NWR: PTO Policies at your job

Hummingbird125

Hey all!

My boss is asking me to help him review our company's paid-time-off policies, and we might be making some changes. I've looked up studies & averages online, but I'm interested in your experiences. If you have a chance, I'd love answers to the following questions:

*Full-time employees only

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

I don't think my company has great PTO policies, and I'm hoping to help make some changes, so I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences!

labro

1. Entry level is 10 days. Higher levels can start with more days.

2. You can earn more through two different ways. One path is by length of service - after so many years, you get additional days of vacation, and those vacation days accrue the longer you are with the company. You can also earn increased vacation days with promotions ie. moving from being entry level to a manager or director.

3. No. My paid personal time is my vacation time.

4. Yes, 15 days sick leave. This is separate from my PTO.

5. 7 holidays (6 "normal holidays ie Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving, and one floater holiday)

6. Yes. I don't know how it works but I think I can take up to a year of unpaid leave.

lmcooper86

1 - 15 paid days/year. Most places in the GTA start at 10 days though.

2 -  Vacation time increases by 5 days at a couple of points based on how long you've been employed. (after I think 4 years and 7 or 8 years). ETA: In some circumstances employees can work additional hours to accrue lieu time.

3 - I don't think so, but we did just make some changes as well and I haven't reviewed them.

4 - 12 sick days/year. These are separate from PTO.

5 - 10 statutory holidays plus 2 "float" days (in lieu of stat. days that other provinces take). We are often also "gifted" 2 - 3 days around Christmas so that we can close the office for a week or more.

6 - Yes, but I've never looked into our policy.

Peaseblossom55

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

I think at my company it's two weeks

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

I earned more vacation time through seniority and the level I am with the firm.  I'm up to 4 weeks now.   

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

I think I have a combination of sick and personal days.  I always forget....

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?

I believe it's a combo of 5 sicks/personal days

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

MLK Day, President's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Labor day,4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

I am but I'm ot sure how it works I've never used it.

KeptInStitches

I'll ask FI tonight - we work at the same place, but I'm still technically a student and he's full-time.

eilis1228

I'm at non-profit, so I think I get a lot more PTO than most:

1. 3 weeks per year, accessible after 6 months of employment

2. I believe you earn an extra week every 5 years

3. Yep, 3 personal days per year. We get a new one every four months, and they expire at the end of the calendar year.

4. Sick days is outrageous... I think it's 3-4 weeks per year. New employees can access sick days after 3 months of employment.

5. Starting in January, we get MLK Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the following day off, and our offices are closed Dec 24 - Jan 1. 

6. We are, but we rarely have to. We also have PTO for bereavement and jury duty, so between the infinite vacation days, sick days, personal days, holidays, and other types of PTO, there's really no need.

Vacation days and sick days cap at around 250 hours of accumulation. I've never run into the issue of being forced to use time or lose it, but a lot of my coworkers do. I figure it's there for a reason, so I tend to use a day here or there every month or two.

Oh! Also, every employee is required to take 5 consecutive days of vacation time each year. It's up the managers to enforce this though, and with all of the normal day-to-day stuff, I'm not sure how strictly some people follow this. I personally love this rule and make sure to take advantage of it every year.

ETA: A few pregnant co-workers said that after either 3 or 6 weeks of paid maternity leave (I feel like the national standard is 6 weeks? But I don't remember), we have to use sick/vacation time. Or maybe we have to use sick/vacation time the whole time and then go into unpaid leave? I can't remember the specifics, but I remember thinking that was the only instance where our PTO sucked.

cu97tiger

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?
A new employee, regardless of what level, gets 16 days of PTO (this includes vacation and sick time).

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

After 1 year, you get two more days, every year after that, you get 1 more day. After 10 years, you max out at 26 days.

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

That's what PTO is, is it not?

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

No, our policy combines vacation and sick.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We get 10 holidays off and are closed from Dec 26-30 for the holidays.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

This depends on the manager and the situation. My employees are hourly, and if they work 39 hours in a week, I don't require them to take an hour of PTO to make that up. I am salary, so I don't know how that would work if I wanted to take a day or two unpaid.

speakeasy14

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level? Entry Level is 12 days depending the month you start.  If someone is hired in January they get 12 days for the year, but if someone is hired in November they get 1 day.  Then on January 1st anyone under 5 years has 12 days. 

 

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)  

Length of Service      -    PTO Days

1-4 years  12

5-7 years 15

8-9 years  18

10-14 years 20

15-19 years 23

20+ 25

plus everyone can roll over 5 days from the previous year

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

Everyone has whatever PTO days they are allotted, plus 10 paid holidays. We also are paid for jury duty. We allow personal time (bereavement leave) for a family death.  It ranges from 1 day to 5 days depending on the relationship to the deceased.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

Technically we have unlimited sick days, but our handbook says no more than 5... conflicting issue HR is working on.  If someone is out 2 consecutive days in a row they have to submit a doctor's letter to HR. If anyone needs off more than 10 days they have to apply for short term medical leave (6+ months is long term medical leave).

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We have 10 paid holidays and those are the only holidays the office is closed. The only time we get an extra day is if a holiday falls on a weekend.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

Making me pull out the handbook on this one haha -- We have military leave which is provided for anyone is required to report for military duty and they will receive a maximum of 80 paid hours of military pay. 

The only true unpaid time off is for paternity leave.

BaytoSA2013

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

Every new employee is only granted 3 personal days until 1 year of service has been reached (I don't care for this particular rule!)  Once you reach 1 year you get 1 week of sick and 1 week of vacation.  To my knowledge, your pay grade does not affect this.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

You can only earn more days off by staying with the company.  paid vacation is as follows:

after 1 year 5 days

after 2 years 6 days

after 3 years 7 days...and so on

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

We are given 5 days of paid personal time (read sick time) that we can take for ANYTHING that we want.  They just changed the policy that we can use these days if we have the time to add on to a long holiday weekend.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?

See above 

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We get 7 paid holidays.  In addition the company MAKES you take off a half day on Good Friday, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve and Battle of the flowers (local event).  You do not get paid for that time but you have to take it off (I don't like this one either!)

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

We are allowed to take additional time off if we need to for things.  We can make the time up (usually you can get in about 4 hours makeup) or you can just choose to take it unpaid.  I do like this flexibility and not having to take PTO for something like a dr appt.

Moiramab

1) New hires start at 18 PTO days a year, prorated depending on hire date. PTO covers all vacation/sick days

2) Extra days are earned by years with the company, so starting the January of your third anniverary/fifth/tenth, it increases

3) Mentioned in #1, it's all rolled into pto. Maternity, bereavement, and leave of absences are calculated differently

 

4) See 1 and 2  

5) I work in finance so we have federal holidays off, calculated separate from PTO. I think altogether it's...8? holidays.

I also happen to work on a college campus, so there are holiday seasons where the campus happens to be closed as well, so we have to use our PTO days towards that. Some people have problems scheduling that ahead of time and create issues for themsleves -_- 

6) You really really really shouldn't. There's a way to do it with manager approval, but in our particular location there was a previous employee who took advantage of this at the end of the year so no it's a blanket "don't even ask" rule.

[Deleted User]

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

Well when I was hired it is 20 days but they switched it to 15 days at the beginning of 2014. But I still get 20 days.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

It all depends on how long you have been with the company. I believe it increases every 3-5 years.

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

Yes, I have unlimited sick days that I'm paid for and 2 "random" days that I can take for whatever I need (funerals, unexpected emergencies, etc...)

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

I have unlimited.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We get New years day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Day after or before (i can't remember) Thanksgiving, and Day after Christmas.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

I believe so and it usually only works if you need to take extended leave for some reason. I haven't looked too closely at it yet.

phira

When I was a lab tech, we could earn 15 days PTO (earning 1.25 days per month, I think). The way that things worked if you worked in a lab, you had to put in vacation time through HR, but if you were sick, you stayed home. If you were REALLY sick to the point where you were taking a lot of time off for illness, then you went on your short-term disability insurance (which everyone had for free through the institute).

If you had to take care of a sick child, it counted as a sick day. If you had to take personal time but could come into work later (or you just had to leave early), you didn't have to take a vacation day.

It was honestly the BEST ever. Not gonna lie.

Hummingbird125

Thanks everyone who answered! This confirms that my company's current policy is complete crap. Currently, its as follows:

New Employee (at any level) - 5 vacation days per year for years 1 and 2

After 2 years of employment - 10 vacation days

After 5 years of employment - 15 vacation days

No "personal days" or specific sick days, but there is a complicated system using points where you are penalized for using too many "sick day points" in each quarter.

We do get 10 holidays.

BaytoSA2013

My husband's company has a penalization code for sick days as well.  He currently works in a call center so I suppose it's a way to keep people from calling in.  They get "points" for calling in sick. You can make up one day a month on a Saturday (or any day you have scheduled off since they are open all the time) to erase that point.  If it's more than once a month, the points accumulate (this includes tardy's as well).  Once you reach 3 points you get a verbal warning and it takes 90 days for that to clear.  If you add on after the verbal and before the 90 days is up, it's a written.  Any infraction after that, it's immediate termination.  Thank goodness as a manger he isn't part of that.  I don't think I could work with those rules.

[Deleted User]

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

We are given 2.6 weeks a year to start. That is accrued through out the year, so we earn 4 hours per biweekly pay period.

 

2) How do you earn more vacation time?

We earn more vacation hours at our 5, 7 and 10 year work anniversaries. I'm sure there are more levels, but these are the ones I personally know about:

• New Hire = 2.6 weeks/year, 4 hrs/biweekly pay period
• 5 years = 3 weeks/year, 4.62 hrs/biweekly pay period
• 7 years = 3.6 weeks/year, 5.54 hrs/biweekly pay period
• 10 years = 4 weeks/year, 6.16 hrs/biweekly pay period

 

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

No, just vacation and sick.

 

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?

We have sick time. I believe you start with 100 hours. This time is supposed to ONLY be used for actual sick days. You can also dip into these hours for extended medical leave, maternity leave, etc. with a doctor's note. I believe this increases over the years like our vacation time does, but I don't know what those intervals are.

 

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off?

Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off? We are paid for 8 total holidays per year.

 

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

You can potentially have unpaid time off, but it does have to be approved by a manager. Generally our policy is good enough that people don't need to do this, but I have heard of situations like medical reasons or maternity leave where this has been approved.

loves2shop4shoes

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

Normally, my company offers 5 days of vacation for the first year, and 10 days ever year thereafter.  I negotiated this point because I frequently take vacation days to visit family/friends since moving to Chicago.  I started with 10 days of vacation for the first year, and 15 days of vacation thereafter.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

I don't.  I'm dumbfounded that I got 2 weeks to start and 3 weeks from 1/1/15 on!

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

Personal time = vacation time, but my boss is REALLY flexible.  If I have a doctor's appointment or something, I can work from home, and she trusts that I get my work done.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?

6 Sick days/year

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

I believe our paid holidays are New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

No idea.  My boss is super flexible, like I said, so I doubt it'd come to that.  She trusts that we're all adults and we'll do our job without handholding.

Dignity100

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?
OLD - Jobs were by pay grade; a higher pay grade originally got 5 extra days (25 instead of 30); shortly before I left they changed it to all new employees get 20 days instead of 25 and then after 5 years would be the 20 days.
NEW - 15 days for new employees any level; 18 after 3 years; 20 after 5

2) How do you earn more vacation time?
OLD & NEW - It was based on years of service

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?
OLD & NEW - No, all personal/Vacation/Sick came out of the same bank

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?
OLD - You could roll over up to 5 days annual and bank up to 10 days for SICK TIME ONLY; otherwise it came out of the number of PTO days.
NEW - It comes out of the PTO time

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?
OLD - 10 Bank Holidays
NEW - 8 Holidays; 1 floating <holidays are New Years, Memoria, 4th of July, Labor, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas>

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?
After you're out of PTO time, if you're sick you can take time off and just not get paid for it, you must get manager approval to do so. 

ADDITIONAL - We are given 'flex' days, so if we want to work 4 10's and have a day off during the week, we are given 12 of these.

thetimewillcome

I'm doing this for my old job with a bigger company. My new company has awesome policies that pretty much say as long as my work is done I can take off whenever for whatever reason.

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level? 10 days prorated for the first year. If you start between Jan and April you get the full 10 days. After that it goes down by one a month to a minimum of 1. The beginning of the calendar year starts the vacation time over and the "second" year you get 15 days. Keep in mind, you could start on December 20th, when Jan 1 rolls around you get 15.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else) Strictly time based. 10 days for the first year, regardless of whether it is a full year. 15 days for 2-10. 20 days for 10-20. 30 days for any length of time after 20 years.

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work? Not per policy. Vacation and personal days are the same. The managers had some discretion and you could usually work it out with them, but some managers could be sticklers and you just couldn't.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy?  No set number. You are allowed as many paid sick days as you need. However, if you take more than 6 days in a year, they start to ask you questions...as I learned from personal experience, but they don't take them away, they just make sure you are okay. Apparently, some study said that 6 sick days is the average number of days a worker will take in a year.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off? 10 holidays. 9 regular holidays (New Years Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the Friday after, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day), and one floating holiday. The floating holiday can be used for whatever day the employee wants (essentially an extra vacation day). If any of the 9 holidays fall on a weekend, the employee gets a floating holiday to make up for it. In other words, you always get 10 holidays.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work? Yes. This involves paperwork with HR. If it is just going to be a couple days, you can usually just work with your boss to make up the time somewhere else rather than taking the days unpaid. However, if you need it, it is all approved through HR. Depending on your reason they allow a whole range of times. For example, one situation may be going back to school for a semester, so they essentially higher a temp and then guarantee your job for you when you get back. There is some work out between HR and your manager, but HR has the ultimate discretion and they can choose whether to approve it or not. Some situations dictate them allowing it more than others, like medical vs school.

ETA: Jury duty and bereavement days (3 or 5 depending on relationship) are also paid. Maternity leave consists of this complicated system depending on how many years you've been with the company. You can have 6 weeks off no matter what. However what you get paid for those 6 weeks depends on the years. For every year you are with the company you get paid 100% for the corresponding week (1 year with company = 1 week full pay), for the additional weeks you get paid at 60%. You are then "allowed" to take an additional 6 weeks unpaid with no questions or approval required (I think this is under FMLA, but I could be wrong).

Andplusalso: No rollover, there were extreme situations which may cause an exception, but generally no rollover.

[Deleted User]

eilis1228 said:

 

ETA: A few pregnant co-workers said that after either 3 or 6 weeks of paid maternity leave (I feel like the national standard is 6 weeks? But I don't remember), we have to use sick/vacation time. Or maybe we have to use sick/vacation time the whole time and then go into unpaid leave? I can't remember the specifics, but I remember thinking that was the only instance where our PTO sucked.

Ours is the same way for maternity leave. You get paid for however many weeks your doctor signs off on. (Apparently 6 weeks is typical for a standard birth, 8 weeks for a c-section) FMLA allows you to take up to 3 months off of work and have your job held for you. My company will allow you to use your sick time for whatever period your doc has signed off on. Any additional time you want to take off (up to the 3 months) is either vacation or unpaid.

I believe you do have to be careful how much unpaid time you take. If it's over a certain amount, you may have to pay full costs for your medical/dental/vision coverage and possibly other benefits your company typically pays a portion of.

beanbot2002

Hummingbird125 said:

Hey all!

My boss is asking me to help him review our company's paid-time-off policies, and we might be making some changes. I've looked up studies & averages online, but I'm interested in your experiences. If you have a chance, I'd love answers to the following questions:

*Full-time employees only

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

You earn your leave, here. So you don't start off with anything. For every paycheck where you've worked to full time hours, you earn 4 hours of annual leave and 4 hours of sick leave.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

Once you have 5 years under your belt, you jump up to 5 hours annual leave, but always earn only 4 hours of sick leave. After another couple of years you bump up to 6 hours, and so on and so forth, but only up to a max of 8 hours of annual leave per pay period.

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

We have earned sick leave and earned annual leave, how you use it is up to you. Except that you're not supposed to use sick leave to go on vacation, BUT you can call it a 'mental health day' and get away with it.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

See above. All earned.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We have a buttload. I think 12?

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

You have to request to take LWOP. You have to send a memo to the Director, getting it signed off by your direct supervisor and division chief along the way. Director has to approve it before you can take it, UNLESS it is unexpected/emergency.

I don't think my company has great PTO policies, and I'm hoping to help make some changes, so I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences!

ETA: We also have a use it or lose it policy. If you have more than 225 hours of Annual Leave saved up at the end of the year, you MUST use it before Jan 1st or you lose anything that is in excess of the 225. It's to keep anyone from banking up and then taking several months off... Which one lady did, while pursuing another job. She wanted to make sure this new job (a business venture) panned out, before quitting her job with the county. Because she had the leave, she couldn't get fired. So in the end it worked out and she ended up quitting her job. For 3 months we had to hold her position, knowing that the likelihood of her returning was slim to none, but not being able to replace her until she officially quit. The higher ups were highly pissed. 

ETA #2: It might be 325 of annual leave and 225 of sick leave now that I think of it...

cu97tiger

allusive007 said:

eilis1228 said:

 

ETA: A few pregnant co-workers said that after either 3 or 6 weeks of paid maternity leave (I feel like the national standard is 6 weeks? But I don't remember), we have to use sick/vacation time. Or maybe we have to use sick/vacation time the whole time and then go into unpaid leave? I can't remember the specifics, but I remember thinking that was the only instance where our PTO sucked.

Ours is the same way for maternity leave. You get paid for however many weeks your doctor signs off on. (Apparently 6 weeks is typical for a standard birth, 8 weeks for a c-section) FMLA allows you to take up to 3 months off of work and have your job held for you. My company will allow you to use your sick time for whatever period your doc has signed off on. Any additional time you want to take off (up to the 3 months) is either vacation or unpaid.

I believe you do have to be careful how much unpaid time you take. If it's over a certain amount, you may have to pay full costs for your medical/dental/vision coverage and possibly other benefits your company typically pays a portion of.

The 6-8 weeks here is Short Term Disability. It varies by company, but my company pays it at 60%. The first week you have to take your own vacation/sick time or take it unpaid, then the next 5-7 weeks are paid through STD. After that, FMLA kicks in (up to the 12 weeks allusive mentioned above). STD is a big thing that I would look for offered by my company. This would encompass any lengthy illness, injuries from an accident, giving birth, etc.

Swazzle

Our vacation, sick, and personal days are all rolled into one. 

In your first year, if you were hired before August 31st, you get 3 weeks. If you were hired After September 1st, you get 1 week. 

Employees that have been here for 2-4 years get 5 weeks. 

Employees that have been here 5+ years get 6 weeks.

jenna8984

Wow you guys have some really generous vacation time and sick time- I hope you know how lucky you are and don't take it for granted!

We get 2 weeks when you walk in the door. After 2 years with the company you bump up to 3 weeks. I don't even know the next level when you bump up.

We do not have a bank of personal or sick time (ok I think the hourly people might but 80% of my company is salary). Since we're salary, we get paid if we are out sick. So technically there's not a set amount of days, just whatever your supervisor considers reasonable. I've been here one year and I've used 1 sick day because I'm the type of employee who feels guilty when I use them and want to look good when raises come around.

We have 10 holidays I believe, including black Friday & Christmas Eve.

lavenderfields13

So I didn't read all these but does everyone have to use sick/vacation time for maternity leave? Is there anywhere that even gives paid maternity leave?

I read somewhere that the USA is one of the worst for maternity leave and some countries allow up to a YEAR for PAID maternity/paternity leave!

AuroraRose41

So I keep getting stuck in quote boxes for some reason today. This is going to be a little skewed, as I work for one of the best companies in the USA to work for according to Forbes, Fortune, etc (I think it's like #7 out of all US companies to work for). 

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level? 3 weeks paid vacation time, not including holidays or sick time. 

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else) Seniority. After 5 years of service, your annual vacation time goes up to 4 weeks. After 10 years, you get 5 weeks of vacation time annually. The max is 5 weeks though. 

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work? Yes, to an extent. It depends on the circumstances. Those circumstances are: 10 days PTO for Jury Duty or Acting as a Witness in Court, 5 days PTO for Adoption of a child, 3 days PTO for bereavement (death in the family), 5 consecutive days PTO for Paternity Leave (this is in addition to the state laws that pay for maternity leave), 30 days PTO for organ donation, 5 days PTO for bone marrow donation, and 2 hours PTO to vote in an election if regular hours do not allow for voting. Anything else is unpaid or you must use vacation time. 

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? Sick time is on the honor system at my company for full time employees, but there is a limit that managers are aware of to make sure that we do not abuse the system. I do not know the exact limit, but I think it is something like 10 days. 

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off? We get 11 holidays every year, in addition to our vacation time. 10 of them are designated by the company, and one is an employee designated holiday (basically an extra day of vacation time; EDH for short). The EDH is available on the first day of employment, and is a use it or lose it deal. It resets every calendar year, and you cannot build up more than one EDH. The company is not closed for any other times, except during wildfire emergencies. 

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work? Yes. 10 days off for military spouses whose spouse has been deployed to an active combat zone, 40 hours off per calendar year for volunteer work, 40 hours a year to participate in school activities for children of the employee, undesignated amount of unpaid time off for victims of sexual assault or a violent crime or voluntary civil service training (police, firefighter, etc.). You can also take unpaid time off for any of the circumstances where you receive PTO if you need to extend the time needed for those (i.e. more days for grieving, etc.). 

AuroraRose41

@lavenderfields13, I know that the state mandates maternity leave, and actually pays women about 55% of their salary for 12 weeks of leave. My company offers paid paternity leave for fathers in addition to the state laws (I think the paternity leave also applies to mothers too). 

suzie211

Hummingbird125 said:

Hey all!

My boss is asking me to help him review our company's paid-time-off policies, and we might be making some changes. I've looked up studies & averages online, but I'm interested in your experiences. If you have a chance, I'd love answers to the following questions:

*Full-time employees only

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

I don't think my company has great PTO policies, and I'm hoping to help make some changes, so I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences!

1 &2 .3 weeks. Every five years you get another week. Not sure when it maxes out. I work with people that have been here 20 years and I have no idea how much time the get.

3. No personal days, but I'm in outside sales and an exempt employee. Our time off is different. For example, I'm technically out on STD, but my phone hasn't stopped ringing. So I'm answering it and helping customers where I can. Sick days work like this too. It just means I work from my bed or the couch and may or may not have pants on.

4. No set sick days. I work from home when sick. My customers still call me cell phone whether I'm sick or healthy.

5. I get 10 holidays. If they fall on weekends we get the day as a floating holiday. No other time off at this company, but I used to work for a Swiss company that shut down all manufacturing the week after Christmas to NYE. So the entire company also shut down. Email didn't even work. It was glorious and did not count against vacation or other PTO.

6. Technically yes you can take unpaid time off. In my sales position it is frowned upon unless it is FMLA. The unspoken rule is you won't take unpaid time if you want to keep your job. Same goes with vacation time during end of quarter. You can take it, but if you want to keep your job you would be smart to not take it.

loves2shop4shoes

@suzie211, are you wearing pants? Have you showered today?

suzie211

@loves2shop4shoes‌ I am showered and have on yoga pants. It's a total win today:). Although I didn't crawl out of bed until noon so this is a recent development.

500days

I realize that teaching is totally different when it comes to time off, but I can't sleep and I want to play! Maybe it will bring some of you ladies to the dark side...

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

Everyone gets the same vacations and days. 1-2 weeks at Christmas time, 1 week in February, 1 week in April and 10 weeks in the summer.

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

Pure luck, no earning involved. We only get more time if Christmas lands in the middle or end of the first week- so some years are only 1 week off and others are 2 weeks. Last year we got 2 weeks, this year will be more like 1 1/2 weeks.

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?

Everyone gets 8 days each year. The days roll over to the next year if you do not use them.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

Everyone gets 12 sick days per year, these days roll over to the next year if you do not use them.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

We are obviously closed in the summer. So 2nd week of June to the last week of August is off. This year we have 11 holidays off. Usually it's 10 days, but it's an election year.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

You can take a 1 year sabbatical, but I have never heard of anyone doing it in real life.

WildMagelet

1) How much vacation time is given to a new employee at entry-level?

10 days "Vacation" annually earned at 6.25 hrs per month. (7.5 hr workday)

2) How do you earn more vacation time? (i.e. level - 10 vacation days for managers, 15 for directors, etc.; seniority - 10 days after you've been there for 1 year, 12 after 3 years, etc.; or something else)

Days are accumulated monthly and total

0-4 years: 10 days annually

5-9 years: 15 days annually

10-14 years: 17 days annually

15-19 years: 20 days annually

20-25 years: 22 days annually

26+ years: 25 days annually

3) Are you given paid personal time? How does that work?  

3 days per year from day 1.  New employees are prorated based on beginning of employment.  You use it or you lose it.  Employees who have been there 2+ years can advance up to 10 days if necessary.  We also have a "bank" of donated employee sick days for emergency situations.

4) Do you have a set number of paid sick days (if so, how many?), or a different policy? 

1 day per month.  Unused days can accumulate indefinitely.

5) Approximately how many holidays are you given off? Aside from these, is your company closed any other parts of the year, resulting in more paid time off?

11 or 12 depending on the year.  If you work a holiday you can either get paid or bank it as an extra day to use later.

6) Are you allowed to take unpaid time off? If so, how does that work?

Yes.  We can apply for a leave of absence of up to 6 months.  I'm not sure on the specifics as its something I haven't had to look into.