I finally bit the bullet and got out my 2025 PTO spreadsheet, opened up my 2025 planner (that already has a lot of . . . stuff in it) and looked at EPIC.
We submit our PTO requests in July of the year prior, and honestly . . . there were a number of 2025 events that weren’t yet on my radar.
I was smart and created placeholder space, blocking more days than I was actually going to take in the spring, but whew. Time marches on and I desperately needed to do this audit and make my requests so that 2025 templates match when I actually plan to be working.
PTO Clusters?
I am noticing that most of my PTO requests are clustered in the spring/early summer and at the end of the year. I guess this makes sense. There is a long stretch from early July to late September when I will not be taking off at all, which is a bit sad since it’s our gross weather season and historically I’ve enjoyed LEAVING our steamy stormy area during that time! But this year we’ll be taking our summer family trip earlier and I think it may actually pay off in terms of avoiding crowd/peak season. PLUS, last year I learned the harder way that I do not enjoy travel just before the start of school!
I also found myself floundering with what to do about spring break, since there are THREE weeks with various kids off, Feb through April. A has 2 separate weeks off, one in Feb and one in April; C & G have a week off in March. In the end, I decided to mostly . . . work.
That said, we are taking a family trip (cruise) in April (C & G will miss 1 or 2 days of school), and I plan to do some 1:1 kid activities on my non-clinical days during the other weeks when the kids are off. I’m taking A on a trip to Vegas (for a gymnastics meet, not to hit the casinos!) and hope to find a random weekend to take G somewhere. Josh will be taking C on a 1:1 trip most likely to a big basketball game. We are doing family trips this December, April, and June. There is no lack of family fun on the horizon!
I have a good amount of flexibility and time off . . . but definitely not unlimited! Had to make some choices.
ANYWAY, I’m pretty happy with how the calendar looks at this juncture. I have more travel than usual, including 2 speaking trips (one at the end of Feb, one in early May). I have plans for a Josh -&-me anniversary trip, plus the aforementioned family fun. I’m taking A to a far-away gymnastics meet. I am hoping to do a work trip with Laura and at least one fun trip with friends.
If you have to figure your PTO way in advance, when/how do you audit as dates get closer? I hope I am not asking for too many adjustments but man it is just not that realistic (EVEN FOR ME, lol) to plan 18 months ahead accurately!
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This is one of my least favorite parts of my job. As a subspecialist I also book way out, and try my best to have my schedule blocked for PTO at least 90 days and often more like 180 days in advance. But it’s so hard to predict what is going to come up, and also sometimes my office makes mistakes which is extremely frustrating and leads to patients getting upset at having their appointment moved, which is understandable but not my fault! I would love to have a job where I could decide to take a day off 2 weeks in advance.
We don’t have any travel plans the first half of the year so I don’t need to take time off until August for our annual family trip. But I want to block off some days in the summer for a girls trip so I don’t get work trips scheduled during that time. I’ve already booked 7 work trips for 2025 and received a request for 3 more trips today. So I was the obnoxious person who asked her friends if we can sketch out dates for a July girls trip. Otherwise my travel calendar will fill and it won’t happen! I’m kind of bummed we aren’t doing anything for spring break but it falls during my husband’s busiest time at work so would have to pull our son out of school which isn’t a big deal but isn’t something I want to do every year.
18 months out is very far even someone as into planning as you are. At a previous job I used to plan and request my main vacations in January for the rest of the year so that I scheduled my vacations before specific jobs were scheduled.
Oh man, I am so glad I DO NOT have to plan my PTO far in advance, in fact, I can be pretty spontaneous about it and I appreciate this so much. Planning so far in advance feels impossible for me.
I feel like I’ve got the opposite problem to you, in that I can’t plan that far in advance. Our teaching isn’t confirmed for January until 18 December. We fly to my parents on the 20th, so bringing my planner and we can sort out the plan then. luckily our terms are short but the spring term covers both my son’s February half term and Easter (2 weeks, why?). There’s one week overlap over Easter so we are going to go to Stockholm.
Students have reading weeks but they don’t coincide with halfterms – usually a week out. For February, my dad is going to pick up T and head to Portugal, and I’ll hopefully be able to go and pick him up, sneaking a few days of sunshine in the process.
We are planning for summer though. We do home exchange and have had requests through for late July and early august, so we’ll book those in and figure out our travel plans from there.
We have it bad both ways. We have to request a year in advance, but the vacation (or conference) may not get approved unti a month before it happens. Also there aren’t enough days in the year for everyone to use all of their days. This year I’m going to have 7 days that couldn’t get scheduled bc staffing shortages which roll over to next year… but they can’t get scheduled then either obviously.. And yeah, people have had their vacations cancelled at the last minute.
oh MANNNNNN I would be really upset if i had days that I couldn’t use! That seems totally unfair, as it’s part of your benefit package. Super frustrating!!!
My sister (who works for a banking/insurance company) plans her vacation in September for the following year and has little to no flexibility once it’s set. They don’t even allow trades! It’s very frustrating. She’s planning a cruise for next fall and the booking dates weren’t even available yet. We stay in a beach house as a family ever other year and those book in October so we she picks a week and hopes for the best! I can understand medical where you are booking patients or even a job in her company where you answer phones, but she doesn’t have a job like that and it’s SO frustrating! It’s a great job/company otherwise. And she does get up to 8 weeks (she can purchase additional behind her given amount) which is way more than I get so she can’t complain too much!
I do not have 8 weeks but I have lots of flexibility. I could decide right now at 5:45 to take a vacation day today (though I have a meeting with my division manager today and he might find it rude if I cancelled without a good reason but could definitely take tomorrow off). That said, I support a 24/7/365 operation and the expectation is you will do your best to be available at all times (nights/weekends/holidays etc). Everyone is very understanding and we all do our best to cover for each other (especially if someone is traveling) but it’s not a good look to sit at home doing nothing and not answer your phone. We generally only get a handful of calls a year so it’s not a huge deal mostly. There are +/- to every situation!
WOW 8 weeks is a lot so at least i guess she has . . volume to play with!! That does sound so frustrating. My derm’s practice just texted me moving my January appt back two days . . . I didn’t mind at all. (I would have minded if we were closer!). Hopefully then few of my patients that will be asked to switch will also be okay with it this far in advance. It’s hard though!!!
Hi Sarah,
I just wanted to thank you! I was looking for a book to listen to and came across These Precious Days by Ann Patchett on one of your book lists. I really enjoyed it!
This might be a bit of a stretch, but have you considered adding ratings (1 to 5 stars) to the books you read? It could be helpful for books on the list that you didn’t enjoy as much.
Thanks again—I really enjoy your content!
I used to do a “star” next to favorites! I should go back to that.
As a public school teacher, I have two full months off in the summer and use that for travel. Other PTO is used for sick days/family days/personal days (rarely). Conferences need to be submitted 45 days in advance, and I usually go to the same world language one in NYC every year.