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Forced leave

I’m currently researching travel deals, flights and cheap getaways, as well as campsites and cabins.

Why?

We’re all being forced to use up our annual leave during the next three months. As a part timer I expected to beĀ  exempt, but no. Being part time also makes it much harder to actually get the time off and do something with it.

I planned to take my leave at the end of year and escape to some tropical Pacific idyll. Not anymore….

I don’t want to take leave and spend it sitting at home. That’s my holiday leave and dammit I want to use it to travel!

So, because I need to decide when to take this leave by tomorrow, I’m in full tilt researching mode.

I’m hoping I’ll be allowed to take it in chunks, say 4-5 days, because it would be ridiculous for me to take six months off (or whatever it comes to, because I only work 15 hours a week and if I only used 15h/wk in leave that would take a bloody long time to use up 9 days). Plus this way allows me to actually go somewhere! If plans fall through, well I’ll save the money and relax at home and maybe even find a random one-off type job.

I just resent being forced to take leave before I want to, and I absolutely REFUSE to waste it cleaning the house, doing assignments and generally doing the usual.

The problem is timing. I have mid semester break in just over a week, and intersemester break in July. I cannot organise any road trip of any sort with friends by tomorrow. I’m just going to have to pick a week and hope it works out. BF should definitely be able to accompany me during April.

Options:
Cheap flights – where? Wellington, and just soak up the city? Tauranga, go to the Mount like I’ve always wanted? (Probably better just to drive, we would need to get around somehow and it’s not a long trip from here). Maybe in July we could fly to Queenstown for skiing, but I gotta focus on the April break first.

Road trip: BF gets his full licence end April (AFTER my break, grrr) and we don’t really want to drive far in his car. But we can’t rent one until September when he turns 21. Possibly somewhere close by, maybe around Orewa, Pakiri – we could get a cheap cabin or camp out.

Stay local: We could do another night or two in a city hotel. Or we could do a midweek getaway to Waiheke Island or Great Barrier. I still have my printouts sitting on my desk from when I was looking at them for Valentine’s Day.

GAH! The pressure! Obviously I don’t need to finalise everything TONIGHT, but I do need a rough idea of when we’ll be doing these things BY tomorrow (although not necessarily even locations). Do I ask for the first week of April off or the second?

Please God, let me be allowed to take 5 days at a time.

3 thoughts on “Forced leave

  • Reply Amber from Girl with the Red Hair January 5, 2011 at 12:38

    I say pick the TIME you want to go and then worry about planning. Will it really make THAT big of a difference whether you’re gone the 1st or 2nd week of April? Probably not!

    Also, that is annoying they are forcing you to use it so soon!!

  • Reply The Asian Pear January 5, 2011 at 14:43

    Will they not pay you out if you don’t use it?

  • Reply The Asian Pear January 5, 2011 at 17:22

    *scratches head*

    I just noticed… This post is dated April 2009… o__o?

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