A:Hey, Paula. Hi, Will. Did you have a good weekend?
B:Yeah... I checked out that new 3-D movie. It's amazing what they can do with technologies these days!
C:I went mountain biking with a couple of friends. We worked up a good sweat and had a good time. How about you, Jerry?
A:Actually, I spent most of the weekend looking at travel brochures.
B:Really? Are you going somewhere?
A:Well, starting on the 20th of this month, I'm taking a five-week vacation.
W:Five weeks!! No way!
B:Get out of here! How did you swing that?
A:Actually, the company owes me about four months' worth of vacation time. I've been working here since 2002 and haven't taken a vacation yet. I've got oodles of comp time as well.
C:Sorry, what's comp time?
B:The comp is short for compensation. Basically he means overtime pay.
A:Yeah, but some companies - like ours - don't really pay overtime.... they give you extra vacation hours instead. If you add up all the vacation time and comp hours I have, I have a lot of time.
B:When I was working for a company in Germany they had super short work weeks and very liberal overtime rules.