Full-time Employee = No More Winter Break
As a student, this time of year means winter break for most. For adults, this time of year means work and trying to fit in their holiday to-do list. While some choose to use vacation days around this time, others are still going to work. While I was aware that being a grownup typically means no winter or summer break, I wish someone had stressed to me that days off are much harder to come by when you work full-time. As new employees, recent college grads don’t have extra hours of leave built up like senior employees do. New employees also tend to earn leave at a slower rate.
I’d consider myself pretty fortunate to have 12 days of annual leave, 15 holidays, and about 15 sick days for my first year of employment. I know many new employees get offer much less. At the same time, as a newbie in the “real world,” I’m still a bit depressed about my lack of a month off during the winter and several months during the summer. Even though my time off during college was often spent work, it was short-term and on an hourly basis. This made it much easier to take time off. Sure I wasn’t going to make money if I didn’t work, but I also wasn’t considered about health insurance, rent and other bills.
So to all of the college students reading this, sleep in an hour or two for me tomorrow. I’ll be waking up at 6:30 a.m. to go to work. To all of the “adults” reading this, I feel your pain when the alarm goes off each day that used to be spent on winter break.
