Chicago Tribune news: More vacation time comes at a price

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YOUR SPACE

More vacation time comes at a price

Barbara Rose
YOUR SPACE

November 27, 2006

What would you trade for an extra week off work? A few weeks of longer hours? A month of Saturdays?

How about a pay cut?

That's the deal Xerox Corp. recently offered employees when they enrolled for benefits. They could buy an extra week's vacation in 2007 by having a week's pay deducted over the course of the year, a trade-off that would trim their checks by about 2 percent.

Seven percent of Xerox's 29,000 U.S. employees chose time over money.

"For me, a week, maybe even two weeks, that's a good trade-off," says Heidi Grenek, 36, a manager at the company's research labs and engineering center in Rochester, N.Y.

"But there's a limit," she adds. "At some point, you can't afford to take much more. We'll see how this year goes; we'll adjust if we have to."

Grenek and her husband, a Xerox technician, have two boys, ages 5 and 3. He works three days a week and stays home with their boys the other two days, while she works a hectic five-day schedule.

"It's crazy, right? But I try to prioritize," she says. "It's very difficult when I'm at the office when I should be home, or when I'm at home trying to get dinner ready for my kids and I know somebody's back at the office finishing a presentation for the next day."

She also chairs a woman's council that advises senior managers on ways to make Xerox more attractive to women. For the past two years or so, the council has been researching benefits offered by companies that score highest in work/life balance and also surveying Xerox's own workers.

They came up with more than 40 ideas, from home-office reimbursement and phased retirement programs to unpaid leave of up to seven years to raise small children.

Buying extra vacation time is the first recommendation to be implemented.

Benefit experts say the option is a good deal all the way around. Employees like it, and it costs employers nothing.

"If an employer doesn't want to be more generous with vacation time, this is a way to offer more time and make the employees pay for it," says George Faulkner, a principal at Mercer Health & Benefits in New Jersey.

It should be noted that Xerox is no scrooge in the time-off department. Grenek, who's worked for Xerox 16 years, gets a standard four weeks of paid vacation in addition to the 10 paid holidays and two personal choice holidays offered to all employees.

She'll use the extra week to take more long weekends, "which will be good from a mental health standpoint," she says. "We'll go to the park or the museum or the zoo."

Fewer than 10 percent of U.S. companies offer the option of buying time, according to separate surveys by Mercer and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Fifteen percent offer the option of selling time, in which employees trade paid vacation for money, according to the foundation. And 5 percent of employers allow workers to buy or sell.

Faulkner says that when both options are offered, buying time is more popular than selling. Typically, two or three workers buy time for every one who sells.

Who are the sellers? A lot of Baby Boomers who have generous vacation allotments like the notion of selling some days to put more money into their 401(k) accounts or to pay for health benefits, Faulkner says.

Michael Trevino, 42, a director in Allstate's corporate relations department in suburban Northbrook, is a seller.

Trading days for cash is less economical than buying them because Allstate pays 50 cents on the dollar for forfeited vacation time.

Trevino figured the trade was worthwhile because he had more paid time off than he could use in a year, more than 30 days, including the sick days he rarely takes. His wife stays home with their two children.

By selling five days, he still has enough left for their family vacations, and there's "a little bit extra in my paycheck," he says.

"Medical expenses have continued to rise, so selling some days does help defer some of the costs," Trevino said.

Younger workers with less time off are among the eager buyers.

"I think my generation is moving toward quality of life," says Xerox engineer Jessica Wood, 25, who elected to buy an extra week. "We like to work hard but play harder."

She's at a stage in life--single, without family responsibilities--where she makes the most of her freedom. She volunteers in a mentoring program for teenage girls and operates a Web site she created for young Xerox professionals who are new to the Rochester area. You also can find her Monday nights at a local pub playing a trivia game that's like "a very intense Jeopardy."

She hopes to spend her extra week of vacation traveling to Italy, a luxury of time she can't afford without sacrificing her twice-a-year trips to Oregon to visit family.

Will she miss the money?

"It's one of those old cliches. On your deathbed, what are you going to miss? Having the money in your bank account or spending time with family and friends?"

Given a choice, would you trade money for time?

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berose@tribune.com