Re: Paid Time Off

From: Cara Levinson
Email: CaraBLevinson@aol.com
Date: February 07, 2005

Comments

Dear Kimberly: A great question. Many employers are switching from designating time off as either "vacation" or "sick" or "personal" to simply "Paid Time Off." For many, this has been a boon -- much easier to administer. There are a couple of downsides, the most obvious one occuring when the employee terminates. In most states, employers are required to pay the terminating employee for all accrued but unused vacation time. Since Paid Time Off could be used as all vacation time, under that system when an employee terminates you will need to pay him/her for all accrued but unused Paid Time Off (even though some of that time could have been used for sick or personal time). As for grandfathering in existing employees, that's simply a matter of philosophy. You have to judge how much grumbling would be engendered by reducing the total time off available to employees. In my view, the benefit of being able to use your time off for whatever purpose you want outweighs the number of days, but your employees may feel differently.