Just like any other employer, the Tennessee Army National Guard gives me paid time off (PTO). Over the course of any given year, I receive ten Federal holidays and around four administrative days. I also receive 2.5 days of annual leave per month totaling thirty days a year. That is 44 days a year that I am supposed to be off work. That’s 219 days a year that I work.
You would think that taking thirty days off each year would be something very easy for me to do. Over the last few years, I’ve been at use-or-lose time every September (End of the fiscal year). At this point, and until 2015, I’m allowed to carry over 75 days of annual leave.
My last Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) showed that I had 27 use or lose days. It’s the middle of August. I have thirty days left to work in this fiscal year (FY). That means that I should only be working three days during the next month and some change.
Here is where the government gets you. If you take leave during a weekend period, i.e. Friday through Monday, you have to include the weekend. So instead of taking two days, you end up taking off four. I hate using leave days for days that I’m normally off anyway. But I digress.
Here is my dilemma. I have 27 days to take at the end of the FY. This is the time when the military is trying to spend money that is thrown at them because the government kept it from them the majority of the year. Being in logistics, where procurement is over 50% of my job, it’s not the best time for me to be using my leave days.
I had planned to take off every week that the Kiddo was with me during the summer, but in early June my boss was transferred to another location. I felt that it probably wasn’t in the best interest of the unit for me, the only one in my section, to be taking off during that time and that when her replacement arrived, I could then take my time.
Here’s the bad news. Her replacement has yet to be hired and it doesn’t appear that her replacement will be on board prior to the end of the FY.
Here is the worst news. I will probably work most of the days that I have scheduled to be on leave through the end of the FY.
Here are the bright spots of the whole SNAFU. I will come into work, whenever I wake up. Not when the alarm wakes me up. I will also come into work in clothes that are super comfortable. Not my uniform. If I get the urge to go play a round of golf, I will grab my clubs and head to the nearest course.
Probably the best part of the whole thing is this. I will NOT be shaving on days that I am on leave.
Hope you enjoy your week! Take care!
