How is personal leave handled?

Many employers offer employees paid time off for personal reasons. Sometimes called personal days, paid personal leave is often taken for a day at a time or for a part of a day. Paid personal leave for these short periods is sometimes administered along with an organization's paid sick day policy (see What is PTO (paid time off) and how does it work?at ¶46,110 ).

Paid personal time allows employees to manage such ordinary matters as attending a house closing, staying home to care for a sick child, or keeping an appointment that could not otherwise be scheduled during nonworking hours.

How is paid personal leave administered? Under a paid personal leave policy, an employee may or may not be required to formally state to the employer how the paid time off is to be used. Accordingly, personal days are typically paid days off for which an employee has no obligation to explain the purpose. As a practical matter, personal days amount to additional vacation days from the employer's standpoint.

Some organizations consider floating and personal holidays to be personal days. The number of personal days granted to employees is sometimes based on seniority or given in lieu of certain holidays.

See ¶46,020 for sample personal leave policy.