[PopAlongKid]

> I almost never take the full 5 weeks and end up accumulating it over the years.

Companies should have a policy to limit accumulation of unused vacation, such as 3 weeks maximum. The problem with unlimited accumulation is that it essentially allows the employee to assign themselves paid overtime[0] without any business reason or management oversight. For example, if the company policy is to have you work 49 weeks and take paid time off 3 weeks a year, but instead you work 51 weeks and carry forward 2 weeks vacation, you have just assigned yourself 2 weeks of overtime.

I used to work for a large corporation that finally implemented such a policy to address exactly what this person has done: 12 weeks of paid overtime that no one asked for and that the company probably hasn't budgeted for.

[0]I don't mean overtime in the sense of time-and-a-half pay or anything like that, rather overtime in the sense of working more paid hours than you were hired for.

[bityard]

In the US, the only common use of the word "overtime" implies three things:

1. Working outside of your normal shift hours or days on a non-routine basis to meet some deadline or specific business goal.

2. Working overtime is not generally voluntary on the part of the employee.

3. However, most companies acknowledge that overtime is an unwanted burden on the part of the employee and thus usually compensate overtime at a higher hourly rate. This is partially a reward for putting up with that burden, and also discourages managers from assigning overtime on a regular basis.

One of the reasons companies are hiring a higher percentage of their workforce on salary is that they can ask them to work longer hours and occasional weekends without the downside of paying them more.

[PopAlongKid]

This is why I had to footnote what I (didn't) mean by "overtime". The overtime I'm referring to does not meet any of your 3 implications -- it is entirely voluntary and self-administered by the employee. If there is a better term for it, I would like to use it. And yes, it is only feasible for salaried employees, not hourly-paid.

[brabel]

I really don't get the point of doing that. There's indeed a limit on how much you can "carry over" in most companies, but not in the one I work. I've been there for over 10 years. I will eventually take a very long vacation, perhaps 3 or even 6 months. So I am slowly building up (I might take some unpaid time off if I need to) towards that. The idea is to do a kind of sabatical... I've lived in 3 countries so far, and I would like to spend time actually "living" in one of them again, not just visiting for a few weeks. I don't feel like I am doing "overtime" in any way, and my company is getting value from every working hour I put in, I can tell you that.

[balfirevic]

How is it paid overtime, if your salary is the same whether you take that vacation or not?

I can see how it can be paid overtime if company has to pay out the unused vacation when you quit, but I don't know if that's what you meant.

[PopAlongKid]

Yes, paying out the unused vacation time upon leaving the job is what I meant. It is especially pernicious in the case of public employees (police, fire) who spike their pension payments by adding all that unplanned paid time to their final year salary, which distorts the pension calculation.

[ryandrake]

> Companies should have a policy to limit accumulation of unused vacation, such as 3 weeks maximum.

I hate this. My company lets you accumulate unused vacation, but it has a cap of 300 hours, or 7.5 five-day weeks. After you reach the cap, you stop accruing. I'm constantly at the cap, so I just take a Friday off every time another 8 hours accrues, and spend that time putzing around the house doing routine chores and maintenance. I'd much rather just accrue and accrue, and then get all that accrual paid out when I leave or retire.

I understand that companies would rather I not do that, so they implement this "cap" that allows them to stop providing the benefit they promised during hiring.