Is it a bad idea to ask about vacation days before starting as a RA?

[sinerged]

I read that the university policy is one day vacation per month. Since I'm starting in August, I'm wondering if it is possible for me to take 4 days in December which combined with the Holidays would give me enough time take a short trip back home. The graduate student coordinator said that as long as my advisor is OK there is no problem. But I'm worried about asking him and causing a bad impression since I haven't even started yet. The reason I want to know in advance is that, if I get a positive answer, I would buy a return plane ticket together with my ticket to the University, which is much cheaper than buying two one-way tickets.

[psychgurl]

No, I think it's totally reasonable to ask, especially if you phrase it in terms of purchasing plane tickets. People normally like to buy their plane tickets months in advance. I work at a university, and my managers are super flexible for this kind of thing. Even if the official policy is 1 day/month, maybe you could not take a vacation day til December and use them all then.

[pinkrobot]

I'm a MAJOR novice--indeed, a pre-novice--so take this for whatever it's worth, but I actually disagree with the above. To me, it seems funky to ask about vacations before starting the semester ... it feels as though you're already thinking of your next shot outta there before you've even arrived, you know? And since you haven't built up a rapport with your advisor (I'm guessing?), you can't be sure if s/he'll understand that this is coming from a financial perspective or if s/he will think that you already can't wait to go on vacation. I'd advise against.

And maybe I'm being thoroughly dense, but one other question--wouldn't you be stuck with one one-way ticket either way? If you bought a round-trip to and from your university, wouldn't you then have to buy a one-way back to your university for after vacation?

Edited May 10, 2012 by pinkrobot

[TakeruK]

I think if you phrase it properly, it's okay to ask for vacation time now, but probably better to ask on your first day or something (when they ask you if you have questions etc.) If they give you vacation days, then they should not care how/when you ask for them, it's something they have already given. (Similarly, if you have sick days and you have to take them because you are sick, you wouldn't feel bad for missing a day, so it's the same idea)

But pinkrobot is right -- you will have to buy roundtrip tickets when you go home anyways!

Also, depending on your lab/group, many people might not be around during the holidays anyways. A lot of times research schedules are pretty flexible and no one cares / keeps tracks of your days off as long as you do your work. So, that's another reason to wait until the semester at least starts and you get a feel of how yoour group works.

[ghanada]

wait, so are you guys saying that your schools/labs actually keep track of your hours you are there??? Like you have official vacation and sick days? Like this is a standard 9-5 job?

I have never heard of that before. I have worked in quite a few research labs and am in a lab right now for my Masters. I will also be starting a new school and new lab for my PhD this fall. My advisers have never kept track of hours or vacation days. The way I have always seen it work is that it is up to you to get your work done and nobody cares when you are in the lab working. And actually all the labs I have been in allow VPN connections so that you can work from home if you please. I can't imagine doing a PhD and having someone keep track of my hours and tell me when I can't take vacation days.

Anyways, if you really need to book plane tickets, I agree with above that if you are going to be in this program for a while than it makes more sense to just book roundtrip plane tickets from your school to home and then back to school. It will more often be the case that you will have to sort out your schedule to visit home while you are at school, rather than vice versa. But if you are set on booking tickets in this opposite manner, I don't think it is a big deal to ask your adviser about this, but do it in a way that you just ask what the standard protocol is for winter vacation time and if it is typical for students to be working over the break or if people are out of the office. It has been my experience that labs tend to shut down between xmas and new years so everyone just takes that time as vacation.

[ktel]

^ If you read the full title, the OP is working as an RA. So it is much more like a standard job than if they were just doing their own research.

[Molzy]

I am an RA, and my school is definitely more informal about my time off. Before I had even accepted my position here, my adviser explained that he expected us to be here most days from 9-5ish, though he also encourages us to work a morning or two a week from home if we like to do that. And he also stated right away that he expects his students to take 7-10 days off around Christmas and again at the end of our field season (so around August for me).

So, I basically make sure that I am up to date on my work, and I never feel bad about taking time off. I think that time off should be something discussed before you start, especially if you need to fly to get home.

[ghanada]

^ If you read the full title, the OP is working as an RA. So it is much more like a standard job than if they were just doing their own research.

ok well I guess it depends on the OP's specific situation. I have worked as a full-time paid RA (while not a student), and in that case I understand the hours being counted and what not. HOWEVER, I will also be starting a PhD this fall and my official funding comes under the title of Graduate RA so technically I will be an RA as a grad student, which is what I imagine the OP's position to be since this forum is "Officially Grads". Again, if you are a grad student and have an RAship for funding, I have never heard of hours being logged. Your time commitment is usually in the form of your adviser's expectations. And from my past experience and future situation, my adviser's have never counted my hours and got mad if I wasn't in the office unless there was a meeting or something. I guess I just assumed that is how it was everywhere.

[ktel]

ok well I guess it depends on the OP's specific situation. I have worked as a full-time paid RA (while not a student), and in that case I understand the hours being counted and what not. HOWEVER, I will also be starting a PhD this fall and my official funding comes under the title of Graduate RA so technically I will be an RA as a grad student, which is what I imagine the OP's position to be since this forum is "Officially Grads". Again, if you are a grad student and have an RAship for funding, I have never heard of hours being logged. Your time commitment is usually in the form of your adviser's expectations. And from my past experience and future situation, my adviser's have never counted my hours and got mad if I wasn't in the office unless there was a meeting or something. I guess I just assumed that is how it was everywhere.

I think it's really field and supervisor dependent. I did a summer RAship, and I definitely had to log my hours, although they were quite flexible. My whole job was to do research for my supervisor, and I was paid hourly, not in a lump sum.

[ghanada]

I think it's really field and supervisor dependent. I did a summer RAship, and I definitely had to log my hours, although they were quite flexible. My whole job was to do research for my supervisor, and I was paid hourly, not in a lump sum.

Yeah I agree with you on that summer position. I understand that. That is like being hired as an RA for a specific job. Also, during the summer you aren't taking classes and often times your academic year stipend isn't covered during the summer months so technically in that case you are doing an RAship as a regular work job. But I still think that if you are a PhD student and you are titled as an RA as a means for funding your education during the academic year than it seems really weird to me to count hours like a regular job. Especially since you are probably taking classes full-time, most grads I talk to don't technically spend 40 hours/week in the lab during that time. Granted, with classes, studying, and research they are putting in a combined 80+ hours of work a week, but nobody counted their hours or expected them to be in the lab from 9-5.

My point is, if the OP is unfamiliar with how RAships work during a typical PhD program, then I think the OP should probably understand that time spent in the lab isn't counted in the same way a normal 40 hr/week job happens. There is no timesheet or card swiping to log that. Time spent in the lab is an understanding between you and your adviser and if your adviser is a reasonable and decent person, they most likely won't sit there counting up your hours and counting your vacation/sick days. I honestly don't think I would work with an adviser that told me I couldn't take a short winter break because I haven't accumulated enough vacation days or something. Again, I only think this is true if you are a PhD student with an RAship in your thesis lab during the normal academic school year. If you are doing RA work as like a contracted paid position that isn't with your own thesis lab and it is just a regular job, than my comments don't apply.

[sinerged]

Thank you all for the answers!

As it happens, I also discussed this with a friend who just finished his PhD, and he agrees with the consensus shown here that there is lots of flexibility when it comes to the time spent in the lab, specially by the end of the year. He actually advised me to just assume I was going to have some free days in December.

In the end I've decided against asking the advisor about the winter vacation time, and I'll just buy whatever option seems cheaper for the trip uni-home-uni.