Personal Time Off

At my workplace, there has been an announcement (late last year, 2016), that Principal is 'removing' our PTO.  There's a lot that goes into this, and a lot of opinions as well.  But in a nutshell, the PTO that I've earned so far (and I continue to accrue time), I need to use it.  Basically, starting January 2018, we will go to the concept of "Flexible Time off", so basically you are able to take the time off that you need/want, as long as you work with your leaders and co workers to manage it.  Perfect.  (this is basically being done now, except the time comes out of a bucket!)

But the thing is -- this time that I've earned so far, in my almost 19 year career, I am going to use it - I completely deserve it.  I've done a pretty good job of using some random days here and there so far... and I'll be taking several days over the next 3 weeks (a long Memorial Day weekend, and our beach vacation). 

And with that, I've really started to enjoy those random days off.  I just may be doing random things, or it's a full day of errands, cleaning, catching up on house stuff - but it's a day for me.  Sometimes I just need a day of nothing - a day of quiet (not hearing "Mom" 1,000 times!)  Regardless, I feel like I'm unplugging from work, and recharging...  and I have no guilt in that!!  I'm totally going to use the time, cuz I earned it.

I used to be a hoarder of my PTO - my hubby may disagree (not like he is!!), but I was actually.  We had the ability to 'buy' PTO at the end of the year (for the following year), and I would... just in case.  What if we needed time off for sick kids, or we had an emergency.  You just don't know what will happen, and I was prepared.  I knew when I started at Principal 18 years ago, I wanted to have enough PTO to take vacations, and be prepped for those sick days...  and so far, I have been prepped, but we have never taken a vacation - until this year!!  And I'm excited about that.  I deserve it, and so does my husband. 

I saw this quote the other day that triggered these thoughts.