I bid for all of my vacation days but I didn't extend it because I ended up having all the days off that I needed. (For the record, I was able to massage my schedule to receive 21 days off for the seven days of vacation.) Had I used the extend days they wouldn't have been used for anything productive and thus the reason I left them in my bank. Since I still have 10 or so hours in my vacation bank, is it safe to assume the company will simply pay that to me in December? Is there something I need to do on my end to authorize this at some point? I'm considering looking into the vacation open time and trying to find a couple of days where I could use these days. However, if payback is still an option, that would pay for Christmas and that might need some consideration this year.

I'm in my first year and I'm doing my best not to make any uninformed decisions (AKA "huge mistakes") based on my lack of experience in these matters. I appreciate any critique or comments you may have.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled rant.....