By Anusha Shrivastava
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With limited time off, I like to save some vacation days for “emergencies.”
So what constitutes an emergency? Well, it could be that my son needs to be driven to a Friday squash tournament for which the schedule is only posted on Wednesday. Or, it could be unexpected guests. Or, it could be a parent-teacher meeting we didn’t plan on when we first budgeted our vacation days. (Fortunately, I get a few sick days a year so I don’t need to plan ahead for illness emergencies.)
At least once or twice a year, there’s a contractor visit for which we need to be present or a plumber who needs to be let in or other household repairs that require someone to stay home.
This year, there were also weather-related issues – a hurricane in the Northeast and a snowstorm in October, but I was lucky I didn’t have to take any days off for either.
Generally, I save five days for emergencies. But is five enough? Events like the recent snowstorm make me wonder if I need to add to my reserve days just in case.
If I don’t manage to use those emergency days within the first 10 months of the year, I’ll be sitting on a bunch of unused days come November and December and I’ll cram them in at the end of the year. On the other hand, it sure would be fun to spend those emergency days with my husband and kids — in a non state of emergency!
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my two remaining emergency days morph into “bonus” days.
Readers, how do you manage emergency days? Do you set aside vacation days to use just in case? Or is your workplace pretty flexible, allowing you to address emergencies as they come up?