Vacation Days

American workers have a reputation of all work and no play. We get less vacation time than our peers in other countries, and even then we don't always use it all. But what if you could put the cash equivalent of those unused vacation days into your 401(k)? This option has been available for many years, but never caught on with employers. But lately there's been a renewed interest, says Lisa Van Fleet, a lawyer and benefits expert with Bryan Cave LLP in St. Louis. Last year's Pension Protection Act focused on 401(k)

It becomes increasingly apparent why Baltimore County officials let former County Executive Roger Hayden take a lump-sum payment of $23,383 for what he claimed were unused vacation days.The reason? They felt sorry for him.When the reportedly depressed Mr. Hayden put in for the money to help tide him over as he seeks a new job, county officials decided not to raise a fuss because it only would have made an embarrassing situation worse. The thinking went like this: Let the poor guy have his money so he'll be out of our hair and we can get on with our lives.

At retirement, many people receive a gold watch. If you retire from the Carroll County public school system, you can count on more than that: A hefty cash payment consisting of accumulated unused sick leave, accrued at your highest rate of pay.When R. Edward Shilling retires today as Carroll's superintendent after 30 total years in the county school system, he will receive $94,401 -- $63,066 for 239.5 unused sick days and $31,335 for 59.5 unused vacation days....

Overlooked opportunity:Few managers go looking for jobs in companies that have recently had layoffs, fired the president or seen their stock price plummet, but outplacement expert John Challenger says some may be bypassing a good opportunity. A company in turmoil, he says, is a company in need. "In an atmosphere of instability, the company has a more urgent need for qualified people than in many stable firms," Challenger said.Vacation time:One in five American workers does not get paid vacations, reports the Aragon Consulting Group of St. Louis, which recently surveyed 400 companies nationwide.

Welcome to vacation season. About 69 percent of workers take time off between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to a new survey of 2,033 employees by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc., a work force management firm. Of course, the challenge for employers is making sure there's enough staff to man the office, meet deadlines and get work done. The Kronos survey found that 21 percent of employees have been denied a particular vacation time because a co-worker had already requested it. But it's becoming more difficult to go on vacation these days because of skyrocketing gas prices.

Several top police officers in Baltimore County retired this year with lump-sum payments of close to $500,000 under a program that has been ended because of concerns about its cost, according to figures released Thursday. Deferred Retirement Option Programs allow employees who delay retirement to receive the one-time payments when they leave, in exchange for smaller annual pensions. County officials said the county must contribute $7.5 million to its pension fund this year for the program, according to an actuarial analysis.

A Baltimore County councilman is asking the county executive to consider paying county workers who serve in the reserves the difference between their county salaries and their military pay if they are called to active duty for Operation Desert Shield.Councilman Vincent Gardina, D-5th, said that 10 county employees in the reserves have been called to active duty so far and that another 150 could be called up.Mr. Gardina said that the four police officers, four firefighters, one correctional officer and one part-time physician activated so far risk losing an average of about $10,000 per year because their military pay is lower than their county salaries.

Editor's note: Jerdine Nolen today explores ways to occupy young minds during the summer. Her column appears biweekly.Now is a good time to do constructive planning with your children, while the feeling of anticipation for ending the school year is in the air. With your children, begin to think of ways to fill the unstructured hours during those lazy summer vacation days. Make a list of ideas and post them in a prominent place. These projects are good ways to continue practicing skills gained or developed during the academic year.

Scrambling to find ways to make up five snow days and concerned that more wintry weather might be on the way, Carroll County officials have asked the state schools superintendent to allow them to shorten the school year and open schools on remaining state holidays. School board members will not decide until the middle of the month or next month how to make up snow days beyond the four that were built into the school calendar. But they have agreed to ask Maryland Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick for every available option and weigh them later.

Those people making sudden U-turns during yesterday' heaviest snowfall may well have been parents of Baltimore County elementary school students.They were reacting, often furiously, to the school system's own U-turn in deciding, after 8 a.m., to close its 94 elementary schools and leave open its secondary schools. Many elementary schoolchildren were already at school when the word filtered down, and more waited on corners for buses that never came.Parents who thought their children were nestled snug in their schools suddenly had to put their own snow-emergency plans into effect, calling neighbors and grandparents and taking unscheduled vacation days to care for their youngsters.