Vacation????

By now you all know my basic gig here in Poland. I teach about 4 weeks in January and another 3 weeks May, to complete some intensive sessions.

On Monday I learned that part of my contract (which I did not read as it was in Polish)- is that I also get vacation time for this. Huh? Actually, I get 26 days worth of it. What?

I was presented with a piece of paper from our secretary (who speaks no English), and she was translated through another colleague. She was explaining to me the 26 days and inquiring when was I planning on taking them.

First, I said- don’t worry about it- I really don’t want them or can use them. That was met with a frown. I apparently can’t refuse vacation and have to take the days. But my contract says I also have to teach all these days while I am here. A conundrum! Required vacation and required work at the same time.

In addition, I am suppose to turn into the University my plan for exactly when I was going to take each vacation day (write it down vacation day by vacation day).

I said, I can’t take vacation- I teach every day, then go home in Februrary. She said “I know”.

I also noticed on the paper that my vacation time is broken into parts of the school year. 8 days were for vacation in 2010 and 18 days were for 2011. As it is now January of 2011, I asked about the 2010 days. She said “yes, I was now late with my vacation and needed to hurry and take them”. Huh? But I teach every day and can’t take vacation- “I know", she said.

So we thought about it and quickly, and determined I would take my vacation days when I wasn’t working there (I guess that somewhat makes sense). So, I put on the form I would take vacation from March 1 to March 26 (after I am long gone)- done!

The form came back to me and (through a translator) I found out my form was rejected since March 1-26 also included Saturdays and Sundays in them- and I can’t count those for vacation. Cripes! I needed to list 26 school day vacation days, when I wasn't here (I guess that kinda makes sense).

So I wrote in the five weeks from March into April where I counted 26 school days as vacation. Done!

My form was rejected again and returned. It was explained you cannot take all your vacation in a single block of time. Ok I said, but I am not here anyway. “I know”. Still rejected.

Each time we went through this they had to rip up the form and print me a new one. So, at this point I am on my 4th vacation form- which I can’t take or need- but I have to have it written down.

I finally got all the rules down. You will be happy to know I am officially on Polish vacation from March 1st to 9th AND then again on April 4th-26th. Form was now approved and all administrators happy.

True story.