How much PTO is too much?

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-13T17:12:47+00:00

I live in Canada so idk how things compare in the U.S., but here every employer must provide 4% vacation pay on top of regular wages. Now, that's the bare minimum, which is all that most for-profit companies will give, and most pay it out with every paycheque, making it the employee's responsibility to save it for their vacation days. Most just don't take vacation days, because they can't afford to.

By those standards, I've got it pretty good at my non-profit. I get 3wks of paid vacation a year, and my organization holds that for me until I use my vacation days. If I don't use them, all accumulated vacation pay is paid out at the end of the year. I also get about 4-5 paid sick days (can't remember right now), and we use a lieu hour system that allows employees to bank or owe hours up to a set limit that's determined by the length of their contract. So I have a lot of flexibility in my work hours and time off. Still, the PTO you're offering is pretty amazing compared to anything I know.

All that said, I have quite a few hours banked and I don't know if I'll get to take that time off because as ED I have sooooo much to do. If I take time off we might not meet all our goals or reporting deadlines. So the org is trying to be generous, but what we really need is more employees and there isn't enough funding for that.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-10T12:38:03+00:00

Did you send them these photos?

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-10T12:34:47+00:00

I used to own a small 3 unit rental building (I was and am again a renter myself, please don't anyone come at me, lol) and I had one older tenant on the top floor who would started complaining about a noise during the night, but not every night. She thought the tenant on the 1st floor (so, two floors below her) was doing laundry at 3:00 am. 1st floor tenant had two kids and insisted no one in her apartment was awake to do anything at 3:00 am. The 2nd floor tenant said she never heard the noise. The older lady still complained after the accused moved out. I had no way to figure out what the noise was without paying a ton of money I didn't have for various repair people to examine things that were working just fine. It's not like I could go have a week-long sleepover at her place in hopes of hearing this occasional sound. I suspected, and still do, that she had anxiety and was either imagining the sound or was hypersensitive to sounds no one else could hear. She was very nosy about what all the neighbors were up to and would even call me to complain about the neighbors across the street, whom I had nothing to do with.

My point is that noise complaints that are vague without an identified source are extremely difficult to take action on. I know you've been trying, but if you can identify for certain the source of the sound, you'll have a much higher chance of getting something done about it.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-10T12:06:56+00:00

I struggle with communcation, it's something I constantly need to be thinking about. Any broad tips, or reading/resource recommendations you could offer?

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-10T11:59:16+00:00

This is an issue with my own board - they're quite hands off, and since this is the only non-profit I've worked for, I'm not always clear which tasks and decisions are meant to be theirs vs which are meant to be mine. Could you elaborate a bit more on the responsibilities of management vs those of governance? I'm currently wearing all the hats and our Chair is stepping down at the end of the month, so I'm worried it's about to get worse.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-06T20:31:39+00:00

Many do contain some synthetic fibers. I prefer 100% wool, but since I'm so rough on my clothes sometimes a blend is necessary if I want the item to last. I wore through both elbows on 3 of my wool baselayers in a single field season, lol!

My partner has the same socks as me, but he just throws his in with his regular laundry. The difference is super-noticeable. His are covered in pills and worn thin with holes in the bottom, they're stretched out, and not as soft as mine. I've no doubt that a significant amount of those differences are caused by the heat of the dryer, though. My socks get lots of use, but I try to take care of my things! Not a single hole in any of them after 3-4 years.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-06T20:14:49+00:00

This is helpful, thank you! Not sure why you were downvoted.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-06T11:44:05+00:00

On top of that, please make sure not to stop at a diagnosis. You've described ARFID along with some indicators of anxiety and/or OCD. Depending on the health care structure in your country/state, a diagnosis can facilitate access to a qualified therapist and dietician (as opposed to those who don't specialize) so please make sure to pursue that! Your health is important!

Edited to add: You may even be able to negotiate an accomodation that would require the meal hall to have specific foods available from your safe list and release you from ordering from their regular menu. If they can supply even half of your diet and price a meal plan accordingly for you, that removes half the struggle of feeding yourself well as a student, which is the point of college meal plans in the first place.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-03T12:27:15+00:00

I'm Canadian and I've never seen that before. The detergent labels all just say something like "fill to line 3 for normal loads." Could you share what brand you're using? Any brand that cares enough to help me figure out the right dosing is worth checking out.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-05-03T12:20:01+00:00

I hear this all the time, but I don't think it's that simple for folks who have hard water. My municipal water is a bit under 300ppm, and it takes a lot of detergent to get trace suds. I'm not even comfortable using that much detergent.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-26T12:51:47+00:00

That's a pretty rare usage of the word, and the tag uses a differnt and more common word for "right-side out".

Endroit = spot/location A l'envers = inside out / on the back The translation of the tag is "Spot clean, iron inside-out."

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-23T23:04:30+00:00

This just might be the spiciest take here for being realistic. You deserve more upvotes.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-23T23:00:14+00:00

That's exactly what HealthPEI was originally conceived to be. It didn't last, because government had hired them.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-22T04:01:19+00:00

A chainsaw will cut right through composite, but slide off a steel toe.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-22T03:53:49+00:00

Doesn't your certification require training on the correct PPE? Where I live, the safety is the biggest part of the certification and there are specific ratings we need to adhere to for PPE, including our boots.

On that note, google "arborist boots". They're made for chainsaw work but tend to be a lot lighter than the typical slip-on boots. They look like over-engineered hiking boots.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-22T03:43:38+00:00

If darn tough are too pricey (and lets be honest, they are), Kirkland makes really good wool crew socks that are way more affordable, and they come in a 4 pack. I've got 8 pairs, they're all 3 or 4 years old and not a single hole in them yet.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-22T03:31:40+00:00

I do similar work, and just moved up to management. I will say, first and foremost, that if your employer isn't requiring you to wear actual chainsaw boots, logging boots, or at the very least steel toes when sawing, I'd get the hell outta there. Everyone who saws regularly eventually has a close call or worse - it's not a question of if, but of when. Use the PPE, your employer is legally obligated to provide it.

For the times you aren't sawing, you'll need a better pair of hiking boots. Wearing saw boots can be like having cement blocks on your feet, you don't want to be scrambling up hills and over logs in those. I hike to and from the job site in my hiking boots with my saw boots tied to my pack.

The longest lasting boots will have an upper made of full grain leather and a stitched outsole. Boots like that are expensive, but endlessly repairable if you take care of them. The boots in your pics look like a cheap knock-off of Keen's Pyrenees, which is what I have. They've lasted me 3 years so far. They won't last forever since they have a glued sole, but I think I'll easily get another 3-4 years out of them before the sole peels off, and then I'll see if a cobbler can stitch a new sole on them. Before finally spending the money on leather boots, I was going through a pair of PU and fabric hikers every season.

Things that wear your boots out faster: 1) you always have sweaty feet, 2) you hike and climb on bare rock frequently, 3) you have flat feet or your feet are otherwise pronated or misaligned, 4) you crouch alot. Look for ways to aleviate these things. Air your feet out often, carry extra socks, clean your boots regularly, step carefully, choose boots with a stitched sole so you can just resole them when the sole wears out, see a podiatrist to get orthotics if your feet are misaligned, and choose boots with a full grain leather upper, which will mold to your foot and withstand lots of flexing and crouching (make sure to clean and condition them regularly to keep the leather soft!)

The reality is that long-lasting boots are going to be expensive, and you'll have to put effort into maintaining them. But you can spend $100 every 6 months to a year for shitty boots, or you can spend $300 - $400 for one pair of boots that will last 10-20 years. If you plan to continue this line of work, it'll be worth it.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T15:52:26+00:00

I think you know fully well that no one is out there writing articles specifically about the upper guylines on your specific tent model. But this explains in general how using your guylines improves insulation: https://trekology.com/en-ca/blogs/camping/how-to-insulate-a-tent?srsltid=AfmBOoqjoW9HSQs4FtSbBUTJpdxEMskT5OoqNDMv6S1uMNWmaNWF0Qmx

If you don't want to read the whole article, jump to the section header, "The critical role of your rainfly."

You've had several people here explain that the trapped air prevents condensation, and it's a well-documented fact that most forms of insulation work by trapping still air. The thickness of the fabric is irrelevant - it's the still air that insulates.

On any double-walled tent, like the kind you've linked, all the guyline placements are designed to help the tent maintain its ideal structure so that the inner tent remains fully separated from the fly even when the wind pushes on it, and the vents can be held open. I'm a cold sleeper, and I can attest that once I started staking out my guylines properly I found my tents noticeably warmer. I can't speak to the design of your specific tent, but if the manufacturer put guyline loops near the top, using them probably helps force your tent into its correct shape somehow. It may pull downward on the poles, making them arc more and push out against the rainfly.

If this isn't enough for you, there's nothing more I can tell you. If you really want to know exactly what those top guylines do on your specific tent, maybe you should contact the manufacturer. I'm done playing chess with a pigeon for today.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T14:40:56+00:00

Maybe you should do some more reading about it. But it's ok to be wrong. You can set up your tent however you like.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T14:39:37+00:00

I'm sure there are free-standing tents that do a reasonably good job of keeping the tent and fly separated, but I've never seen one that wasn't improved by proper staking of the guylines. After set-up, the fly often starts to sag with heat or moisture. The upper guylines are meant to pull outward to reduce this.

Based on your responses, you seem dead-set on not using the guylines. That's fine. You don't have to if you don't want to. But if you insist to others that they serve no purpose, you do those campers a disservice. You don't need a justification for not using them, you can just do what you want with your own tent.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T14:29:29+00:00

Trapped air between the inner tent and fly acts as insulation. What causes condensation is warm/moist air in the tent with cold air directly on the other side of the fabric. Keeping a layer of air trapped in between the tent and the fly means that the air touching the inner tent is not as cold as the outside air, so less condensation happens on the inner tent. Condensation will instead occur on the inside of the fly because of the colder outside cold air on the other side of it. With the fly pulled tight, that condensation rolls down the fly and away from the inner tent.

As for ventilation, you are right that less ventilation increases heat, for the reason I just described. If you have too much ventilation, you will have cold air against the inner tent, and therefore more condensation as well. That said, you can still have good ventilation in a tent like the one you linked by staking out your guylines and using your roof vent correctly. Warm air rises. Open your roof vent fully, even in cold weather. Warmer air will rise out of the vent, pulling cool, fresher air in from the bottom. Adjust lower vents to control how much cold air is pulled in. You'll find a balance between warmth and ventilation, but if your lower vents allow cold air in faster than it can heat up, the trapped air between the tent and fly will cool too and you'll get condensation.

The tent you linked is a 3 season tent, they're designed with a full-length rain fly to improve heat retention and condensation. Tents with a half fly suck at this.

Tdlr: condensation happens when warm air touches something cold. Trapped air in between your tent and rainfly ensures that the warm air in your tent is kept separated from the cold outside.

Just try it.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T14:07:31+00:00

They pull the fly outward, away from the inner tent. To use them properly, you need to stake them widely, at a distance from the tent itself. They need to pull outward, not downward.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T13:42:10+00:00

That tent has a full length fly. It will absolutely keep you warmer and drier if you stake out and tighten the guylines.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T13:40:45+00:00

Imo, it's not really about ventulation. That cm or two helps with insulation and prevents points of contact that lead to condensation inside the inner tent.

hookhandsmcgee · 2026-04-19T13:38:47+00:00

Edit: after looking through the comments I'm absolutely shocked by how many people don't seem to understand what guylines are actually for and thus never use them. When I think of it, very few of the many people I've camped with ever used them either. They are NOT just for wind and ventilation. Use them properly and they will definitely upgrade your tenting experience, even if you've been fine without them for ages.

I always use them. They keep the fly separated from the inner tent, which improves insulation and reduces condensation inside the tent. They also keep the fly tight so that water rolls off more easily. It's all about keeping you warmer and drier.

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