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Vacation
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I have been asked by our management to include in our leave policy a statement that employees can only take one week of vacation per quarter. I've never seen a policy like this and I feel like e
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Vacation
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Vacation
posted at 12/6/2012 10:09 AM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 22
First: 11/15/2011 Last: 4/12/2013 |
I have been asked by our management to include in our leave policy a statement that employees can only take one week of vacation per quarter. I've never seen a policy like this and I feel like employees would be asking for exceptions left and right. Any thoughts? |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 12/6/2012 1:29 PM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 215
First: 9/20/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
A true vacation lasts for more than one week. Many families plan multiweek vacations in the summer. What is managements reasoning behind this new restrictive rule? Since most if not all companies are more liberal, it will be a big negative when recruiting a new hire. If you are going to have and allow exceptions then the rule is not worth having........... |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 12/6/2012 2:21 PM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 3
First: 10/4/2011 Last: 1/15/2013 |
In Response to Vacation: I have been asked by our management to include in our leave policy a statement that employees can only take one week of vacation per quarter. I've never seen a policy like this and I feel like employees would be asking for exceptions left and right. Any thoughts? Posted by Alayman I have seen policies that stated that employees could not take more than 5 days of leave at a time. You're right - it was a very unpopular policy, that began to easily show favoritism when certain people's exceptions were approved, and others weren't, while the "policy" remained the same. It's never a good idea to write a policy expecting to grant exceptions to it. Is management prepared to have ALL employees who fall under that policy (possibly management included) held to the policy once its created? I'd go the soft educational route first, making sure they understand the problems caused by creating a policy, and not sticking with it (or at least not having clear guidelines for how/when exceptions may be granted) |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 12/10/2012 3:21 PM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 12/10/2012 Last: 12/10/2012 |
If that is implemented, management should prepare for employees requesting longer vacations during quarter border weeks, which are often busy times (end of fiscal year and calendar year!) and could cause some problems and frustration for both sides. Is the one leave per quarter cumulative? This could also cause problems for employees with shorter commitments around holidays, family events, or with trips including high travel time. It sounds like management needs to open up communication with employees about vacation leave and staffing levels rather than implement a strict vacation policy. |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 12/12/2012 1:29 PM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 12/12/2012 Last: 12/12/2012 |
In Response to Vacation: Perhaps a disclaimer would work better if the issue is that work is being impeded. How about a statement that all time off requests are evaluated based on the business needs of the organization. That allows management to limit time off if it's during a critical time, i.e. year end closeout, but also have more leeway during other times. 5 days is not long and is very inconvenient if you have a 7 day time share or need to fly, say on a Monday instead of a Sunday. |
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Re: Paid Time off for Statutory Employees
posted at 12/13/2012 9:49 AM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 2
First: 12/13/2012 Last: 12/13/2012 |
I have a statutory employee who is paid a salary. He is an insurance agent. When he takes time off he schedules it around "appointments" with clients and then requests to be paid. I have been deducting this time from his semi monthly salary and he is upset. Any thoughts on how to handle this tricky situation? |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 12/18/2012 10:36 AM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 14
First: 10/13/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
In Response to Re: Vacation: We have a monitoring station that has to be staffed 24/7. I think they are trying to make it easier to schedule staff and not be short-handed. Posted by Alayman As Valerie Neff pointed out -- above -- such a policy will cause vacations to cluster around the quarter border weeks, leading to greater disparities in staffing and more short-handedness during those periods of time (or more disatisfied employees whose leave requests were denied). You might want to consider limits on how many people can be out at a specific time. At our workplace, the unionized employees have an elaborate system in which -- at the beginning of the leave year -- they can schedule up to 3 weeks of vacation. A calendar book is circulated, with the highest seniority employee going first. Each employee can schedule 2 weeks, either together or separated, with a limited number who can be out each week. The next rotation of the book, each employee can schedule an additional week. In addition, throughout the year, employees can request leave on a spot basis, by submitting leave requests no earlier than 30 days in advance and -- absent an emergency -- no later than the Tuesday prior to the week in which leave is requested, on a first-come-first-served basis. If the maximum number of employees is already scheduled to be out, the leave is denied. Employees who have scheduled leave "in the book" can waive their scheduled leave, upon 1 week's notice, whereupon anyone else can apply to take leave during that time, again, on a first-come-first-served basis. |
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Re: Vacation
posted at 1/9/2013 2:03 PM EST
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 1/9/2013 Last: 1/9/2013 |
We discussed the 'quarterly max' as well, but opted for a % of people who could be off in any one department at one time. First come, first served. One of the problems we kept coming back to was with FMLA. We had an employee who had to take FMLA unexpectedly. Our policy is that paid time must be exhausted before going into unpaid time on FMLA. The employee was eligible for 4 weeks of vacation and ended up using it all at once. We felt that to limit the vacation to so much per quarter, we would have had to make exceptions to allow people to receive pay while out on FMLA. |
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