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how flexible is you schedule?

Are you able to take time off for vacations, or take weekends off?

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Jennifer’s Answer

Hi Katia, It depends on what career you end up in and what company you work for. I am an attorney in house for Chegg. I work a pretty full week, at least 9-5 most days, but sometimes starting at 8 and sometimes working in the evenings. At Chegg I find that many of us have families, so there is a lot of understanding if my child is sick or I need time for appointments or things like that. I have a lot of flexibility in that way. For our company, vacation is "unlimited," which means you use your best judgment on what you can take and what allows you to still do your job effectively. I mostly take weekends off. For some comparison, at my last job, I accrued 4.5 weeks of vacation per year and my day to day/weekly schedule was similar.
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david’s Answer

These are good questions, especially since many young people assume that vacations and weekends off are the norm. As a general guideline, the more important and challenging the work, the less control you have over scheduled time away from work. For example, an employee doing standardized work may have regular work hours each day and work only five days a week. A person with accountability for important components in a business, such as an account, might leave work early some days, but work long hours when there are accounting irregularities to review. Persons who support critical business functions, or are involved in life safety or medical career, may find their weekends are often interrupted with work requirements. For me, my first job was in a personnel office, where I administered a routine flow of paperwork. It was essential, but routine to the business. So, I worked 8 hours a day and 5 days a week. Later, I became a computer programmer and sometimes the phone would ring in the middle of the night for a problem and I had to address the problem right then, and sometimes into the weekend. But the pay was much more, and those events weren't regular. Later, I became a manager and almost every week, there were issues that kept me in the office an extra hour or so, and doing some administrative catch-up on weekends was not unusual. However, I was also empowered to schedule my own vacation time, and took extra days off on occasion. That is, when you work longer hours, you usually are more entitled to participate in vacation planning.
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Kevin P’s Answer

Katia, I am going to answer this question two different ways. One, for me personally, and two with some of the tags you have in your profile.

For me, I have a very flexible schedule and a great job. Currently, I work 40-45 hours at my main job. I work from the office three days a week and from home two days week. I am in the army reserve and travel one weekend per month and two weeks per year. I have a 10 month old son, a 2 year old yellow lab, and I am married. I work out 5 days a week. 2-3 days at the gym. 1-2 days running. 1-2 days at home. I can honestly say I have plenty of time for vacations and enjoying the fruits of my labor. However, I have a very structured day, week, month, year. This helps me be productive and it maximizes my time. I can get more done with less time. I am about to take my 4th vacation of the year in early December. The one thing that is unfortunate though, because of the army, I do miss birthdays, weddings. anniversaries, and some other specific dates. For me in the long run though, it is worth it.

Now for your tags, I have a lot of friends in law enforcement. One friend for some reason struggles with the 12 hour shifts and then gets overwhelmed on his off days. No kids, no wife, single guy. I do not understand that. Another law enforcement friend of mine is always at a beach somewhere in the world. Wife, 2 kids, 2 dogs, but he just gets it done. He plans well in advance and can use his time off better than anyone I know.

As for lawyer, when you have a case, you will work longer hours, when you start out as a junior attorney then you will have to pay your dues by spending some extra time in the office. That is fairly normal but at the same time, this does get better over time. So you just have to get through that.

Ultimately I think this comes down to how you manage your time. How quickly you can decompress or if you even need that step. Some need a day to just lounge between work and vacation. Others can clock out at 5pm and be on vacation mode at 5:05pm. This has alot to do with stress as well. How well you manage that part of your live. I did work hard to get to this part in life and I am enjoying it. You can do. It will take some hard work, but then you can play hard too.

Work hard, play hard.
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Alla’s Answer

Hello Katia! Like David mentioned, your work schedule will largely depend on the kind of employer you work for and the kind of work you do for that employer. Most office jobs require a 40-hour work week Monday through Friday. Vacation time also largely depends on your particular situation. Many companies offer a pro-rated amount of vacation time per month and may also increase vacation time offered to you the longer your work there.
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