Time Off from Work to Chase?

[Marcus Opitz]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Doyou pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

1. I used to work at retail establishments before the fall of 2005. I was pretty much SOL at the time. But after Katrina hit, I was called up to work for an independent contractor as an inside adjuster for the insurance industry. I worked on a "temporary basis for over a year and a half so storm season 2006 did not happen for me.

2. I am not deployed on a storm at the moment as I was released in late Feb. At this time I am free to go whenever and wherever I want.

3. I am not going to look for another job or worry about school, ect until June/July. I may wait out the summer to see if another hurricane hits and work 6 or more months and maybe do it all over again.

4. I am an independent insurance adjuster. I have all of the 2004-2005 hurricanes and some 2006 non hurricane stuff. I worked mold, wind, and attorney represented claims. When I am working, I make and save a good enought living to be able to afford to be without work for 6 or more months at a time. I am not sure if there will be another hurricane this fall so I will have to see what happens. I am blessed that I have this spring at my disposal where in the past and likley in the future, I will have to jugle work and chasing while not causing any conflicts.

 

[Andrew Herron]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Doyou pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

1. Not too bad; I've been taking quite a bit of unannounced time to buy a condo. I'm sure if the day seemed right for my area I could get out early. My work also knows I'm heavily involved in RACES and Skywarn so that makes it even easier.
2. Pretty much. If it's a couple days on end I have to take paid time but for an early day I can just make up the hours at my leisure.
3. Yup, see #2.
4. I do web development for an affiliate marketing company.

 

[Tony Laubach]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Do you pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. If you don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

I am without a doubt one of the luckier SOBs chasing...

1. Very... my employer knows exactly what it is I do and many of my supervisors as completely fascinated by my chasing. Because its work-study, I am easily able to get my shifts covered on very little notice and with little consequence from higher-ups. My pizza job was always the biggest pain, but with the change in managers, I've got the leniency there now as well as I talked to the incoming manager and explained to her my deal. Needless to say, I can be on the road with as little as a few hours notice.

2. Yes. Again, the flexibility of my schedule allows me to take off at will if need be. Again, work-study and my supervisors' interest make it pretty easy to do.

3. I don't have paid time in work-study, nor do I work enough at Pizza Hut to get vacation time, so its all unpaid.

4. I work on campus as an IT Lab Technician for the computer labs here on campus. It's a work-study job. I also work weekends driving pies in Littleton.

A side-note that its usually classes which interfere with my chasing, such as tomorrow's class in regards to tomorrow's chase. On the other side, and to show my earlier point, I pulled coverage for this afternoon here on campus this morning once my forecast and the local NWS forecast fell iinto line. Less than 8 hours notice to be gone.

 

[Brian Stertz]

1,How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2.Do you pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3.Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4.What kind of job do you have?

1) Leniency is highly dependent on how busy we are at work in the days up to heading out to chase on a wing and a prayer.
2) Within reason...if it's a big event...I am out there for sure.
3) I've got a good arsenal of vacation time saved up for May and June
when I intend to do my most vigorous chasing.
4) I am a warranty and shipping claims coordinator for a top line sauna company

 

[Mikey Gribble]

1. I work at my parents company, so pretty lenient most of the time, but on some days it can get pretty ugly.

2. I can take off most anytime, I get two weeks vacation and I can take off partial days usually if I work a little extra during the rest of the week. I'm salary so hours don't really matter, but I'll catch hell from my dad if I'm under 40 hours so I prefer to work extra on weeks I chase.

3. I could take unpaid days off, but there is a loop hole in our companies employee handbook that I take full advantage of. It says that if you take off a partial day, you don't have to use a day of vacation on it, so I usually make an appearance at work in the mornings if a chase day is close to home.

4. I have had every crappy job there is at my compamy since I've worked here since I was 16, but now I am the manager of our anodizing, shipping, and QC departments.

 

[Josh Richardson]

My job is very lenient in the fact I have plenty of Personal Time off I can take whenever i want and get paid for it. However, in the pension and investment world there is never a time when I am not busy so if I take a day off that just means Im that much farther behind.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Originally Posted by jketcham
1,How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2.Do you pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3.Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4.What kind of job do you have?

1. I also work for the family business, so I can take time when I need to. Sometimes it can be stressful if we get busy. But I try to work things around storm season so I can chase.

2. For the most part, this year is alittle different than years past, my dad had heart bypass so I have had to run the show more but he is doing much better so I can take off anytime I need to.

3. Well my vacation time is when I need it, one nice thing to work for the family, nothing is set in stone but a day or two here and day or two there is fine.

4. What we do is run a route of coin operated games all over Metro Wichita and own some property that we manage.

 

[Patrick Martin]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Do you pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. If you don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

1. Very lenient. I have a cubicle job, but it's strictly Mon-Fri, so my weekends are mine. I'm lucky that the company is very reasonable when it comes to time off. I can ask for a half or full day with as little as 1 day notice. I have 4.5 weeks paid time off and we can use it for whatever.
2. Sort of. As long as the supervisor that reports to me is not already off, and I coordinate it with the other managers, I'm good to go. I'm also salaried, so I have the flexibility to leave an hour or 2 early without having to burn vaca time or lose pay. I generally work 7:30-4, with the occassional longer day...so being able to offset it and bolt early form time to time helps for those far eastern CO weekday setups. As long as I don't abuse it, and clear it with the boss, no problem.
3. Nope. Once we are out of vaca time, we are done.
4. I'm a manager for an insurance/financial services company in Denver.

 

[Joel Wright]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Doyou pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

1. They're lenient as long as I can find someone to replace me if it's short notice.
2. Not really, only have so much vacation time. When it's gone, it's gone.
3. Nope, unless I called in sick lol. Not big on that.
4. Chemist.

 

[Josh Richardson]

I guess I didnt answer all the questions full before so here goes....


Originally Posted by jketcham
1,How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2.Do you pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3.Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4.What kind of job do you have?


1. No problem at all
2. Pretty much as we are allotted 40 hrs of PTO and then accrue up to 8 hrs every check as well.
3. I shouldnt ever run out of PTO or vacation time
4. Retirement and Investment Services

 

[Rich Thompson]

1. How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
2. Doyou pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
3. Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
4. What kind of job do you have?

1. Not very. There is some ability to nudge shift times, depending on my "relief". Otherwise, most chase time has to fall on days off or be scheduled months in advance.

2. Not often on short notice.

3. Not a chance!

4. Lead forecaster at SPC. We cover 24/7 with 5 forecasters on a 5 week rotation, and one must always be on duty when any severe risk is in our outlooks. I end up working a week of day shifts, evening shifts, and midnight shifts every 5 weeks, with two long weekends thrown in there. It's very interesting working at SPC, but it's a pretty lousy job to have if you like to chase all the time.

Rich T.

 

[David Drummond]

It's very interesting working at SPC, but it's a pretty lousy job to have if you like to chase all the time.

Rich T.

Man Rich that has GOT to suck! Working hard forecasting like you guys do and have to watch the event unfold on radars and reports only be able to imagine what it looks like out there. Definitely not a job I could do for any long time, I would HAVE to get out in the field.

 

[Rich Thompson]

Man Rich that has GOT to suck! Working hard forecasting like you guys do and have to watch the event unfold on radars and reports only be able to imagine what it looks like out there. Definitely not a job I could do for any long time, I would HAVE to get out in the field.

About half of the SPC staff has some interest in chasing, and maybe 5-6 are pretty serious. Still, those of us working the 8 hour shifts end up missing more days than we can chase. It's a little better for the mesoscale assistant forecasters on 12 hour shifts - they have more days off and longer breaks.

I wasn't hurt much by shifts in the 90s, but they've killed me in the 2000s. I worked evenings and mids through most of the big days in 2003-04. I recall chasing once on my "vacation" last year.

Rich T.

 

[Joel Wright]

We rotate shifts too, every four weeks. So I can relate a little.

Our shift start times are 5am, 9am, and 5pm. The 5am shift allows for a good shot at chasing if the action isn't too far away.

 

[jason kissam]

1) How lenient is your place of employment when it comes to taking vacation time to storm chase?
Ive already informed them of my intent to take time off and chase over the summer. This is now better that a friend in Mo wants me to go visit her in the summer

2)Doyou pretty much get to take off anytime you want?
since its shift work i have to get coverage. And we were just taken over by a new company so i have to earn the time off again.

3)Ifyou don’t have vacation time, can you take unpaid leave to go chasing?
We have a policy that is new to me at least. we can buy back vacation time to use it again or to extend a vacation upon request.

4)What kind of job do you have?
I am a security supervisior at a legal publishing firm.