Crazy8 09:35 AM 06-12-2013
If you give/get vacation time do you specify it in weeks or days??
I am trying to come up with the way it is most fair to ALL families and myself, as I'm not sure my current policy is. I have that families get free days equal to their contracted week - so a 3 day a week family gets 3 vac. days, a full timer gets their full 5 days. They can split them up or use them as a full week. I however get 5 days - but is this fair to the 3 day a week family that has to pay for 1 "week" plus 2 more days? I do sometimes need to take my time in days so I want that option.
I'm dealing with this now as I take a few days for summer and parents are starting to balk because I took a week earlier in the year (even though they signed the contracts long ago). I know they must deal with it, but going forward I'm wondering if I should change it.
littlemissmuffet 09:48 AM 06-12-2013
Honestly, I don't even take my families into consideration when I plan my vacation time for the upcoming year (I hand out schedules in December/January). I generally take one week in the winter months and one week in the summer months and will use a paid personal day here and there (sometimes scheduled, sometimes not).
Personally, I prefer to have an entire week off, twice a year - as opposed to having ten random days off annually... but maybe that's because 10 months of the year I end up with a long weekend because of stat holidays anyways.
I say do what works best for you. Emphasize during interviews that you take 5 vacation days per year and it's non negotioable and it's not something you appreciate complaints about.
cheerfuldom 10:08 AM 06-12-2013
If your contract allows for five paid vacation days, then that is what you should get regardless of who comes when. 5 paid days is 5 paid days. Even if a family wasnt planning to come on a certain day and you end up using that as a vacation day, its still should be paid according to your contract because every family ends up paying the same amount of vacation days for you regardless of their regular attendance needs. now whether it is "fair" or not really doesnt matter. they signed the contract, they knew about it, they could have saved for it if necessary. throwing adult tantrums does not mean you are doing anything wrong in requiring they follow the contract.
we all have the freedom to set up our vacation policy as we see fit. we may or may not agree with how you have set yours up but that doesnt matter. the parents AGREED to this months or even years ago! THEY knew, THEY signed, end of story.
melilley 10:34 AM 06-12-2013
Right now for all of my current families, I give them a one week vacation where they don't have to pay, after they have been here for 90 days. I have that they have to be consecutive days off. So if a part time child takes their "week off" they only get how many ever days that they are here in a week, similar to yours.
earlystart 11:45 AM 06-12-2013
I give all the parents the same vacation policy regardless of how many days a week they usually attend. They get 10 vacation days at 50% off, and they can use it one day at a time if they'd like. They just can't use it on one of my paid vacation days or holidays. I get 5 paid vacation days per year.
Crazy8 05:45 PM 06-12-2013
I know I don't have to make it "fair" to them - but I want to. I am thinking of changing it to where they get 5 days regardless of how many days/week they contract for. So then I get 5 days, they get 5 days.
I give everyone the same amount of free days, part time/full time...whatever. I used to let them use them however they wanted. However, losing a whole weeks pay if they chose to use 5 at once, was a problem financially for me, especially when they didn't give a lot of notice. I now only let them use 2 free days per week. I can more easily afford to lose 2 days pay than 5 days, KWIM?
I don't take any paid days off, so I can't help you there. It's not that I don't take days off, I am just blessed to have a sub that covers the days I'm gone.