Army Residents

[Ydangerzone]

My recruiter told me on the phone yesterday that army residents begin accruing 30 days of vacation per year as soon as they start their first year as residents.

1) Is this really true???

2) I haven't checked on civilian residents - but do they get this much vacation either???

Just wondering

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MoosePilot]

I am not a doctor.

I am a military officer and leave rules work the same for both.

30 days of vacation a year sound really "over the top" outstanding, great, one of the benefits that outdoes civilian jobs.

What you don't realize until you get used to the military mentality is that those are the only stable days in your year and they get to decide when and if you take them. So you may work 365 days a year - 30 leave days (and you may not get to take those leave days - I'll explain).

This depends on your job. When I was a stateside AETC instructor (relatively easy job, although I didn't know it at the time, thinking 12 hour days 5 or 6 days a week was a lot of work) I generally took fewer than 30 days a year, but I had most weekends free and I could get passes pretty easily. Now, I try to take all 30 pretty much every year, but can't, because only so many people in my career field can be on leave at any given time. I have 60 days saved up, so any excess at the end of the fiscal year is *lost*. Gone, bye-bye. I could fill out paperwork and try to keep the excess, but I'm so busy most of the time (or feel that way, you can tell by the fact that I'm responding to you that I could take a second to fill out paperwork, but I'd have to research what paperwork, who it goes to, and be able to do it in the right timeframe). I did finally take some of my leave when my wife passed away. The military was ok with me taking leave to attend the funeral and actually really helped me get there. I mention that because I don't know if civilian jobs require you to use vacation days to attend funerals of immediate family members. The military does, so that's the type of mindset you have to realize when you think 30 days sounds like a lot.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

My recruiter told me on the phone yesterday that army residents begin accruing 30 days of vacation per year as soon as they start their first year as residents.

1) Is this really true???

2) I haven't checked on civilian residents - but do they get this much vacation either???

Just wondering

The "30 days of leave" deal sounds really great, doesn't it? Like most things that sound too good to be true, it is, and here's why: You get charged leave whenever you are out of town, INCLUDING OTHERWISE NONWORKING DAYS like holidays and weekends. Here's an example:

Let's take Thanksgiving for instance. Thursday (Thanksgiving day) is a holiday. Most posts quite generously kick in the following Friday as a "training holiday"-- sort of a free day off. Then there's Saturday and Sunday. Outpatient clinics will be shut down tight those 4 days, so provided that you don't have call or ward or other clinical duties, that's a nice four day weekend, right ?

Guess again. If you stay in town, it is in fact, 4 days off. But lets say for instance you plan to leave Camp Swampy and go to Grandma's house in Iowa. Well, now, instead of a "free" 4-day weekend, it is considered "leave" because you are going out of town, and you have to burn vacation time which otherwise would have been a freebie. So if you ever plan to go anywhere over a holiday (as many people do), your 30 days leave can rapidly dwindle by 50% or more. Can you spell R-I-P-O-F-F? Yet another reason to get out ASAP (or not come in to begin with).

RMD 1-3-11

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Well... the short answer is yes. The long answer is yes and no.

You start accruing vacation as soon as you start, however, how much you can take is probably limited by your program. For example, it is *understood* in my program that you should limit the amount of time you take off to ~2 weeks each year. If people have family emergencies etc. you could take more, and no one would bat an eye. But when you take too much leave you tend to screw everyone else in the program. So it's a fairness system.

The other thing is that as an officer you can go in the 'red' for leave. The military knows that you will be around for a certain amount of time (ie. your commitment) and they know how much leave you'll get in that time. So you can borrow into that if you need to (if you don't have 7 days of leave and you need to take more than a week off).

 

[denali]

The "30 days of leave" deal sounds really great, doesn't it? Like most things that sound too good to be true, it is, and here's why: You get charged leave whenever you are out of town, INCLUDING OTHERWISE NONWORKING DAYS like holidays and weekends. Here's an example:

Let's take Thanksgiving for instance. Thursday (Thanksgiving day) is a holiday. Most posts quite generously kick in the following Friday as a "training holiday"-- sort of a free day off. Then there's Saturday and Sunday. Outpatient clinics will be shut down tight those 4 days, so provided that you don't have call or ward or other clinical duties, that's a nice four day weekend, right ?

Guess again. If you stay in town, it is in fact, 4 days off. But lets say for instance you plan to leave Camp Swampy and go to Grandma's house in Iowa. Well, now, instead of a "free" 4-day weekend, it is considered "leave" because you are going out of town, and you have to burn vacation time which otherwise would have been a freebie. So if you ever plan to go anywhere over a holiday (as many people do), your 30 days leave can rapidly dwindle by 50% or more. Can you spell R-I-P-O-F-F? Yet another reason to get out ASAP (or not come in to begin with).

RMD 1-3-11

Your command is S-T-I-N-G-Y with the passes, eh?

 

[edmadison]

Yes you do accure 30 days per year, however, the Residency Review Committee for your specialty sets the number of weeks in various stuff you must do, accordingly you will get less actual vacation. Another tidbit they may not tell you: If you take time off for family leave, ect and your residency goes 1 day longers than scheduled, you incur an additional 6 months obligation. Fun, eh?

Ed

 

[GeoLeoX]

Your command is S-T-I-N-G-Y with the passes, eh?

If you go more than 250 miles from your post you must do so on leave, not on a pass.

 

[denali]

If you go more than 250 miles from your post you must do so on leave, not on a pass.

That's your unit CO's policy; nothing in the Army reg about a mileage requirement for granting of leave vs. pass. I used to require a soldier be on either pass or leave if greater than 150 miles from post for accountability reasons, but would routinely authorize passes for absences over non-duty days (regular/3-day weekends, comp time). IMHO, if your unit is making you routinely take leave over a 3-day weekend instead of granting a pass, they are screwing you over and are violating the spirit of the reg (para. 5-27, AR 600-8-10), unless there is a mission requirement you be on such a short leash on non-duty days.

 

[R-Me-Doc]

Your command is S-T-I-N-G-Y with the passes, eh?

Pass? What's that? Haven't seen one in 7 years, at more than one station.

RMD 1-3-8