Posted on Jun 30, 2014
Military Use or Lose Leave: Create a 'Leave Pool'?
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Instead of 'lost leave days' disappearing into oblivion (or wherever they go), should the military create a 'Leave Pool' to assist service members that need to take extended leave?
What are other examples that the military could do to productively utilize servicemembers' 'lost leave days'?
What are other examples that the military could do to productively utilize servicemembers' 'lost leave days'?
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Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 7
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This idea is very common in the civilian workforce and I think it would be an excellent idea with the proper guidelines and criteria. For example, a service member must exhaust all of their leave prior to applying for assistance. A service member may donate up to x days as long as they do fall below x days accrued.
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I responded to a similar post several months ago in a similar manner..Leave DOES have a cost (whether it's taken - cost in loss of man-hours worked; or sold or transferred - cost in dollars or man-hours).. in the current environment cost is driving the train. How long do you think it would take for Congress to begin to question whether 30 days leave per year is needed? Especially with service members banking huge amounts of accumulated leave; or selling or transferring blocks of leave. I believe this is a prime example of "be careful what you ask for.... you just might get it."
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MSG(P) Michael Warrick
As Soldiers, we should not be able to lose our leave and or we should be able to sell it more than just one time in our military career.
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COL Vincent Stoneking
MSG Wade Huffman you raise a very valid point.
My civilian employer (state gvt) has a shared leave program, which I think is a good idea. I also think it is - at least in the abstract - a good idea for the military.
However, it is most definitely a game of perceptions. I can see it now - "You have 10 days of "shared leave" available for each and every Soldier.... it appears that 20 days should be more than enough..." at which point the conversation transitions to what is "fair" based on what civilian employers do. And telling civilians "what I do is super-important and you just wouldn't understand" is unlikely to be a convincing argument.
Likewise, as someone else commented (and I have heard in my civ job), this could be seen as incenting others to get over..... "So I donate my leave that I don't have time to take to someone who didn't plan ahead and burned through all of theirs?...."
My civilian employer (state gvt) has a shared leave program, which I think is a good idea. I also think it is - at least in the abstract - a good idea for the military.
However, it is most definitely a game of perceptions. I can see it now - "You have 10 days of "shared leave" available for each and every Soldier.... it appears that 20 days should be more than enough..." at which point the conversation transitions to what is "fair" based on what civilian employers do. And telling civilians "what I do is super-important and you just wouldn't understand" is unlikely to be a convincing argument.
Likewise, as someone else commented (and I have heard in my civ job), this could be seen as incenting others to get over..... "So I donate my leave that I don't have time to take to someone who didn't plan ahead and burned through all of theirs?...."
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
MSG(P) Michael Warrick - Quite a few civilian companies have similar policies with vacation time. The company I worked for wouldn't let you carry more than 30 days vacation time into a new fiscal year.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
SGM Matthew Quick - Ya I agree. Rather than going away, leave that is lost should go into a pool that could be used to help those with not enough available leave when they have an emergency.
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