Expert reveals incredible PTO 'hack' that can double your vacation time
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/MoMo Productions
We often feel like we don't want to waste our vacation days, after all, many of us are given so few.
There is a way, however, to increase your PTO (paid time off) days by more than double, and it's all about being savvy with your vacation days.
For this we'll need the mastermind behind Dollar Flight Club, a website which alerts you of cheap flights in your vicinity, who explained just how you can stretch your vacations - and we're not talking about working while you're abroad.
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CEO and founder, Jesse Neugarten, explained the details of how you can do so with Forbes.
“Federal holidays and long weekends are your best friend here,” he explains. “If you time it right, you can turn just 15 PTO days into over 50 days off in a year.”
Yes, it's all about timing your vacations to take place around federal holidays - and if you're given a minuscule, amount of paid days off like the US... it's important to get smart with them.
Let's get into it.
Neugarten explained how taking an extra vacation day before or after a federal holiday will turn a three day weekend into four - so for instance, book either Thursday, July 3 or Monday, July 7, to ensure you're getting a lengthier break... that's with July 4 taking place on the Friday this year.
He went on to say how taking extra time off around federal holidays like Labor Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving means you can take an uninterrupted extended break.
But Neugarten wasn't finished offering us his wisdom, as he explained the festive periods pool of federal holidays make for a long break with few PTO days taken.
He explained how you can use PTO days around Christmas and New Year's to change your two short weeks into one long break, and if your company is one of those that closes for a winter break then you're laughing.
While we appreciate his expert advice, the group travel company Contiki offers an incredible 'Hack your PTO' tool that shows you exactly when you should be taking your vacation days to make the most of the few paid days off your get.
As Neugarten mentioned the 15 PTO days earlier, I input that into the tool and it provided me with a calendar showing exactly how I can use my 15 PTO days and 12 federal holidays to give me 51 vacation days.
Happy days!