 6 days.
2. Federal holidays, same reason as above.
3. Days working from a place that’s not home or the office on the assumption that in a traditional office, you’d have to take that time off entirely.
Not counted:
Work from home days because location only matters to some of us and it’s not considered a free day.
An important detail: we all tend to be available during our holiday time anyway. If we’re totally offline, it’s not for more than a couple of days, we just reduce our online hours during “vacation”.
Given that we’re all, voluntarily, only partly off during these holidays, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. Or a peck. But it is still really impressive to see that we are, in fact, really using our flexibility.
There are few reasons I think this works really well.
1. We’re all responsible adults. No one has to be nagged for anything, though some people will nag because it’s in their nature to do so 😉
2. We recognize where our work intersects with or affects other people and we respect each other enough to take care of that work in a timely manner.
3. Most of us either had exceptionally strong, pre-existing working relationships with each other, or are really easygoing and don’t waste time on taking offense, taking things personally, or really, doing anything but getting the job done. This makes for an amazing work environment: no politics, very few arguments, even fewer meetings.
4. We’re still a small enough group that we simply don’t have the luxury of being or having deadweight.
I’m a convert and didn’t even know it ….
DANG.
Granted, this could be because I made a pact to be open to taking time away. But topping the time off chart was totally unexpected.
I’ll be interested to see whether my numbers change when I can take the time off entirely, with full backup, because then that might start feeling excessive. Doing the math: When you boil it down, I probably work at 20-40% capacity while on vacation, so that works out to being “off” … 36.9 days. Honestly? The way I work, I don’t think that’s at all excessive.
So two months “off”? I don’t even feel guilty. When I’m on, I’m ON. Sixteen hours a day on, if necessary, no complaints very little complaint. And when I’m off, well, until I have sufficient back up, I’m doing double duty working and vacationing at the same time. I prioritize and occasionally drop the non-critical stuff but I always, always get the job done.
I’m proud of myself for actually using the flexibility to be more present in our family lives, to do things we’ve never done before .
And you know what? This is the sort of thing that our work culture encourages. Get the job done, and do whatever you want otherwise: don’t be so stereotypically American that we only work hard and never play. In addition to all the above variables, no one really cares about when or how much time someone else is taking off because we make sure to cover the work and each other, and that’s really what matters at the end of the day: getting the job done reasonably well, efficiently, and on time.
For all the other life-things that are difficult, in this, I’m a lucky woman.
As far as our budget goes, I can’t say this is a GOOD thing, our travel budget in 2013 was astronomical! But we won’t be doing that much travel all the time. 🙂
:: This is, bar none, the most generous and flexible policy I’ve ever encountered, in writing and in practice during my working years. Have you had better? How do you prefer your vacation days?
:: Bonus: What’s your dream vacation?
February 20, 2014
It’s 3 am.
Doggle’s migrated yet again out of his crate, he has a nightly rotation with more cycles in and out of the thing the later I keep him up with my confounded lights and electronics, sleep growling and barking like, in his dreams, he’s a real, fully fledged dog. (I warrant you he is not. He’s a dog-cat-camel.)
I finally stopped working at midnight tonight, leaving half a pile of things undone because I was just too tired to keep going. It’s an early night, so of course my mind and body conspire to keep me awake. Having dutifully re-read Elizabeth Moon’s Once A Hero to ready my eyes for sleep and clear my head, I turned in only to discover my mind was just waiting to race with all the other things still undone.
It’s been a rough several weeks, feels like months, since things at work kinda went smash.
Every work day, and every day is a work day, has spanned two days. Starting mid-morning, I’ve worked straight through to 2 am, til at the end of each week I’m only pretty sure I know what names are but I couldn’t properly use one. The dog has been patiently waiting for me to come to bed most nights, even disregarding the fact that his precious master had long since stumbled off to bed first. Canine pity. You know it’s bad when that kicks in.
It was just last year I was saying that I couldn’t do business school or a graduate program; I don’t have the energy to repeat the feats of my 20s, working round the clock, stumbling out of bed at six or seven am and falling back into it after 1 or 2 am. Granted, I’m eking out a few hours more this time around but, unshrouded by the invincibility of youth, it feels a whole lot worse!
This will pass, not soon enough for me, but I will survive. Thanks to a husband who does his share around the house and in the kitchen when he comes home to a cold and semi-lighted home, his spouse glued to the computer, we still get fed on the really rough days and don’t worry too much about the other details til we can.
In the meantime, I can lay here and mull over those follies of youth, presumably the price you pay for having the kind of energy that we old ‘uns can only remember fondly.
Why I’d never want to be 19 again….
When I bought my first car, I knew enough to dicker for it, but not enough to avoid the usual moneymaking dodges like GAP insurance or being heavily overcharged for insurance on my own policy. The best part, though, the moment I realized that maybe I was in over my head and shouldn’t have done everything on my own, was the moment of taking ownership. I slid into the new seat, shut the new door, buckled the new seatbelt, turned to roll down the windows and gasped to my best friend in the passenger seat, horrified: where are the window controls?!?
For a long panicked moment, we both thought I’d managed to buy a car with no window controls at all, let alone power.
Of course I hadn’t. But that sheer lack of experience and knowledge at that age crystallized for me in that moment.
I like to pretend I made up for these shame by paying the car off in 3 years instead of 5 but I think we all know that’s not true.
At 19 I was faced with a sick mother and a bedridden grandparent, a partially employed father, an idiotic older sibling spending money like it came with an expiration date, newly dating a boy who’d never love me til I left him (and then couldn’t scrape him off my boots for two years as he tried to show the dedication he couldn’t muster in the same amount of time we dated), still morally and absolutely certain that if I just worked hard enough it would all come out in the end. Because that’s totally how the world works.
Sure, something came out of something’s rear end but I can assure you it wasn’t my happy resolution with a bow on top. But you probably couldn’t have told me that in any words that I’d believe back then.
Ahh youth. Blindly optimistic youth. I would never go back. Not for all the lovely lovely energy that came with it.
There are a dozen more stories of inexperience and stupidity I could share but in the spirit of generosity, how about y’all share instead? (she said, cajolingly) Would you ever go back?
February 18, 2014
I’ve mentioned before, we’re not your normal romantic people so the usual sentiments aren’t really my bag. I can’t remember when we actually chose to “celebrate” Valentine’s Day, probably back in the early dawn of our dating days, when he still brought me flowers every month. Ever so sentimental, I enjoyed this for a while but then asked him to save his money. 🙂
Nowadays, we’ve been happiest spending the night in with a
good movie, good Dog, good food, and good pajamas.
This year, inasmuch as I was looking forward to anything, I was anticipating a quiet weekend, logging lots of work hours, maybe trying a new recipe or two. Oh and updating our Net Worth – excitement! But none of that happened.
Instead, PiC had something come up and rather than send him on a trip alone, in the dark, overnight, I decided I’d just go with him and work from the road. Couldn’t tell you why I had a problem with his riding the night bus (which always makes me think of the Harry Potter Knight Bus) really, but I did.
So we hit the road together, with an extra excited Dog, for a short weekend of errands. That night, we shared take out from In’n’Out, and hung out in a hotel room watching tv (hm), working (me), and guarding (Dog).
Budget Bonus: We found a hotel overnight stay special for less than $100, and redeemed a free night’s stay at another hotel so our lodgings cost just about $100 for the whole weekend. We managed to stay way from blowing big bucks on meals out, just having modest dinners that ran about $20 per night and had free breakfast at the hotel. +5 for not blowing a big chunk of our travel budget for an unplanned trip.
Oh, also, he got me two roses, one from each of the boys, and donuts. Because love tastes like donuts.
Sometimes home really is where the heart is. Other times, it’s just where you hide out from the rest of the increasingly annoying world. 😉
P.S. Geeky love songs are the best. I grew up on cheesy 80s power ballads and believe me, I recognize their ultimate cheesiness even as I enjoy them, but when someone makes the effort to take inspiration from something I enjoy in the geek world and renders melodic magic from it, well, that’s entirely something else.
Cover of Sam Hart’s Mario Kart Love Song by adrisaurus
Original: Sam Hart’s Mario Kart Love Song
February 11, 2014
Once in a blue moon’s blue moon, we have a perfect weekend. It takes all kinds of variables coming together, half of which are rare birds: lovely weather, good friends, delicious (and affordable!) food, time and most of all, energy. This was one of them.
I kicked myself for forgetting to use a 2 for 1 tasting coupon but otherwise the weekend was amazing.
We haven’t been to Napa in more than 5 years, despite being just a relatively reasonable drive away, so we relied on the advice of friends and a fair amount of research. I always forget that it’s not a 2.5 hour drive, more like 1.5 which is nothing by LA standards. By SF standards, it feels like a half day commitment.
Our friends who said that no one should cram more than 2 vineyards into a visit really knew what they were talking about. Taking your time, packing a delicious charcuterie picnic lunch, and moseying from Vineyard 1 to Vineyard 2, and relaxing at each is really the best recipe.
There’s truly something to be said for exploring your own backyard!
:: What’s a local attraction you’ve enjoyed? Close to your home, I mean.
February 7, 2014
There’s nothing that chaps my ass as much as stupid mistakes, unless it’s stupid decisions that cost me money. Unless it’s stupid, aka shortsighted, decisions that costs me a lot of money.
Part of our auto insurance just spiked by more than 50% because my dad got two tickets in the last two years, and made the foolish decision to pay the fine in court ($100) instead of going to traffic school ($250). Not only did he make this decision on his own without discussing it with me, he never mentioned the tickets at all.
He meant well but clearly he wasn’t thinking of the long term effects. I had to explain to him that his $150 savings will now actually cost me over $1000 in the next two and three years in raised insurance premiums.
He’s now paying for his daily expenses (food, gas, utilities) and stupid crap like tickets, but not for housing or insurance yet. I’m not pushing the issue because I’m keeping an eye on the regularity of the utility payments and have had to make a couple supplemental payments in December as he’s not keeping up with them regularly, he’s still learning how to budget on an irregular budget.
As I suspected when we agreed that he was going to start taking on the regular monthly stuff like utilities, there’s not been a word from him about getting behind in payments. It seems he’ll simply won’t learn or change on that front, so my instinct not to trust him to talk to me instead of finding himself slowly being boiled in (debt) water that’s been heating up over time was right.
It’s not going to break us but our carefully constructed budget is going to take a hit unless I can find a way to cut back somewhere else to compensate. Which, again, chaps my ass.
*deep yoga breathing*
I managed to talk to him about the consequences of his short term decisions, without losing my temper, but it was tough keeping a lid on it. The damage is done, so there’s no use hollering about it.
This is NOT what I meant when I said I wanted Stupid Money.
I’m not alone, am I? (Misery does love company, sometimes.)
January 27, 2014
It’s possible that we might travel to Italy this year. It’s up in the air, so while I’m feverishly researching how to redeem miles and points to cover most of the major costs, I’m pretending that this is just an academic exercise. Why? Well, because … ITALY. If I let myself start believing that it’s gonna happen right now you’d hear an explosion ’round the world from the epic excitement.
Update: It’s too late. I’m excited. AND disappointed at the same time. You’ll see why below.
We did just blow a ton of cash recently. That’s why, until I nail down some serious money-savers, I just don’t want to commit to a big trip (aka: travel expense). Not seriously, and not emotionally.
That said …. planning IS right up my alley! Perhaps neurotically so.
Things to do
ITINERARY
This didn’t occur to me til after I started researching flights. Clearly, too excited. We won’t have that much time (in my world, enough time in Italy is months) so I figure we’ll stay in one major region despite my yearnings to go to Silicy! Naples! Italian Riviera! Anywhere and everywhere!
Realistically, we probably can’t be gone for more than 2 weeks, so scheduling no more than 4 cities is a better idea. I’m not a power vacationer, I don’t like rushing from one site to another playing Tag! with the cities and checking off a list.
FLIGHTS
We have miles and rewards points for a number of airlines and programs none of which work out as well for us as I thought it would. It turns out with all their fuel surcharges, my many British Airways Avios points are basically worthless for this. For a ticket that would normally cost about $1000, the redemption quoted was 50K points PLUS cash surcharge between $800-$1000. Seriously? Pay up all the points you can scrounge and then pay nearly the ticket cost over again? Forget it. Might as well buy the ticket and upgrade. If we can even afford the upgrade! Humph.
On further research, we can’t even fly BA anyway, they only have 3 reward flights in the prospective travel months. Really? REALLY? Sigh.
Now I’m exploring all the other major airlines that fly a few possible flight itineraries to see if I can convert SPG points into miles on a relevant airline. Otherwise, at best, we’re paying $1400 per person to fly. Coach. Ugh. (Right, like I’ve ever traveled not coach.) This might be a dealbreaker, honestly.
HOTELS
I did a broke-college-student sort of trip to Italy years ago but now that we’re quite a bit older (ahem, and in a lot more pain), the creature comforts are more important than even I want to admit. Also, PiC keeps saying he’s just too old to go hosteling. The belligerently PFy bit of my brain wants to force the issue and pretend we’re tougher than that but a good night’s sleep and traveling lightly is critical to my survival and there’s no use pretending otherwise. So, no dorms for us, no backpacking-style travel.
The Avios points may well work for us here, we’re able to book hotels using those points and the research is turning up mostly decent options. Location is critical in some parts of the trip, and WiFi is critical for the whole trip since I have to continue working if we do go.
IN-COUNTRY TRAVEL
Access to public transit and walking distances will guide my hotel choices. Neither of us are jonesing to drive over there and there’s little better than getting to know a country on foot, working up an appetite for the amazing cuisine.
PASSPORT
Time to renew! It’s a little embarrassing that it expired last year .. no, wait, in 2012 and I’ve been too lazy to get photo done for the renewal. The packet is ready to go: paperwork, passport, check written. No picture. Time to get off my butt and get that done.
PACKING
I know these 10-year old hand me down sweatpants shouldn’t go to Italy. So a wardrobe review to find Normal People Clothes wouldn’t be a bad idea. New clothes shouldn’t be necessary, but I do have to unearth the untouched nicer clothes.
BIGGEST WORRIES
Leaving Doggle (because I’ll MISS HIM); bending the travel universe to my frugal ways while still enjoying all the tastes that Italy has to offer (except tripe. thanks but no thanks.); and surviving the combination of international travel + working for however long we’re gone.
January 22, 2014
Disclaimer: This is free money but it costs seed money to make money, and it can cost you big-time if you overspend what you can afford. One should never get into this intending to carry a balance. Seriously. Don’t do that.
This is a thing I’ve done a few times in the past (name courtesy of Fatwallet Forums) and had been considering another one, but what with all the traveling and planning, hadn’t quite the brain power to kickstart the process.
Then, last fall, PiC voiced the niggling little thought at the back of my mind: We should get new credit cards and juice the bonuses, right? With all these wedding expenses coming up …
Man after my heart. OF COURSE WE SHOULD.
I did some research and picked the following cards, getting overly ambitious along the way. My main requirement was that the annual fee had to be waived for the first year and after that it was just a matter of how high the bonuses could be:
1. American Express Business Gold
50,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months of Card membership.
2. Chase Sapphire Preferred
Earn 40,000 Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months from account opening
3. Chase Ink Bold
50K Ultimate Rewards bonus points for $5,000 spend (3 months)
4. Citi Hilton Visa
40,000 Hilton HHonors Bonus Points after making $1,000 in eligible purchases within the first 4 months of opening your account.
5. Marriott Rewards Visa
60,000 bonus points* after you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months from account opening + 1 FREE night stay* (Category 1-4) after account approval
At this point, we have ‘managed to spend’ enough to hit all the Bonus limits on all the cards.
I probably should have been more discriminating in selecting cards for more specific bonuses. At the time, it didn’t matter so much because I didn’t have any plans for them, but now that I’m starting to plot and plan, well, it would have been nice 🙂
As we’re still working on cleaning up our combined finances and accounts, we’ve decided to cancel a few of our existing cards and are considering keeping one of the above as a replacement. They generally have decent rewards, I don’t like their annual fees, but I’m needing one card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Or at least the “emotional” side of me does. Before I make the call, I’ll have to do the math and see how much I have to save on transaction fees and other benefits – it might not actually be worth it!
My AmEx Starwood is the strong favorite card that I’m keeping as the hotel and hotel–> airfare transfers are great. Typically my rule of thumb is no annual fees, period, but since we redeem for at least a few hundred or more dollars’ worth of hotel stays every year, that offsets the $65 fee pretty handily.
:: What’s your favorite credit card? Why?
