Yesterday was my last day of work for the 2024-2025 school year and I was tying up some loose ends, including looking at my year-end leave balances.
When I was a classroom teacher, I used to get ten sick days and three personal days (two of which could be carried over to the following school year if left unused), but my leave allowances are now a little different. I have a longer contract in my current coaching position, which means I get eleven sick days per school year because of the extra days I now work. Additionally, thanks to my union working hard and negotiating on our behalf, all teachers now get five personal days per school year (which convert to sick leave at the end of the year if left unused). With the length of our contract day being seven hours, this means that I now get 77 hours of sick leave per year and 35 hours of personal leave per year.
Are you familiar with the concept of "Die with Zero" attributed to Bill Perkins? At its core, it's the idea that you should focus on using your resources to live a rich life (however you personally define that) rather than focus on accumulation and dying with a sizable amount of unspent wealth. This seems to be a particularly applicable philosophy when thinking about how important I believe it is to use my sick and personal leave!
I say that knowing that I am eyeing retirement in a few short years, while teachers with many years left in their careers are in a different stage of life than I am and may not be in a position to use all of their leave each year.
I also say that while simultaneously acknowledging that I don't have children who might get sick, potentially requiring me to take extended time off to care for them (although this type of concern was always in the forefront of my mind during the years my mom was very sick and I was extremely conservative with my leave during those years).
But for me, with only a few years left in my public education career? I have absolutely no interest in accumulating any leave because I know first hand just how little it will be worth if I don't use it and instead "cash it out."
Conversely, the leave holds incredible value to me in terms of using it throughout the school year for appointments and for when I don't feel well. The privilege of being able to stay home when I'm under the weather is priceless. The privilege of knowing I will still get a full paycheck even if I have to miss work is one I don't take for granted.
But I am no longer focused on accumulating leave the way I was early in my career. I will NOT be burned again like I was back in 2012 (please see those other posts for details)!
As I've written about previously, teachers are often made to feel guilty for using their leave; I will not be made to feel any kind of way other than super savvy for not being taken advantage of! This leave is "sold" to us as a benefit and I'm going to use that benefit the same way I use the ride share, restaurant, or travel benefits that come with my credit cards.
I do have a reasonable balance of unused sick leave that I'm keeping for any unpredictable "just in case" scenarios, but my goal at the beginning of this school year was to not accumulate any additional leave starting in July 2024 through the remainder of my career, so I am extremely pleased with myself in terms of the leave I used this year!
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| I used all 35 hours of personal leave this year! |
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| I used all of this year's 77 hours of sick leave in addition to 5 hours I had banked from previous years! |
As far as I'm concerned, leave is meant to be used and I plan to continue not accumulating any additional hours for the remainder of my career, opting instead for the "earn and burn" approach that has served me so well this year!
Happy Tails to you!
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