I sent this directly to the original poster of the question, but since others are responding to the list, I'll do the same. It is interesting to see the disparity in total days off, from a total of just a week or two including holidays to 8 or even 9 weeks total (like us). Hmmm... I've always wondered why its so hard to get hold of the staff of some institutions (and I'm sure some of you have wondered the same about mine). Now I guess we know why! (copied email follows) At the Met all professional staff (ie not hourly, such as guards/admissions staff, etc.) receive a minimum of 20 days (4 weeks) paid vacation beginning as soon as they are employed. Some higher grades of staff (senior staff positions) begin with 27 days. Less senior positions begin with 20 days, then increase to 25 days (5 weeks) after 8 years employment, and to 27 days (5 weeks, 2 days) after 15 years employment. The Met also has 16 staff holidays in addition to annual leave (we have so many, in part, because many of our technical staff (carpenters, electricians, plexi shop staff, etc.) are unionized and therefore have many negotiated holidays off- and then the rest of staff gets them, too). This means that in total, one can have as many as 43 days- 2 months, 3 days- off per year. I hope the original poster lets us know her results- I'm interested to see how things average out. _______________________ Dennis Kois Design Department The Metropolitan Museum of Art ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).