you're in--congrats!

Right after I found out about my first admit I went to my manager and asked to be included in the latest round of lay-offs. Alas, I was a couple weeks too late.

Say goodbye to almost a years severance pay and several months of time off.

RF

For those who are leaving work fairly early, what are you doing about health insurance? I know Booth says they'll start their coverage a couple weeks early if you need it, but I'm looking to leave more than two weeks before school.

Lots of employers offer programs where you can keep your current health insurance for limited period of time after you leave the company. Ask your HR rep during your exit interview.

As a follow-up to nink's comment, I know that at my company you keep your benefits through the end of the month in which you quit. So have your final day be the 1st of the month, if possible.

I am the HR rep, and also the CFO, and also the...you get the point. I assume you're talking about COBRA, but I think that doesn't apply to small companies.

COBRA applies to ALL companies that offer a group health plan.

As far as taking vacation days, WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING? You know that your employer is required to pay those out when you leave? So any vacation days you take now will cost you a full days pay in addition to whatever you spend on your vacation. Every v-day now could cost you $200+ on your last check in May/June or whenever you quit. My adivce is to take as few days off as possible and save them all so that you get a fat check two weeks after your last day of work. I will have almost two full weeks of vacation accrued by my quit date July 2nd, which amounts to almost a full paycheck on July 17th.

Word, JB. I'm taking my whole vacation payout in early June and going for a monthlong coke bender in Central America before school.

(only half kidding)

Not all companies pay out vacation when you leave - it entirely depends on how the vacation policy is written.

My bad, it's kind of a gray area. Some states like California require employers to pay out unused PTO or vacation balances while other states such as Virginia do not. But if your employer does not pay out, then what's to keep you from extending your quit date by two weeks and then taking a two week vacation up until that date?

For the companies that pays for unused vacation days, it depends on the accrual policy.

For example, let's say that you get 15 business days a year for vacation. This 15 vacation days get allocated over 12 month fiscal period. So if your company follows calendar year and your fiscal year begins from Jan and ends at Dec - and you quit in May, you only accrued 5 months of the fiscal year.

(15 business days * [5/12 months]) - any used up vacation days up until May =# of vacation days that you will be compensated for.

You're kidding about the vacation payout in early June right?

From US Dept of Labor website FAQ (emphasis added):

Who is entitled to benefits under COBRA?
There are three elements to qualifying for COBRA benefits. COBRA establishes specific criteria for plans, qualified beneficiaries, and qualifying events:

Plan Coverage - Group health plans for employers with 20 or more employees on more than 50 percent of its typical business days in the previous calendar year are subject to COBRA.

I think I might have to look into temporary insurance coverage from Assurant or some similar.

Yeah, he's actually going on a month-long coke bender in South America, not Central.

One exception to that rule is if your employer uses a PEO for benefits, in which case you may only have 5 employees, but be a part of a group plan with 20,000 employees. In that case you would still qualify for COBRA.

Isn't COBRA a really horrible deal in most cases? A friend who was laid off a couple years ago got a quote for COBRA coverage and it was over $500/month!

She was able to find a high-deductible plan for under $200/month.

RF

The advantage with COBRA for us is that it is retroactive. You can elect coverage anytime within, I believe 90 days, from your last day. So if you get sick before you start school, you can sign the form for COBRA right before you visit the doctor or have surgery and you are covered back to the day you left work. The only downside is that you also have to retroactively pay the premiums, which could be $1,000 a month for up to 3 months.

While the congrats are premature in my case ( ), I'm currently planning a 1.5-2 week trip to Spain for mid-May. Going into Barcelona and then driving northwest into the Pyrenees and then on to the Basque country. I freaking love Spain.