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up vote 11 down vote favorite

I received a job offer from another company and I plan to take it. I have 7 vacation days saved at my current company, the last engineer was not credited for his unused vacation days on his final paycheck.

I'm not sure how to take the days off without offending my current company and I don't want to leave on bad terms. Should I try to spread them out? take them all consecutively? or not take any at all?

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Do you care to leave an unburnt bridge behind you? If I despised the place (and likely would despise them if they don't reimburse me for unused PTO) then if it were me I would take a long vacation before putting my notice in. – maple_shaft Oct 12 '12 at 17:17
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Please mention which country you are in if you ask questions which touch on areas of employment law, it makes it much easier for people to give you useful answers (or at least avoid giving you useless answers). – Carson63000 Oct 14 '12 at 1:05
7 days of vacation but what is the notice period? Seven of Ten days would almost be the same as quitting, and walking out the door. Seven days over 3 months, is a different story. – mhoran_psprep Oct 14 '12 at 2:19
My job is in the USA, and the notice period is 2 weeks. – LightLabyrinth Oct 15 '12 at 12:34

4 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

Most companies have a policy that you cannot take unused vacation days after you have given notice. I can't see any company allowing you to take those days.

E.g. in the United States, in many states, the companies are required by law to repay you for unused vacation. You could call your state Labor department if you are in the US and see if they must pay you for the usused days.

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@arpith, that's why I specified that part was about US law. However, I would think many countires would have a government agency you can call to check if you must be paid for unused leave. – HLGEM Oct 12 '12 at 17:42
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Upvoted for being a useful answer. Here in Texas the company much reimburse a departing employee for accrued vacation time. For this reason, a lot of software companies here have no formal vacation policy at all, they just let you take off time when you need to. This works really well for software teams. – Jim In Texas Oct 12 '12 at 19:20
This is probably quite localised, I've never had a (UK) employment contract prevent me taking vacation during my notice period, and it might even be considered an unfair term under UK employment law. – Mark Booth Oct 17 '12 at 16:24
up vote 4 down vote

I think the best person to take a call on this, after appropriate discussion, is you.

First of all review your country's employment/ethical policy on this issue. Maybe the law of the land does not permit it in the first place. Take appropriate legal advice if you have to.

Talk to your manager. Tell him that you have unused leave and that you plan on taking it if it is OK with him and the team. Give him the pattern of holiday choices you are willing to take. In his role, he will walk you through the company policies regarding this issue since some companies have reservations against people taking paid time off once they have put in their papers.

Talk to the team if they are OK with your plan about the vacation days. If you really value the relations with the team then this would be a important step so that you do not burn any bridges.

If the manager and the team are OK, then you have your answer. The advantage with this approach is: you get the legality of it sorted, you get your manager's consent and hence know your vacation is not offending the management as well as not souring your relationship with the team. An win-win for all.

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up vote 2 down vote

How about this:

You march up to the Manager/HR and say "Here is my two-week notice, but as it happens I have 7 days of vacation left. How would you like to handle it? Should I just take the two weeks off or would you rather I was reimbursed for them?"

When you're being that explicit and you're putting the ball in their court there is no way you can come off as the bad guy. At the same time, it will be very hard for them to say "Uhh... neither because uhh.. yeah!"

FWIW the situation you are in is not an uncommon occurance. As for the last engineer that did not get paid - perhaps their policy is such that they would rather you hand in your two weeks and actually take them as vacation, but she/he never bothered to ask.

Good luck.

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up vote 0 down vote

In addition to HLGEM's answer regarding the required payout of days:

I would never use my vacation as part of my 2 week notice. That notice is there to transfer knowledge and generally ensure a smooth transition. What I've seen people do is when they're talking about how long their notice is, the vacation is factored into that.

Employee: "Are you going to pay out my N days of unused vacation/PTO that I'm owed?"
Manager: "It's not our policy..."
Employee: "Well then I'm putting in my 2 week + N day notice, and I'm probably going to be deathly ill those last N days."

You get the money you want, they get the time they want. No manager wants to go through all of the paperwork and trouble of firing you over a few hundred bucks.

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-1 for the suggestion to threaten your employer with taking sick leave. That's like threatening to steal all of the pens from the stationary cupboard if they don't give you what you want! – Mark Booth Oct 17 '12 at 16:29
@MarkBooth And employers never threaten people to get what they think they're entitled to... – Telastyn Oct 17 '12 at 17:25
If an employer threatens you with something which is illegal, they can expect everything that's coming to them. Advising someone to do something which could give their employer a reason to dock their pay and prejudice any subsequent legal claim on that money is really bad advice. Never threaten, never lie, just state your position clearly and make sure everyone understands everyone's rights and responsibilities, that's just basic CYA. – Mark Booth Oct 19 '12 at 10:51

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