Good Morning!
I know for a lot of folks today is a holiday...but it turns out I no longer have ANY holidays. That's right - July 4th, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Good Friday, Memorial Day - all are no longer days off for me unless I request them. My company is switching from PTO (Paid Time Off) to FTO (Flex Time Off). So, I no longer have 4 weeks of vacation or accumulated sick time. Instead, I have an unlimited number of days I can take. Weird, huh? Colin told me that studies show that people with FTO actually take less time than those with traditional PTO...the theory being that if you are told you have a set number of days of vacation, you will be sure to use them all. This also means that you cannot accumulate time (vacation or sick) and when you leave, there will be no payout of accumulated time. I'm just curious to see how this all works out. No one has ever tracked my time off and vacation or sick time has never been noted on my pay check.
Anyway, I usually end up working a bit on MLK Day anyway and this year will be no different. And even though work has been unusually crazy busy, I still have more "free" time than pre-pandemic.
So, how was your weekend? Mine was oh-so-nice! For the first time in weeks, Dee and I met up Saturday morning for a knit and chatter time. That was wonderful. I had missed our get-togethers so much (first I was away in TX and then Covid struck). Hoping we are back to normal now and will be meeting up most Saturday mornings.
Of course I mentioned to Dee that there was no way I needed any more yarn (unless and until I buy the main color for Planetary)...but then on Sunday I was looking through things as one does and decided that I really would like to knit another sweater out of Lettlopi. I'm thinking of Destination Pullover (love the pockets) and, of course, I've had the pattern for Stopover for years now. In addition I'd love to make the Shakerag Top (obviously not in Lettlopi). I need to NOT go crazy buying up yarn!
Last week when I blogged about winning the give away from MDK (all that lovely Kid Silk Haze yarn), I forgot to mention that included in the package was a copy of MDK's 6th Field Guide: Transparency.
I already have this Field Guide, so I'm offering it up here on the blog. If anyone would like it, drop me a note and I will ship it out. If more than one person would like it, I'll do the random number thing. There are several different patterns in the Guide. All patterns are by Amy Christoffers and Here's a Link to what's in it.
The balance of the weekend was equally lovely. I managed to do some cooking (meatloaf, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy - yum!!), a little reading and knitting and even a little stitching (first time since before Christmas!! - TNT update tomorrow). We also had a nice, long talk with Colin late yesterday afternoon. Last night we settled in to watch the second episode of the new season of All Creatures Great and Small.
And now, my Monday needs to start. First load of wash is in the washer and it's time to pour another cup of coffee. Wishing you all a wonderful start to the week.
My daughter has FTO, although she also has the traditional holidays off, too. But her vacation/personal/sick time is FTO. It works really nicely for her -- and, like the studies show, she tends to be very responsible about how she uses her time off. So glad you and Dee were able to get back together again!
ReplyDeleteBoth of my sons are on FTO, and they also can WFH whenever they like. It's such a different Work World now, isn't it? I think it's much less punitive and restrictive. And infantilizing.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're back to weekends with Dee and feeling so much more like yourself.
I thought you were going to say you don’t have the day off because you had retired! I made a Stopover years ago but the fit was off - my inexperience and the bottom up were to blame. I love that Destination pullover and have a goal to try a bottom up sweater this year.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will continue to take the holidays off now that you have all the time you want (I would imagine most people are going to end up being off on federal holidays)! I have a set number of days off every year but never use it all except for my two annual personal days, which I usually end up using right before they expire at the end of the fiscal year. I am lucky that we get a number of additional days off when I would normally take my vacation time, but I also frequently find that it's more difficult to take time off because work is extra stressful when I get back. It's a bummer!
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you and Dee could get together again! Now that you're both well again, you should have some good antibodies to protect you for a while!
what a rip off. I hope you take days off anyways and maybe they will be kind and through in more off days???
ReplyDeleteFTO seems okay but I wonder if there should have been some sort of payout for any unused vacation time at the end of 2022? Then everyone would be starting at the same baseline for 2023, and they wouldn't have been cheated out of time they earned under the old system. Oh, well, I'm not in charge, nor do I work for your company! I'm glad you and Dee finally got together and I hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThis is curious, Vera. Steve and I talked about FTO last week! Allegheny county has a law that companies must provide paid sick time, accrued. He said there would be a work around to accomodate the law here, but his fear... workers would be gone more than they are now (and they have a very generous time off plan... but there is always one or ten who use all their days in January....because of course they do)
ReplyDeleteI'm eager to hear how FTO works. I get the concept, and fortunately as a professor I had a lot of flexibility about when I worked and when I didn't work, although there were certainly times when showing up was a requirement! Also, the University used to track sick days and we accrued that time, and in the olden days people got a nice payout of their unused days. They stopped that, apparently because many people who were there 20+ years could get a whole year of salary and that...wasn't working out for them. I guess the cynical side of me says that companies institute FTO because it will benefit them more than the employee, so eager to hear about your experiences with it moving forward.
ReplyDeleteI had quite the nest egg when I retired from not using my sick days. I don't know how much I would like that flex time thing. It would be like calling in sick all the time and that always made me feel guilty so I'd have to be literally on death's door in order to ask for the time off.
ReplyDeleteThe school district was not happy when I retired, because I rarely used sick days and got a nice payout. I doubt FTO would work in an educational environment, especially public schools. Happy that you and Dee had a nice Saturday chat and knit.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a nice weekend and were able to meet with Dee. I always picture the two of you chatting and laughing over your socks. I worked in a public school district and so the rules about how and when we could take time off were very structured. This new arrangement sounds confusing.
ReplyDeleteI think FTO is getting more common but I've always heard that holidays are still included. I'm glad you got to meet up with Dee again and I made meat loaf and mashed potatoes this weekend, too!
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