We are nearing the end of the year. Only two months to go.

Three workweeks end in holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years--both on Friday this year). For many of us, this means shortened weeks at work. For others, it means they get paid more to work those days.

Which is better depends on one's situation.

I like the breaks. And, because my company has an idiotic "use it or lose it" vacation policy (you have to use everything you accrue in a calendar year), I've found myself with seven and a half days to use in the last two months or so.

And since you can only take vacation in 8 hour chunks...I lose a half day due to rounding.

But I am taking Fridays off. Three day weekends (or four day workweeks) through the rest of the year. Except those holiday weeks. Then it's three day workweeks and four day weekends.

It'll be hard going back in January and grinding it out five days a week. Between the second of January and Memorial Day (in May), there are no company holidays. And since we have to use or lose our vacation--and it takes a while to earn a day (about six weeks to be exact)--then it'll be a while before I can take a day off.

They tell me you can get vacation on credit. This is strange, and I won't do it. Since my vacations are me sleeping in and not going to work, why would I "charge" a day on my company benefit card for this? Totally not worth the non effort of not getting up.

So, as I said, I find myself at the end of the year with too much vacation time on my hands.

I joked that I'd just take the entire month of December off.

And then I realized I need to plan this better next year.

There are good times of the year, weather-wise, to get out of the office. December, for the most part, isn't. But I will be out of the office more in December than any other month because of my built up vacation and regular holidays.

I've never worked for a company that does vacation this way, but apparently it is not unprecedented. The thought is that if people build up too much vacation by being able to roll it over, they might come up and say they want a whole month off (and have the vacation days to do it). Of course the other side of the coin is that your last day of vacation must happen on the last working day of the year. Because that's when you'll earn it.

I guess this is where vacation on credit comes in. But it still sounds silly--especially in these hard economic times (as everyone and their mother says these days).

But still, it's almost guaranteed that you won't get your two weeks of vacation every year. You'll lose a day or two here and there because you can't take it off.

And we're supposed to be grateful to the company for this horrible policy. Or maybe grateful for the idea of vacation in general. Y'know, in Europe the whole continent takes August off (I may be slightly overstating this, but not by much).

If you bring this kind of thing up, though, you get the "just be grateful you have a job" statement thrown at you. And maybe something about the "socialist Europeans" tossed in as well.

Which kind of goes to show how much workers with jobs are valued by their companies. It's hard to be grateful when it comes attached to a threat.

In the good times, companies screw you in other ways. In the bad times they just idly threaten your livelihood.

And so it's Fridays off for me till January.

Matt Worley has always thought company loyalty should be a two way street. He has, however, been wrong about this before.