Take 3 mo severance or work 3 mo?

I spent the early part of my career being micromanaged. Example, I had perfect attendance for 6+ years from age 22. I asked my boss for PTO in the 90’s. He said what for? I said to get Grateful Dead tix. He said that’s not an acceptable reason to use PTO. Not making it up. This was the early 90’s.

At any rate my buddy said something to me maybe 4 years ago that made sense. He said better to ask for forgiveness, than permission. It was really difficult to unlearn always checking in and letting my bosses know where I am. Especially 2015-2019 when I was on the road maybe 50%. That’s gone now people miss their own meetings no explanation. Strange corp environments….

Boss is a jerk not allowing you to take PTO.

When I was younger I put in PTO and boss ignored it. I called in sick and next day I show up with sunburn from going to air show and skipping work.

My life doesn’t revolve around my job.
 
When I worked in a hospital I didn’t punch a time clock.

My employer had separate buckets for vacation, sick days, floating holidays, personal business plus the government holidays.

I don’t like 1 bucket for everything PTO.

Boss allowed flexing of hours as you pleased, no problems.

Yeah I don't feel like I need an excuse to take PTO--it's called personal for a reason. If I had to give a reason, I'd say I was busy vomiting--you still want me to come in? I may need an extra trash can in my cube.

Corporate culture is a variable here. My boss recently had his hand slapped for this. He put in for PTO a month before he needed it. Why? His prior job allowed it. He's changed jobs a few times over the years, and over time & at the last one, the "rule" was to use your PTO first. Reason being, if you get let go or otherwise leave, PTO is not paid out--but any unused vacation time is. So you burn those days first. Well... at this current job, his boss took umbrage with that, so this day off that he needed had to be done with vacation not PTO.

Different company different rules. Heck I'd lay down money, same company but new boss (recent change in staffing) and I'll bet he could as he used to. Rules change with time (or with whoever's enforcing them).

Easier to ask for forgiveness. Most of my bosses all but didn't want to know--get the work done and these "can I take a day off" requests is just noise in their ears, distracting them from their priorities.
 
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When I worked in a hospital I didn’t punch a time clock.

My employer had separate buckets for vacation, sick days, floating holidays, personal business plus the government holidays.

I don’t like 1 bucket for everything PTO.

Boss allowed flexing of hours as you pleased, no problems.
We have the same thing. PTO is different than vacation. My boss's boss didn't like the idea of putting in PTO on anything other than the day of, apparently. Whatever. He's gone now so who knows what the new rules are. All I know is, my boss doesn't care about my days, other than I need to take 'em (he pushed me into taking December off--use it or lose it--so I used it).
 
Yeah I never understood the shared pool of PTO for sick/vacation/personal. I appreciate having a separate pool of sick leave, although I'm not sick often and therefore have a bank of 10 weeks of sick leave that I'll never touch. Still, better for those couple of days every year to come from there as opposed to the vacation pool.
 
As a hiring official, any gap in employment is a red flag. If I have 50 applicants, the first to go in the trash are the ones with gaps in employment. I’d say keep working, keep the benefits, start looking.
 
As a hiring official, any gap in employment is a red flag. If I have 50 applicants, the first to go in the trash are the ones with gaps in employment. I’d say keep working, keep the benefits, start looking.
I think that would depend on the industry and level of position. Higher level positions will tend to have larger gaps in employment at times after a layoff compared to lower level laborers.
 
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