Vacation Increments

HRFLDist

Good Morning.....I was wondering what increments other companies pay out vacation when an employee requests it.  We currently only allow employees to take vacation in 4 & 8 hour increments and are possibly looking to change this.

cappy

We allow increments of 1 hour. So far this has not been a problem simply because employees desire to take the entire day to begin with. The smaller increment is there in case there is an immediate need that an employee may have. However approval of the leave time is at the discretion of the supervisor and may be denied for legitimate reasons.

TXHRGuy

The cynical side of me says that the smaller the increment, the more likely the EE will have sudden emergencies that can only be handled by leaving work for one hour cutting off the end of their scheduled day.

The optimistic side of me says small increments are a great favor to employees with children or chronic health issues like asthma for which they may need short breaks off without taking a hit in the pocket book.  Sadly, it's hard to separate great employees with chronic conditions from adequate employees playing the system in how you administer short breaks.

HRFLDist

Thank you both!

HRforME

I think it is also dependent on the industry and type of business. We have 3 companies where they must take increments of at least 4 hours. Those three are in the direct services industry where they truly need to be there for a whole shift.  Our other company is in hour increments.

LauLan

Greetings!  We allow vacation to be taken in half hour increments BUT time off of 1 day or less must be requested with 48 hours notice.  Shorter notice, at the manager's discretion, will be charged as sick time (also available in half hour increments).  Abuse is rare since our employees receive a bonus for unused sick time at the end of the plan year, but vacation carries over.  Hope this helps!