Personal Leave

April 13, 2006

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Another time-off benefit that employers can offer is personal time. Personal time is offered to employees to cover situations that are not included in sick leave, bereavement, or other policies. Some examples of situations that might qualify for personal time off are house closings or car breakdowns. Personal time is generally different from vacation or sick leave time in that:

usually only a few days are offered each year
the number of personal days offered is the same for each employee and does not increase with years of service
the personal time is given on a "use-it-or-lose-it" basis — employees cannot accrue and carry over personal time

In larger corporations, personal time is usually treated as paid time off, but you may choose not to pay your employees. Instead, you may decide to treat it as an excused absence.

Personal leaves granted on an ad hoc basis to particularly valuable employees are more common, but if you choose to give personal leave in this fashion, be careful to apply the criteria you use to give personal leave equally, fairly, and consistently among all employees.