How does time off (appointments and such) work at your work?

IdigDirt

How does your work handle you being out of the office with personal time. At my work (I am salaried) if you leave even 30 mins early for a doctors appointment or whatever you are expected to either make it up or take personal time. I was talking to my mom this weekend and she said that was not legal. How does your company handle that type of thing? FWIW I work 40 hours, I never really have to stay late.

Sunidaze

I'm currently an hourly employee (good thing because we get a lot of OT) so we need to make up our time or use PTO (and with my company if you work less than five hours in one day, you are not allowed to make that time up, you need to use PTO).  The salary employees work so much there's usually not any questions of making the time up unless they take a half day or a whole day.

CarlaAndJames

Im really lucky. I work for a company that really believes in personal responsibility. We are allowed to take up to 3 hours out of a day and charge it to "out of office" on our timesheets for appointments and stuff. (We fill out a timesheet every day accounting for our time since it's all billed to clients).

Now, of course, if I took off 3 hours early every day I would probably get fired, of course. We all work a lot of unpaid overtime on nights/weekends, there's just no way to get our jobs done in 8 hours/day. So if we need an hour off sometimes, even if its just for a hair appointment or something, no one says anything.

DowagerCountessofNJ

Technically we're supposed to make up the time or use PTO, both hourly & salary employees.  I'm in good standing with management and HR though so 30 minutes here or there isn't a big deal to them.  They even let me leave 3 hours early once without needing to make up the time because my sister went into labor.

Jills83

I work for a federal agency and I am required to work exactly 8 hours every day.  If I don't work the entire 8 hours I have to take leave (use personal or sick time) for any time I am not working.  Even if it is only 15 minutes.  I do have the flexibility to go to work early or stay late so that I can fit in the 8 hours and I can work credit hours throughout that pay period to make it up and equal 40 hours a week. 

Unfortunately this week I've used 16 hours of sick leave.  All three of us had a stomach bug and then this morning the babysitter called to say she has it too.  So today we get a bonus day to get better I guess. 

nirern626

If I have something on a day I work, I have to take the whole day off. The unit has to be in service, so even if someone else covered half your tour for you it would be almost impossible to switch crew members without the truck being out of service. It's not like anywhere else lol. 

DramaMama06

if it's more than 30 minutes we need to account for it by taking PTO or staying late/coming in early. my boss is pretty laid back about it though. i try to schedule apts for lunch time or at the end of the day.

i wonder what's illegal about it?

 

butterfly62682

I am an hourly employee. I work for a small company and there are only three ladies in here. My job is pretty important in keeping everything running smoothly. They are really lenient on me having to take personal time because I have two kids and this is a family orientated business. That being said, if I am not here I don't get paid. But I am allowed to make up my time if I choose by staying late or only taking 30 mins of my hour lunch.

klingb52

I am a really lucky teacher.  We have a great principal who will allow us to leave early or arrive late (less than an hour) if we can easily have a coworker or teammate watch our students.  This saves the district on substitute costs and our class sizes are pretty small, so it isn't overwhelming for a teacher to work with two classes at once on occasion. Luckily for me, my planning period is first thing in the morning.  I am a reading teacher, so I don't have a classroom and don't work with students until 9:30, even though our contractual day starts at 8:30.  Also, at the end of the day, all teachers have a half an hour planning time after students are dismissed from 3:00-3:30.  I try to schedule in my appointments or LOs  at either 8:00 or after 3:00 or when there is a school break so that I don't have to take an "early out."  If we take an early out or arrive late, we are just asked to make up the time, but no one checks if you really do.  I always am willing to cover a colleague if they need to arrive late or take an early out and always take paperwork home and come in to catch up on the weekends, so I never feel guilty.  I hate getting a sub anyway since making plans for a substitute is really hard and time consuming!  I rarely use sick days and have never taken a personal day.

jkchs2003

They are pretty flexible at my job. My boss could care less, I actually sometimes leave without telling her if she is not here. She just asks me each pay period how much PTO I want added to my check if I am under 40.

OpheliaChem

I'm a teacher so we don't have the freedom to take sick hours. We do full day or half day if we need time off. My principal is flexible and if we have to leave a little early we can. The kids leave at 2:20 and we are done at 3:00 so if I have an appt, I can leave any time after 2:20.

DaisyJanie

The official policy is that you take either sick leave or annual leave. But nobody likes to deal with the paperwork, so my current boss only cares if you're gone for a half day. But I'm about to have a different boss and he doesn't even want to hear about a half day. Nice! But generally I work through lunch, which means I end up working more than the 37.5 hours I'm required to, so coming in an hour late every so often is no big deal.

skrichar

I'm salaried and work my fair share of lunches/nights/weekends during busy times of the month, so my boss just figures it all washes out in the end. If I'm out a whole day - like home sick with M - I take personal time. But if I'm short an hour here and there for appointments, we just let it slide.

Telly21182

I am salaried non-exempt, so while I'm salaried, I still get OT if I work over 40 hours, though it's highly discouraged and we get in trouble if we do.  

In regards to time off for appts or whatever - we're supposed to take appts. at lunch of before/after work and if we take one during work hours we're supposed to make it up either by working through a lunch, staying late, etc.  

However, we don't have a sick leave policy (nothing in our employee handbook) yet if Ty were sick I'm technically supposed to take a vacation day of my own time to take him to the doctor or whatever.  That's the part that really pisses me off, because it's not mentioned in our handbook, yet I was expected to know this when I took a day in September to take him to the doctor.  I can technically work from home, but I have to be available at the drop of a hat, which is impossible with a sick baby.  Needless to say, next time I have to stay home with him when he's really sick, looks like I'll be "sick" too. 

SarahP15

When I worked in banking (as a business analyst), I was salaraied but expected to work 40 hours per week.  If I took a long lunch to go to the doctor (which was right next door to my office), then I was expected to make that time up.  If I left early one day, I stayed late the next. 

During our slow times I may have only really "worked" 20 hours per week, but was expected to be there the whole time. 

MammaBear81

I am hourly, but I am fortunate to have a nice boss (not such a nice COO though).  I have a flex schedule where one of my work days is a 1/2 day so I am able to move that day if I need to take time off for an appointment.  I do my best to keep that day the same each week because I don't want to take advantage of a good thing.  That being said, I wouldn't want to move my 1/2 day if I have an appointment that is late enough that I would only loose 30 minutes of work time, I would generally request to make up the 30 minutes on another work day, or shorten my lunch hour (which I can't always due because I need 20 minutes to pump).  If that request is denied I have to take 1/2 a vacation day (it has to be taken in 1/2 day increments) I work 37.5 hours a week.

 

PS- I LOVE your siggy

62406

I am salaried as well and I am not required to make up the time when I leave for an appt.  I believe at my company hourly employees are required to use sick time (which they accrue) to take time off for an appt.

vigurl

I am exempt salaried.  Which means at my comapny if I need a few hrs off once a month of so its not a big deal and I dont need to make it up.  But if your work slips then you will get the side eye for not making it up.  I have to take 2.5 hr lunches 1x per month to take LO to the doc and I dont have to make up the time.  I also do not work extra on evenings or weekends.  Family time is family time and work is work.

IdigDirt

Thanks for all your answers! I am pretty lucky that my work is flexable that I can come early and leave late but I can't do that now because I live an hour from work and I drop LO off right when the babysitter "opens" and pick him up right before she takes her daughter to cheer leading. Once I move this will be much easier. Also I can't do appointments during lunch because we get 30 mins and all my appointments are close to home but this will all be solved when I move, so who wants to buy my house?

bunnymama625

salaried non-exempt here--

we can come in late or leave early for appts, no problem, but if you are taking half a day off, you are expected to take 1/2 a sick day or personal day-- it's mostly on your honor though- there have been times where I've left at 2pm sick and my manager said not to bother with the sick time.

My position puts up with a lot of crap though-- she said that's one way of making it up to me. I think some of the other depts are stricter about it.

jen&jay07

I'm a salaried employee. The way my company looks at it is as long as you get your work done then you don't need to use sick or vaca time. There are days that I may be there untill 530 when we are busy but could get out at 4 when it's not that bad.

I'm lucky enough that I have Wednesdays off so I always try to make DS's on my day off. I try to make appointments for myself as late in the day as possible so I only need to leave a little bit early.

3Girls3xsTheFun

I'm hourly, but I always work 40 hrs a week. I get OT occasionally.

I have flex-time, so if I come in late I can stay to make up for it that day only OR I have to use leave to cover the time I wasn't at work that I was scheduled to be (sick leave if it was a Dr. appt and  vacation time if it was anything else).

I try to schedule appts in the early morning or evening so I don't have to use my leave. I was under the impression that this was pretty standard.

My boss is really nice and probably wouldn't care at all if I came in an hour late 1 day here and there, but I feel like I shoudn't do that so I've never tried to get out of using my leave.

I work for the federal gov't and I earn plenty of sick and vacation time, so I feel obligated to use it.

 

 

helenejr

i love my work place - and even though i've contemplated leaving at time because of the "hand shake deals" and "boys club" environment - our actual work place agreement and treatment of new mums is fabulous!

as long as i work my full 37.5 hour week (i'm on a salary) it doesn't matter when i'm in the office or whether i'm at home - as long as the work gets done.

I try not to take it for granted - i work 9.5 hours straight wed-fri which are the days C is in care - then i just do what i need to do on the other days to get the work done.

nativemama12

I am a 37hr hourly employee. If I leave early, I just use PTO to make up the difference.  I try to schedule my appointment for later in the afternoon (I work 7am-230 most days), so it usually works out for me.