When times are good, it is easier for them to pay you the extra week of work than it is to pay others overtime to produce what you were producing. When things slow down, it is better to make sure that every at least takes their vacation time as opposed to laying people off.

So, most companies can require you to take your vacation time. However, companies do have different policies that can come into play covering how it should be handled. Some companies will not pay for any vacation time that you don’t use that year while others will pay up to a certain amount of the vacation each year, only allowing you to carry-over so much from year to year.

Depending on the size of the company will probably determine how well-defined the policies are in this area. If you have a contract or a company policy manual, they will normally spell out how to handle unused or accrued vacation time.

At a small company, the policy may be much more lenient and certainly vary with economic conditions. As long as they are applying the same rules to everyone, then you probably will not have any choice but to accept what they are suggesting you do. To do otherwise, in these economic times, could be damaging to your long-term employment there with that company.