No Money for Raises This Year? Ask for Bonus Vacation Days (Part II)

In Part I of this post, No Money for Raises This Year? Ask for Bonus Vacation Days, I proposed the idea of asking for additional vacation days off from work if you are expecting a raise, but money is tight where you work so there is a good chance of getting nothing at all.

To convince your boss and HR that bonus vacation days are a mutually beneficial reward, I am offering several bullet points to help prove that you have thought this through and are serious in your request.  Tailor these to your particular situation and place of work and be sure to include the results from the vacation day cost versus value calculation that you performed in Part I.

How To Negotiate for Bonus Vacation Days

• Vacation days are not the same as a raise, and cost the company virtually nothing in the form of salary and taxes.  Here is where you show off the calculation you made earlier, comparing the monetary cost of a small raise with the intrinsic value of a similar number of days off from work.
• Granting bonus vacation days to you means that more money is available to give some of your co-workers raises this year.  Explain how you understand that since funds available are extremely limited, your creative solution can deliver a cost-free reward to you (one you value as someone that lives the VacationCounts philosophy) while at the same time benefiting other equally deserving staff members that value raises over paid time off.
• Since you have shown in the past how you get your work done on time and do not let vacations (time away from the office) negatively affect productivity, the same will apply to the few additional days you are requesting for the next calendar year.  Remind your manager of your proven work ethic and get-things-done attitude and if you must, offer to work extra hours the week leading up to and the week upon your return from the next vacation period.
• As this is a one-time only request that applies to the next calendar or employee review period, the same rules apply when it comes to raises and bonuses.  That is only excellent performance, however that is measured in your organization, will lead to future raises and bonuses whether in the form of cash, vacation days, or another form of reward.  With the elimination of the concern that your request is a permanent change, your boss is more likely to give vacation rewards a try and approve it on the spot.

With the points above on the table you are likely to encounter some objections and may need to negotiate and compromise on your initial proposal.  Be flexible as to the exact number of vacation days your bonus will include as well as any stipulations on how you must track and use them in the upcoming year.  Based on my own experience, I have outlined the most common objections that you may hear.  I recommend you review each one and be prepared to address them during your conversation in person with your manager or HR representative (the decision maker).  All of these legitimate reasons can be overcome if you approach them with a professional and positive attitude and if you work for an organization that is willing to embrace creative solutions for rewarding top talent (that’s you!).

Common Objections to Bonus Vacation Days

• The HR system (HRIS) at your company is not capable of overriding vacation policy for one employee to account for additional paid vacation days or PTO hours.
  Solution: Track the extra vacation days on paper personally and trust that your manager will approve their usage at a future date.  To protect against the possibility that you may have a different manager in the future, get the details of your bonus vacation days in writing.
• Staff members on your team or elsewhere in the company will feel that it is unfair you are receiving extra vacation days; that is if they find out.
  Solution: Since your manager is concerned about morale, promise not to share information about your bonus vacation days with others inside the company.  At most jobs today salary and benefits are negotiable at hire time as well as afterward.  Getting a performance raise and the amount of that raise isn’t something you would normally share with your co-workers and the same applies to being rewarded with vacation days.
• No one has ever asked for extra vacation days before and no official policy exists, so therefore it can’t be done.
  Solution: Challenge your manager to think outside the box by explaining the importance of vacation time to meet your current work-life balance goals versus the value of other forms of compensation and rewards.  Try modifying your initial request by limiting the number of bonus vacation days or how and when you can use them to put your manager at ease.  This is also the time to reiterate the points above about your performance, work-ethic, and the multiple benefits of this cost-free reward.

Despite my best advice there are going to be situations where your employer is a stickler for policy and would never offer the creative flexibility that people in your shoes thrive on to meet work-life balance goals for travel, family, and enrichment.  The only way you will know which type of employer and manager you work for is to review this advice, outline your own points for discussion, prepare for the typical objections, and give it your best try.  You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your request for a couple of bonus vacation days is easy to say “Yes” to, especially when your manager wants to reward you but raise dollars are not available this fiscal year.

Be aware that your manager may agree that your proposal is the best way to reward you but decide not to include the Human Resources department or payroll when approving your bonus.  You will have the ability to take these extra vacation days but it will not show up on your paycheck stub or visible on the HR web portal as earned PTO.  Taking one of these special days means informing your manager and keeping track off the record.  I cannot advise for or against this unofficial approach as it all depends on the type of employer and the nature of the relationship between you and your manager.

Hopefully you work for a company that is willing to consider your request with the respect and seriousness it deserves and fit their HR policies to what you find important and not the other way around.  Post a comment below if you have successfully requested vacation days as an alternative to a raise (in good or bad economic times) or if you ran into inflexible corporate policies at your workplace.