On the flip side, your account is pre-funded and if you quit your job you can use the full election even though you haven't had the money taken out of your checks yet.
As SDR pointed out before, It depends on the employer. BUT, most employers that I worked at work exactly as you describe. The fully election amount is available even though you haven't fully contributed to the fund yet.
But, if you were quitting your job would you take advantage of it and would it be ethical if you did?
Imho, this is a matter of personal values. Perhaps the right thing to do is to figure out how much you actually contributed and then just spend that amount. In practice, the administrative overhead of doing this in submitting reimbursements probably make it more difficult than just trying to get the entire amount back. If I were in your position, I'd just take the whole. amount. If at most a few thousand that the benefit administrator or your company would be out of, and I'm sure there are more people that forget to claim their expenses at the end of the year to offset any of these situations. Plus it's probably pocket change relative to other expenses the company incurs.
If you're quiting your job, you should always exit on a positive note (don't burn bridges). But there are a few things you should do. Specfically, unless you need to start at a specific date at your new job which is really close, always try to quit after any bonus is paid (duh!), holidays that you are paid, and ESPP stock purchase dates, option vesting date, etc….and the way to do this is to use up your vacation, and then give the professional courtesy of 2 weeks notice rather than giving them the two weeks notice and having them pay for your vacation bank balance.
Doing the former, you will be on payroll for the number of vacations + 2 weeks notice, which means you will get the benefit for any company "event" that occurs during that time. Do the later action, you'll only be on payroll for 2 weeks. You'll be paid out for your vacation, but you won't be able to take advantage of any company "event" that occurs had you remained on payroll but taking a vacation.
For example, if you have 3 weeks of vacation, the best thing to do is to try to use up all 3 weeks (staggered), then give your notice, rather than giving your notice and having the vacation paid to you.
*Even when you're taking vacation, you're still accruing vacation.
*Taking vacation through holiday days, you get paid holidays. Quiting and being paid out vacation, you don't get paid for the holidays that you would have been if you took vacation and then quit.
*Some companies give float vacation days each year, but you must have worked 30days in the current year. That's also why you want to try to take the vacation days as much as possible so you get those floaters. in CA, floaters must be paid to you..Despite what companies tell you, they don't just disappear.
*Being out on vacation, but still on payroll, you are accumulating days on the calendar toward any ESPP/stock option vesting.
There are other things you can do to milk the company, but you should only consider that if you really are sure you won't ever work at that company again….Namely, the best time to switch jobs is right over the x-mas holidays. With the number of paid holidays available, and the number of vacation days you might have accumulated, you could essentially be on vacation from the former company and working at your new employer at the same time. The nice thing about this is that if you coordinate things right, you get paid the holidays from both companies, AND qualify for all the next year benefits of your former company and new company. For example, if you take vacation on your former employer from 12/20-1/3, and start your new employer during the same time….All your benefits from your new employer for next year will be available, you'll qualify for any benefits from your former employer that are based on the calendar year, both employers will pay you for the couple of holidays 4-5 days during this period, and you won't have a gap in Health coverage, etc. The assumption I'm making here though is that you're not a c-level or above executive, and you have no conflict of interest between the two companies.
