Vacation Days and Paid Time Off Work Policies - Top 10 Questions to Ask HR

Asking your Human Resources contact the right questions when starting a new job is essential to make sure you fully understand your vacation benefits inside and out. The following list of questions can be used when meeting with your HR representative for the first time to gather details on the vacation and paid time off policies and guidelines at your new company. In addition to your offer letter, you may have been given a copy of the Employee Handbook (printed or online) which will answer many of these questions. Review the fine print and find out which questions remain unclear and need firm answers and make your own list to follow-up.

Set up an appointment with your HR representative to gather answers to all the open questions in person. Remember that there are no laws governing vacation policy in the United States unlike in Europe where time off policy is much more generous and guaranteed for all employees. This set of questions covers standard guidelines and policies present at most organizations, however what you are granted at your new place of employment can and will vary significantly from the benefits available to your friends and family at other employers and in other industries. By making it a priority to get these questions answered up front, you will be able to best plan to use all of your earned time off from work for vacation and work-life balance goals this year and throughout your career.

In recent years many companies have switched from offering a separate allocation of vacation days, personal days, and sick days to providing all employees with a bank of days that can be utilized to take off time for any purpose. PTO has become a popular option at many organizations, but it may or may not benefit you personally based on how you currently take vacation days and how often you or a dependent family member gets sick in a typical year.  One advantage of PTO is that you should be given more general purpose days off each year and if you minimize the use of sick and personal days, you can apply those "sick" days toward vacation.  The potential downside if you typically use your allotment of sick and personal days is that you may end up dipping into your "vacation" days since they come from the same pool. 

A critical question to ask is when you will begin to accrue vacation time, whether it is as of your start date or after an initial waiting period of several weeks or even months. It is an unfortunate reality today that numerous major employers require entry level hires wait an entire year before getting vacation time. Even if you start earning vacation days from your first date of paid employment or after an initial training period, you may not be allowed to use them right away. Ask if there are any new hire policies in place or scheduling concerns like deadlines or seasonal busy periods to avoid.

Most likely you already know this most important of questions as it should have been covered in your verbal offer or offer letter.  Hopefully you have been offered more than the typical 2 weeks of paid vacation per year that is the standard for new hires in the United States.  Employees with many years of prior work experience may be granted additional weeks of vacation time so they do not have to start over when changing employers.  This is the type of question to ask before you actually accept a job offer to find out if there is at least some flexibility in company policy.  In some instances you may be able to receive the same amount of vacation time as at your previous place of employment based on years of service, degrees and certifications, and the type of position for which you were hired.  If vacation time is truly important to you (and it should be if you are reading this), there may be an opportunity to negotiate for an additional week of paid time off instead of an increase in salary above the amount offered.

Companies tend to use a calendar year (January through December) for all employees when it comes to accruing vacation days and allowing roll over of unused time from one year to the next. Sometimes your usage period will be based on your actual start date and end 12 months from that date, otherwise known as your anniversary date. Being aware of the difference means that you can accurately monitor your vacation hour totals on your pay stub and add reminders to your calendar at the conclusion of each vacation year.

The vacation policy as outlined in your Employee Handbook most likely has a table detailing the number of years of continuous employment required to get an additional day or week of vacation time.  Full-time workers may have to wait 5 years (or more) to earn an additional week of vacation time so it pays to seek out employers that are more generous.  This is one area where HR policies vary greatly across companies even with the same industry, not to mention the disparity between public (government) and private sector jobs.  Review the rules the apply to you today and schedule a future reminder on your online calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google Calendar) to pop up when you reach this big milestone.

Depending upon the flexibility of your employer and your exact responsibilities at work, you may have the option of taking time off in hour increments or half day increments. This policy can help when needing to run errands, spend time with family, take a class or volunteer in the community. For those of you who cannot take off hours or blocks of hours at a time, ask whether you can take a half day off from work in order to partake in a micro-vacation. Allocating several half-days off for vacation purposes might be exactly what you need to reduce stress and improve work-life balance. Regardless of your options, most employers calculate vacation days in hours and fractional hours which is how it will be listed as a line item on your pay stub.

Are you the type of person that plans all of your family vacations months ahead of time and can give your manager advanced notice about these trips? Or do you prefer to be a spontaneous traveler and take advantage of last minute travel deals online? Regardless of your vacation planning style, it pays to be aware of vacation approval policies at work to ensure that you can be away from your job when you want to and at the same time not inconvenience your co-workers who have to cover while you are enjoying vacation time off the clock.

I am sure you already know that companies typically allow employees to roll-over a fixed number of vacation days from one year to the next, sometimes requiring written permission from HR. However in many companies rolling over vacation days may not possible and you may be subject to what is known as a “use it or lose it” vacation policy. This means that you are not entitled to roll-over earned but unused vacation hours from one year to the next. The policy may also involve a cap which states the maximum number of days you can keep on the books, whereby you stop earning addition days off until you go below that limit.

Use-it-or-lose-it policies are being challenged in many U.S. states and fortunately in some states like California they are not legal at all. I encourage you to search online for your particular state to read what is current law. The lesson is to fully understand the policy at your new employer do not mistakenly lose vacation days when the new year hits or because you reached the ceiling and are "maxed out" and no longer accruing new vacation hours. Vacation time is money – your money – so do not give it back to your employer simply because you did not ask the right questions and followed the "rules" in order to be able to take every vacation day due to you.

For those of you who wish to take as many trips as possible in a given year, or take a really long vacation all at once, personal days may enter the picture. Again policies vary per employer so ask whether you are allowed to tack on a personal day as part of your vacation or if they can only be taken for the purpose intended - "personal" reasons such as family obligations, medical appointements, and home related tasks. In most cases personal days or floating holidays are treated like sick days and do not roll-over from one year to the next if left unused. The best advice is to try and save up your personal or floating days and as the end of the year approaches, add it onto your next vacation.

This last question is a sign of the times, where employers have been known to close down the workplace during the last week of the year, forcing all staff members to take vacation time. It may be referred to as a furlough and with it comes complex pay and labor law considerations based on whether you are an exempt or non-exempt employee. If your company does close down for a week, you may have the option of taking those work days as unpaid and save your vacation benefit for the month that is best for you. Since part of the furlough week may be paid company holidays, it is possible  (and policy can change) that you will be paid for those holidays regardless so be sure to ask. Unfortunately there is no law requiring employers to offer any flexibility as to when you can take vacations.  Most employers are reasonable, but you may be limited in other ways and still forced to take unpaid time at their choosing. The sooner you find out about company shut-downs the better you can plan your vacations around them.