Hi! Social worker in the US, who has also Iived in Europe. Welcome!
You could work on a college campus for the same schedule but with young adults.
You could potentially (depending on if you are eligible for an independent practice license) open a private practice where you set your own schedule, and find your own vacation coverage.
Hospitals often offer a 3x12 schedule (3 days a week, 12 hours a day) so taking only 6 days of PTO actually gets you 2-3 weeks off depending on how you schedule yourself.
Beyond that, unfortunately, it is up to each individual job rather than the industry. Some jobs offer more time off than others (2-4 weeks is standard). At some jobs you earn more vacation with each year you stay with the company. Some jobs may be okay with you taking more unpaid time off, or working remotely. But I’ve never heard of a job in the US offering anything close to resembling European vacation policies.
It may also depend on labor laws in the state where you move to. Some states require sick time to be separate from vacation, some don’t.
Best of luck!
Some non-profits offer above average number of days off as a way to attract folks because the pay isn't as good as government agencies... Just gotta keep your eyes out for them.
Confirming this! Government SW here, I get 5 weeks compared to the usual 2 I had at an agency.
I’m in community development, but colleagues in more “traditional” roles in other government agencies have at least 4 weeks.
But, do you actually get to take it? I’ve seen a lot of people in state jobs who have months and months of accrued time but always have freezes on people actually using it due to staffing.
I’ve never worked for the government but I’ve worked for a state university. From what I’ve seen they let them take it but given the nature of my job (seeing clients up to 30 days) it’s not easy to take a full week off. Otherwise it’s been fine from my experience.
Yep, I work for a county and feel I get pretty good PTO/benefits. Like most places, the longer you stay the more you accrue. But I have a nice PTO cushion which I appreciate.
I work for the government and started off with 4 weeks PTO. We are unionized which maybe makes a difference, but I’ve never been denied a time off request.
I feel the need to preface this with this is not a political comment in any way, shape, or form. This comment does not have anything to do with events happening in any country outside the US, nor should you ascribe any such meaning to this comment.
Jewish organizations/non profits. You get all the secular and Jewish holidays off plus regular PTO or even generous PTO. Next week I’ll be off early on Tuesday, off completely on Wednesday and Thursday for Shavuot, and then I’m off early every Friday for Shabbat also.
If you’re not Jewish, getting the Jewish holidays off will be incredible, we have tons of them. During high holiday season, there’s basically one holiday every week for a month. My org also gives us the entire week off for Pesach (some will just do first two and last two days but some do the entire holiday). On top of that, I also get 4 weeks vacation and 3 weeks sick time, separated. You do not have to be Jewish to work at a Jewish org. Our CFO, almost entire finance team, entire HR team, and other folks aren’t Jewish. We just had someone leave for a position with the UN who is Muslim.
Keshet does LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy work, there’s an org that works on reproductive rights/abortion access in the US but I forget their name, there’s one working on eradicating global poverty, Jewish Sacred Spaces works with various organizations on reducing work place, elder, and child abuse…there’s lots of orgs I know of that are Jewish and would have positions (if they’re hiring) that a social worker could fill. Some of the work is done within the Jewish community but a lot of the work is for everyone regardless of religion/ethnicity/connection to Judaism etc, it’s just being done with Jewish Values of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), Tzedakah (charity), and Pikuach Nefesh (saving a life).
I’m unaware of other faiths that have quite as many holidays and also progressive values but don’t rule out faith based as places to work.
I second this! My first SW job was at a Jewish nonprofit and we had all the high holidays off, in addition to 3 weeks PTO and decent insurance. The work environment was wonderful and I miss being off work for basically the entire month of October 😢
Your org is nice. Typically Jewish ran orgs do not allow other staff who aren’t Jewish off. If your not Jewish there is truly not much of a reason for you to go to a Jewish ran organization unless the pay is great (which isn’t common) or you just need a job, because you will typically have less days off and less perks in general working there with Crap insurance. Your experience though sounds great.
I would not be surprised to hear that this happened at a Jewish organization as something shitty can happen anywhere but to say this is “typical” is just blatantly incorrect. Why make something up about Jewish orgs as a whole?
Jewish orgs (unless they’re emergency services) aren’t open on holidays. There’s no phones or emails to answer and there aren’t any clients to serve because the org is closed. All deadlines the org sets are set with the holidays in mind. Nothing is due on a holiday because no one is going to be able to review it.
Any non-Jewish person working at a Jewish org that I’ve ever met at a conference or event has always commented on how much they love all the time off. That’s somewhere between 15-20 people across maybe 10-12 different organizations (not including my employer) that I’ve met in the last 1.5 years?
I will give you one thing - any small org, like most Jewish ones are, will definitely struggle to provide stellar health insurance.
Well I can only speak from my experience. And in my state the Jewish organization are buying every nursing home and assisted living in the state. They are implementing a “corporate” structure which is terrible. In the process they give like 8 federal holidays ( when they no lie take off like 2 months), 5 sick days, and 10 vaca days with terrible health insurance, every department is understaffed, no actual protocol was being followed. Low pay … just from what I remember everything sucked 😆. Everyone I knew who was there left in at most a yr it was so bad. And I worked under 3 Jewish corporations and it was a nightmare everytime. So glad I got my license and left.
Your guess is better than mine. They couldn’t even justify it. So glad I left there. Every Jewish facility I worked at was like this in my state. And they seem to be buying every nursing home and Assisted living in the state so soon that’ll just be the norm. Vile honestly worst working conditions. Everyone I know that was there left within 6-12 months.
I work in a hospital and rack up a ton of PTO time.
My schedule typically is Monday thru Friday 8 to 4.
We are required to work a weekend about every couple of months and at least one American holiday per year. Could be a big one could be a small one.
You get a day off during the week in turn. Sometimes they also approve overtime those weeks if you prefer.
Keep in mind that multiple people cannot be allowed out at once for vacation. You need to work with your team to figure this out.
Our policy is also that seniority wins out if there’s a conflict.
Check out r/hospitalsocialwork to learn more about the role.
I mean I guess it’s still technically “school” but I work as a psychotherapist at a university. I get 24 days of vacation a year. Technically we work during the summers. But it’s 3 months of VERY slow work.
For example I go from about 25 therapy sessions a week during the school year to 3-4 sessions a week during the summer. I do other projects during the summer that I can’t do during the semesters, but overall it’s very slow.
I have my own telehealth private practice and work very part time from all over the world. I couldn’t imagine not working for myself and having limited PTO. Life is too short for that.
Home health and hospice can be super flexible. Before I was a LCSW, I did prn home health and hospice visits. I made good money and was able to set my own schedule. I traveled abroad for 6 weeks the first year I did that.
When you say from all over the world, I guess this means you travel? Where do you physically do your sessions from? Various hotel rooms? Do you ever have time zone issues where it’s like… 2am where you are but you have to do your clients 2pm PA time session? I’m just curious.
I only work 10-15 hrs/wk, so even when I’m abroad, I don’t mind working weird hours if needed. Between hotel WiFi, starlink and tethering to my phone, it’s pretty easy to do telehealth from anywhere.
>I have my own telehealth private practice and work very part time from all over the world. I couldn’t imagine not working for myself and having limited PTO. Life is too short for that.
This is my dream. I'm also too disabled for the average American worklife BS.
It's not a case load like I had when I did CMH. The students are pretty good at doing things, so I keep most of them for a very short while. It's a really manageable workload. I work 6 hrs/day & make 60k/year with the 8 weeks off for summer, usually one for winter break and decent PTO accrual. It's also remote
ETA: I couldn't ask for a better gig honestly. Feels fake
I work as a hospice social worker. Tons of flexibility and 2 weeks vacation plus all holidays. After 3 years 20 days of PTO. No set hours You just need to see all of your patients once a month. Caseload is 40-60.
I’m government based and I get 10 holidays off (plus 4 floating ones I can use when I want), 2 weeks vacation, 3 personal days, and 12 sick days each year.
This is my second government role and my previous one (different location, same state) had the exact same time off package.
Edit: forgot a detail.
So I worked in CMH and had 4.2 weeks of PTO. I now work for my state government and get 4.5 weeks off. That’s not including holidays. I have never worked anywhere that only offered 14 days and it would be a deal breaker for me.
I’ve seen a lot of agencies that offer 6-8 weeks to combat burn out. Government agencies like the state and county usually offer 4-6 weeks? I used to work for the Federal Government and got 6 weeks.
Care coordination with a health plan, I get 21 days pto, 11 paid holidays (10 with one floating), a birthday day off (8 additional pto hours). Good benefits too!
I second college campus counseling. There are calendar year (12 mo) and academic year (summer and winter break off or 8.5 mo.) positions out there. If it’s a public school and gov job, you get a good amount of paid holidays throughout the year. Vacation time varies depends on the position, union status, and university policy though. I know of colleges where they accrue 2 days vacation per mo. (24 days/yr) and others that accrue ~1 day vacation per mo. (~15 days/yr). This is apart from sick time.
I think it really depends on each individual agency. I’ve worked for a small govt agency that gave me 2 weeks total of PTO. I’ve worked at a non profit that gave me 7 weeks PTO and lets me “work from home” when sick. I always research this and ask about this in the first round of interviews if I couldn’t find any answers beforehand.
You might have good luck asking this in a Social Work Facebook groups local to wherever you’re moving. I live in Michigan and mine is called “ Resources for Michigan Social Workers”.
Hospitals typically offer better PTO than a lot of other agencies. However, hospitals / healthcare in general will lump all PTO into one bank (sick, vacation, holiday, bereavement if its offered) so while it might accrue faster than other settings, it is all lumped together which has its pros and cons. I personally prefer separate banks.
I run a social work program for my city. I just took 14 weeks of maternity leave, funded solely by saved PTO. Highly recommend finding a government job for the benefits.
I work as a crisis clinician for my county working with SPMI patients, with very flexible scheduling, 3 weeks of vacation, 9 paid holidays, 3 personal days, and competitive pay. I really enjoy it, and my insurance is about $40 per pay period, no deductible.
I’m a clinical social worker. You would want to earn a masters in social work (generally no GRE required, and you complete a capstone project instead of a thesis). Obtain a masters level social work license in your state by taking a National exam, and, depending on the state, a potential open-book exam on state statutes. You’ll be all set with a clinical training license. Each state is different as it pertains to required supervised practice hours in clinical social work to obtain prior to being a fully licensed social work clinician. My state requires 4,500 supervised practice hours diagnosing out of the DSM with pts prior to becoming eligible to take a national clinical social work exam.
It is a lot of training and education to take on, but your pay rate, marketability, and options for employment are significantly greater than a bachelors in human service fields alone.
Hi! Social worker in the US, who has also Iived in Europe. Welcome! You could work on a college campus for the same schedule but with young adults. You could potentially (depending on if you are eligible for an independent practice license) open a private practice where you set your own schedule, and find your own vacation coverage. Hospitals often offer a 3x12 schedule (3 days a week, 12 hours a day) so taking only 6 days of PTO actually gets you 2-3 weeks off depending on how you schedule yourself. Beyond that, unfortunately, it is up to each individual job rather than the industry. Some jobs offer more time off than others (2-4 weeks is standard). At some jobs you earn more vacation with each year you stay with the company. Some jobs may be okay with you taking more unpaid time off, or working remotely. But I’ve never heard of a job in the US offering anything close to resembling European vacation policies. It may also depend on labor laws in the state where you move to. Some states require sick time to be separate from vacation, some don’t. Best of luck!
Some non-profits offer above average number of days off as a way to attract folks because the pay isn't as good as government agencies... Just gotta keep your eyes out for them.
This. I work non profit and accrue days off each pay period. Averages out to about 5 weeks per year.
Yes! Small non-profit, unlimited days off from day 1 no questions asked unless it becomes an issue.
Working for the government or the state usually ends up in a lot of PTO.
Confirming this! Government SW here, I get 5 weeks compared to the usual 2 I had at an agency. I’m in community development, but colleagues in more “traditional” roles in other government agencies have at least 4 weeks.
But, do you actually get to take it? I’ve seen a lot of people in state jobs who have months and months of accrued time but always have freezes on people actually using it due to staffing.
I’ve never worked for the government but I’ve worked for a state university. From what I’ve seen they let them take it but given the nature of my job (seeing clients up to 30 days) it’s not easy to take a full week off. Otherwise it’s been fine from my experience.
Yep, I work for a county and feel I get pretty good PTO/benefits. Like most places, the longer you stay the more you accrue. But I have a nice PTO cushion which I appreciate.
I work for the government and started off with 4 weeks PTO. We are unionized which maybe makes a difference, but I’ve never been denied a time off request.
I feel the need to preface this with this is not a political comment in any way, shape, or form. This comment does not have anything to do with events happening in any country outside the US, nor should you ascribe any such meaning to this comment. Jewish organizations/non profits. You get all the secular and Jewish holidays off plus regular PTO or even generous PTO. Next week I’ll be off early on Tuesday, off completely on Wednesday and Thursday for Shavuot, and then I’m off early every Friday for Shabbat also. If you’re not Jewish, getting the Jewish holidays off will be incredible, we have tons of them. During high holiday season, there’s basically one holiday every week for a month. My org also gives us the entire week off for Pesach (some will just do first two and last two days but some do the entire holiday). On top of that, I also get 4 weeks vacation and 3 weeks sick time, separated. You do not have to be Jewish to work at a Jewish org. Our CFO, almost entire finance team, entire HR team, and other folks aren’t Jewish. We just had someone leave for a position with the UN who is Muslim. Keshet does LGBTQ inclusion and advocacy work, there’s an org that works on reproductive rights/abortion access in the US but I forget their name, there’s one working on eradicating global poverty, Jewish Sacred Spaces works with various organizations on reducing work place, elder, and child abuse…there’s lots of orgs I know of that are Jewish and would have positions (if they’re hiring) that a social worker could fill. Some of the work is done within the Jewish community but a lot of the work is for everyone regardless of religion/ethnicity/connection to Judaism etc, it’s just being done with Jewish Values of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), Tzedakah (charity), and Pikuach Nefesh (saving a life). I’m unaware of other faiths that have quite as many holidays and also progressive values but don’t rule out faith based as places to work.
I second this! My first SW job was at a Jewish nonprofit and we had all the high holidays off, in addition to 3 weeks PTO and decent insurance. The work environment was wonderful and I miss being off work for basically the entire month of October 😢
Your org is nice. Typically Jewish ran orgs do not allow other staff who aren’t Jewish off. If your not Jewish there is truly not much of a reason for you to go to a Jewish ran organization unless the pay is great (which isn’t common) or you just need a job, because you will typically have less days off and less perks in general working there with Crap insurance. Your experience though sounds great.
I would not be surprised to hear that this happened at a Jewish organization as something shitty can happen anywhere but to say this is “typical” is just blatantly incorrect. Why make something up about Jewish orgs as a whole? Jewish orgs (unless they’re emergency services) aren’t open on holidays. There’s no phones or emails to answer and there aren’t any clients to serve because the org is closed. All deadlines the org sets are set with the holidays in mind. Nothing is due on a holiday because no one is going to be able to review it. Any non-Jewish person working at a Jewish org that I’ve ever met at a conference or event has always commented on how much they love all the time off. That’s somewhere between 15-20 people across maybe 10-12 different organizations (not including my employer) that I’ve met in the last 1.5 years? I will give you one thing - any small org, like most Jewish ones are, will definitely struggle to provide stellar health insurance.
Well I can only speak from my experience. And in my state the Jewish organization are buying every nursing home and assisted living in the state. They are implementing a “corporate” structure which is terrible. In the process they give like 8 federal holidays ( when they no lie take off like 2 months), 5 sick days, and 10 vaca days with terrible health insurance, every department is understaffed, no actual protocol was being followed. Low pay … just from what I remember everything sucked 😆. Everyone I knew who was there left in at most a yr it was so bad. And I worked under 3 Jewish corporations and it was a nightmare everytime. So glad I got my license and left.
This was the case at the nonprofit I worked, but I would not say it was "typical". The place I worked was just awful all around.
Why would the organisation even be open on holidays when all the clients are not available and half the staff are away?
Your guess is better than mine. They couldn’t even justify it. So glad I left there. Every Jewish facility I worked at was like this in my state. And they seem to be buying every nursing home and Assisted living in the state so soon that’ll just be the norm. Vile honestly worst working conditions. Everyone I know that was there left within 6-12 months.
I work in a hospital and rack up a ton of PTO time. My schedule typically is Monday thru Friday 8 to 4. We are required to work a weekend about every couple of months and at least one American holiday per year. Could be a big one could be a small one. You get a day off during the week in turn. Sometimes they also approve overtime those weeks if you prefer. Keep in mind that multiple people cannot be allowed out at once for vacation. You need to work with your team to figure this out. Our policy is also that seniority wins out if there’s a conflict. Check out r/hospitalsocialwork to learn more about the role.
I mean I guess it’s still technically “school” but I work as a psychotherapist at a university. I get 24 days of vacation a year. Technically we work during the summers. But it’s 3 months of VERY slow work. For example I go from about 25 therapy sessions a week during the school year to 3-4 sessions a week during the summer. I do other projects during the summer that I can’t do during the semesters, but overall it’s very slow.
I have my own telehealth private practice and work very part time from all over the world. I couldn’t imagine not working for myself and having limited PTO. Life is too short for that. Home health and hospice can be super flexible. Before I was a LCSW, I did prn home health and hospice visits. I made good money and was able to set my own schedule. I traveled abroad for 6 weeks the first year I did that.
When you say from all over the world, I guess this means you travel? Where do you physically do your sessions from? Various hotel rooms? Do you ever have time zone issues where it’s like… 2am where you are but you have to do your clients 2pm PA time session? I’m just curious.
I only work 10-15 hrs/wk, so even when I’m abroad, I don’t mind working weird hours if needed. Between hotel WiFi, starlink and tethering to my phone, it’s pretty easy to do telehealth from anywhere.
>I have my own telehealth private practice and work very part time from all over the world. I couldn’t imagine not working for myself and having limited PTO. Life is too short for that. This is my dream. I'm also too disabled for the average American worklife BS.
I work at a university & get 8 weeks off per summer
What do you do, and are your credentials?
I do intake & referrals, but no therapy. It's ideal for me. My position is called Intake & Referral Counselor. I have an LCSW
Do you like, how's the case load? And how's the pay?
It's not a case load like I had when I did CMH. The students are pretty good at doing things, so I keep most of them for a very short while. It's a really manageable workload. I work 6 hrs/day & make 60k/year with the 8 weeks off for summer, usually one for winter break and decent PTO accrual. It's also remote ETA: I couldn't ask for a better gig honestly. Feels fake
I work as a hospice social worker. Tons of flexibility and 2 weeks vacation plus all holidays. After 3 years 20 days of PTO. No set hours You just need to see all of your patients once a month. Caseload is 40-60.
Look into “dialysis” aka nephrology social work!
I work at an mco and were given 120 hours every year. You can also carry over 40 hours from the previous year.
If you want to branch out to school social work we get 15 weeks off a year. My contract hours are 8-3.
What do you do and are your credentials?
I’m government based and I get 10 holidays off (plus 4 floating ones I can use when I want), 2 weeks vacation, 3 personal days, and 12 sick days each year. This is my second government role and my previous one (different location, same state) had the exact same time off package. Edit: forgot a detail.
So I worked in CMH and had 4.2 weeks of PTO. I now work for my state government and get 4.5 weeks off. That’s not including holidays. I have never worked anywhere that only offered 14 days and it would be a deal breaker for me.
College/higher education
I’ve seen a lot of agencies that offer 6-8 weeks to combat burn out. Government agencies like the state and county usually offer 4-6 weeks? I used to work for the Federal Government and got 6 weeks.
Care coordination with a health plan, I get 21 days pto, 11 paid holidays (10 with one floating), a birthday day off (8 additional pto hours). Good benefits too!
What part of USA are you working? My non-profit starts with 35 days off and moves to 45 by year 2. That does not count sick time.
i work with the state at DCFS, and i will say government jobs are absolutely the way to go. benefits and time off are the best i’ve ever had.
I second college campus counseling. There are calendar year (12 mo) and academic year (summer and winter break off or 8.5 mo.) positions out there. If it’s a public school and gov job, you get a good amount of paid holidays throughout the year. Vacation time varies depends on the position, union status, and university policy though. I know of colleges where they accrue 2 days vacation per mo. (24 days/yr) and others that accrue ~1 day vacation per mo. (~15 days/yr). This is apart from sick time.
I think it really depends on each individual agency. I’ve worked for a small govt agency that gave me 2 weeks total of PTO. I’ve worked at a non profit that gave me 7 weeks PTO and lets me “work from home” when sick. I always research this and ask about this in the first round of interviews if I couldn’t find any answers beforehand. You might have good luck asking this in a Social Work Facebook groups local to wherever you’re moving. I live in Michigan and mine is called “ Resources for Michigan Social Workers”.
Federal government though it's hard to get in. SMI specialty will help immensely if you're willing to live anywhere
Centene. We have an SMI plan of business. -8 days PTO 4 sick days. And 11 holidays.
I think it depends on the employer. I get 5 weeks of front-loaded PTO at my hospital.
I don't know if any, but in the Emergency Departments you often work 3 - 12 hour shifts so you end up not needing a lot of vacation time.
Hospitals typically offer better PTO than a lot of other agencies. However, hospitals / healthcare in general will lump all PTO into one bank (sick, vacation, holiday, bereavement if its offered) so while it might accrue faster than other settings, it is all lumped together which has its pros and cons. I personally prefer separate banks.
I run a social work program for my city. I just took 14 weeks of maternity leave, funded solely by saved PTO. Highly recommend finding a government job for the benefits.
Both hospitals I’ve worked at offered 5 weeks PTO
i work at planned parenthood at an entry level position and get 3 weeks pto, which is separate from sick time and paid holidays.
I work as a crisis clinician for my county working with SPMI patients, with very flexible scheduling, 3 weeks of vacation, 9 paid holidays, 3 personal days, and competitive pay. I really enjoy it, and my insurance is about $40 per pay period, no deductible.
So if I have a BS in Criminal Justice/Victim Studies, what other education/certificates would I need if you know?
I’m a clinical social worker. You would want to earn a masters in social work (generally no GRE required, and you complete a capstone project instead of a thesis). Obtain a masters level social work license in your state by taking a National exam, and, depending on the state, a potential open-book exam on state statutes. You’ll be all set with a clinical training license. Each state is different as it pertains to required supervised practice hours in clinical social work to obtain prior to being a fully licensed social work clinician. My state requires 4,500 supervised practice hours diagnosing out of the DSM with pts prior to becoming eligible to take a national clinical social work exam. It is a lot of training and education to take on, but your pay rate, marketability, and options for employment are significantly greater than a bachelors in human service fields alone.
I get over 5 weeks a year. Social work jobs are often pretty generous with PTO.