Should I cancel vacation

Yes

Definitely yes!

Since we are in various stages of opening up, you could try travelling somewhere local and being safe about it. Such as camping, day trips, etc.

I think mental vacations are much needed during these days. You can also try spreading out vacation throughout weeks, instead of taking a whole week.

Yes, go and support somewhere local. Plenty of nice places to stay around.

We're in a similar boat, and are leaning towards a week to get away from the home office and spend time at a campground or cabin.

We had a couple of trips booked to visit family this year that have either been canceled or are about to be canceled. As a result, we haven't taken any vacation for over 9 months.

Burnout is real. We need a break.

Some companies are forcing their employees to take their vacation, you might want to check with them. No one can answer this question but yourself. Do you feel you will burn out if you continue working until next year?

I booked next week off and I'm really looking forward to it. I have literally nothing planned so far, but I'm fine with that.

As others have already mentioned, taking a complete break from work is important, especially during these challenging times. I've ended up working so many more hours since I started working from home that I'm beyond burnt out... So no, you shouldn't cancel your vacation unless you are able to carry it over and have a chill WFH job... even then I'd still take a few days here and there... All I know is I'm going to be dusting off the old PS4 and Vita during my break...

Congratulations OP on your current job.

I faintly recall you were a little frustrated during the job search a year or two ago.

bluenose2 wrote: ↑ so I have a pre-approved vacation coming up
im thinking of canceling because I have no plans
and I work from home since Covid
can't go anywhere because of the pandemic
should I cancel my vacation?!
it would be just like a regular week if I did.

You can but your company can also denied you citing they already have a plan on your vacation days.

My employer doesn't allow vacation day payouts so my colleagues are either:
- Cancelling all 2020 vacation and rolling over their days to 2021
- Taking Fridays off
- Taking Fridays off during statutory holidays for extra long weekends.

I've taken a few days here and there and just stayed home all day playing PS4 and ordering food delivery.

Mulder and Scully wrote: ↑ My employer doesn't allow vacation day payouts so my colleagues are either:
- Cancelling all 2020 vacation and rolling over their days to 2021
- Taking Fridays off
- Taking Fridays off during statutory holidays for extra long weekends.

I've taken a few days here and there and just stayed home all day playing PS4 and ordering food delivery.

Thankfully mine allows rollovers and payout.

Cancel and take 1 day here and 1 day there.

Cancel and take every Friday or Monday off..extra long weekend!

No you shouldn't.

Congrats on having a job, I also remember those threads.

I am taking my first vacation this year next week. This is the first time in over 10 years I took time off and not going anywhere. I need the time to recharge. Perhaps your body might know better than you do.

The trend I've been seeing is people spreading out their vacation days like Cheapo-Findo said: taking Fridays or Mondays off and getting long weekends to do more local road trips or spending more time with the family.

I would check your company policy on vacation carry-over but understand there is a risk that we may not be able to do international travel until at least 2021, so I would plan accordingly.

uber_shnitz wrote: ↑ The trend I've been seeing is people spreading out their vacation days like Cheapo-Findo said: taking Fridays or Mondays off and getting long weekends to do more local road trips or spending more time with the family.

We're leaning in this direction, because at this point we think we're likely to cancel our Thanksgiving domestic flights to visit family, which were purchased back before all of this started.

At the same time (January) we had purchased domestic flights to visit family for back in April, and those were canceled really early.

We don't really want to take the risk of a week at a cabin, and we don't want to be forced into a winter staycation, so we're leaning towards Fridays off for the next couple of months.

I’m on the take your vacation as planned, as you get paid for timeoff
With companies shedding staff, none of us know whose company/job will remain so taking paid vacation should be ok....
Who knows what 2021 will bring anyways??

I think it depends on your company's policy on vacation.

1) Where I currently work, we are not allowed to carry forward vacation days, the vacation days earned by the person must be taken within the fiscal year, and if the employee is employed with the company and not laid off or quits, he/she can't get the vacation paid out in terms of cash.

Given these conditions, it would depend on how close I was to the end of the fiscal year and also depend on whether I will be able to allocate all my earned vacation days before the end of the fiscal year whether I decide to go through the process of cancelling my vacation days.

2) Where I used to work, we were allowed to carry forward vacation days up to a maximum of 3 weeks (for a maximum of 5 weeks in the vacation "bank") and any amount which couldn't be carry forward would be paid out.

Given these conditions, I would go through the process of cancelling my vacation days.


Ultimately, regardless of the decision, as someone else mentioned, it will depend on your employer/management whether they agree with the cancelling/postponing of your approved vacation days since they've already taken into account that you wouldn't be there and might have changed work schedules of other employees to accommodate your vacation days.

I would try to avoid taking 5 consecutive vacation days off during these "Covid-19 times". If I had 5 vacation days that I had to use, I would spread them out so I would either take off Monday or Friday (to have a longer weekend) or I would take off Wednesday (to give myself a small break in the middle of the week).

lmcjipo wrote: ↑ 1) Where I currently work, we are not allowed to carry forward vacation days, the vacation days earned by the person must be taken within the fiscal year, and if the employee is employed with the company and not laid off or quits, he/she can't get the vacation paid out in terms of cash.

They can disallow carryover, but if you aren't exempt under the labour code in your jurisdiction, they legally have to pay out up to the labour code minimum (i.e. 2 weeks). For example, in Ontario, if you take 0 vacation days in a given year, for whatever reason, your employer is obligated to pay out 2 weeks.

They can also legally force you to take a specific vacation blocks instead, as long as it's in an increment of 1 or 2 weeks.

All of that gets thrown out the window if you're a professional, though. In Ontario, many salaried professions (ex: engineers, doctors, lawyers) aren't legally entitled to paid vacation under the ESA.