It's My Birthday, Can I Take the Day Off with Pay?
Early in my career, when I worked in manufacturing for Owens Corning and hospitality for Hyatt Hotels, I was able to take advantage of a nice list of benefit days. In addition to holidays, sick days, and vacation, we were awarded personal days and a day off each for our birthday and date of hire anniversary. The birthday and anniversary days did not have to be taken on the exact date. They usually weren’t. Time off was requested and scheduled in a similar fashion to vacation.
Keeping Records and Big Fat Notebooks
I learned quickly to use these "other" days to add on to a long weekend or extend a vacation when I was able to sneak in more than a week off. My sick days were likely to go unused, and I have never been the type to call in at 9 a.m. and beg for a personal day. When I wanted to review my allotted time I checked in with the department member responsible for keeping records of time off. They pulled a nice fat three ring binder off a shelf and turned to the page that represented my attendance calendar.
Simplify Life With Paid Time Off
Just thinking about tracking all those different types of time and the big fat notebooks makes my head spin a bit. Varying eligibility and additional days that included bereavement and jury duty added to a complicated calendar. Today I recommend Paid Time Off (PTO) for benefit days to simplify tracking, better meet employee needs, and potentially reduce absenteeism. The Millennials in your workforce are unlikely to be nostalgic for anniversary days in a career when they expect frequent transitions.
PTO provides employees a bank of days that can be used for vacation, sick, and personal time off. The individual buckets of time are merged into one. In transitioning to PTO it is not typically necessary to simply add up all the current days and offer a bank of say, 27 PTO days to all employees. Current usage can be reviewed to identify a logical PTO number and individual allocations can be offered during a transition period.
Electronic Should Be Easier Than Notebooks
The days of tracking time in notebooks are long gone for many employers who have migrated to electronic record keeping systems. Test automated processes to make certain they benefit all users. These should be easy to navigate and facilitate administration. A colleague complained about the time she went online to request a personal day and after clicking on the wrong box the screen announced she was not eligible and kicked back to a start screen. This SVP was not happy when she had to log in all over again
Check State Laws
Employees who earn sick days often feel entitled and take them before they lose the time, whether or not they are sick. PTO has been shown to reduce this tendency, improving attendance; employees are encouraged to plan to use time off. Some state laws require the payout of unused vacation days after an employee leaves. Unused PTO is considered vacation days in these states. Factor in this potential cost before making a change.
Is Every Day Off PTO?
Keep bereavement days out of PTO banks. Employees may choose to use PTO to add on to bereavement or for time off to attend a funeral when the policy does not cover the particular situation. Jury duty and time off to vote will also be kept out of a PTO bank. The Employee Benefits Answer Book includes a complete chapter with more details and resources for creating and administering Paid Time Off policies.
No need to send me a birthday note. My birthday is actually in the very beginning of January. Since I’m self employed I can take the day off, or any other, without pay.
