Vacation time policy

Ok, so here's the deal.. and yes I know I should be going through my corporate HR for this, but I have, and frankly the amount of sense they made is about what I would expect for Realpoor, therefore, advice gained from both sources is about the same value.

Here's my dilemna. I started working here Aug 20th, 2000. My 5-year anniversary is coming up. At 5 years under the old vacation time policy you got 3 weeks of vacation, up from the standard 2 you got first. You also get an additional week of vacation for every promotion you get. In Dec of 2004 I was promoted to Officer, giving me 3 weeks.

Now the funny part comes in. I'm on the eve of my 5th year of employment, but Aug 1st my position got re-evaluated and it was reclassified as non-exempt. Under the new rules exempt employees get 4 weeks of vacation, non-exempt get 2, and 3 at 5 years. Supposedly the old vacation accrual is grandfathered if you were hired before the job remapping.

Now my problem comes in because I am only showing 2 weeks in my HR profile. I argued for a third week based on my promotion a year ago and I was given that because there wasn't really any arguing it. The question now is that I want to know if my old accrual should be grandfathered or not as I approach my 5 year anniversary. Am I still entitled to the extra week of vacation starting Aug 20th, making it a total of 4 weeks per year or not?

I wanted to file a dispute with HR but I'm not sure if I even can. Corporate policy is a mess here and I'm sure they have lawyers telling them what they can and can't do, so I don't really have any hope of winning based on legality or not, I just want to know if there was an oversight. I live in CA, for reference, even tho the company is based out of NY, I believe the laws governing CA take priority in terms of vacation and overtime pay.

One more question... what the hell is non-exempt and why do they get less vacation? Is there supposed to be some kind of advantage to being non-exempt? I know they're allowed to bill for overtime but since we can't work overtime without manager pre-approval I fail to see why this is a point of contention.

I can't wait to get out of here. Seriously... I would much rather be making half my pay working on an ambulance than working in this place. Only 9 more months if all goes well...

-Nah-

no offense, but If I was your boss and saw your post count, I wouldn't give you more vacation time :\

It's odd that they'd reclassify you as non-exempt. Usually companies try to do the opposite: reclassify people as exempt. Which means exempt to the Fair Labor Standards Act or some such thing, which has a certain amount of protection for workers. Specifically, non-exempt means you must be paid for every hour you work - no more working late to get a report done without getting paid for those hours. Companies like exempt employees because they can make them do extra work for free (since they're considered professional or managerial).

As for your extra week I don't know. It might come down to whether it says non-exempt employees get a "third week" or an "additional week" of vacation at five years. If it's a third week, they might just say you simply got to enjoy your third week a little earlier than most, but you still only get three weeks. If it's specified as an additional week would you might perhaps get four. It's probably ambiguous, so if you can get a manager to go to bat for you and appeal to HR you could maybe get the four.

Shit if policy has changed so much you may be able to get away with it. The wors you can do is ask and have them say no.

On the other hand if you will be leaving & not using that time why fight for it?

yah dude, ask HR, those poeple handle theat shit for a living, odds are they've run into it before and can at least tell you about why you dont get the week, or they get you your week.

moot wrote:

no offense, but If I was your boss and saw your post count, I wouldn't give you more vacation time :\

I am offended you thought this would be funny or cute. That's offensive.

-Nah-

Nahualli wrote:

moot wrote: no offense, but If I was your boss and saw your post count, I wouldn't give you more vacation time :\ I am offended you thought this would be funny or cute. That's offensive. -Nah-

I smiled.

Damn that sucks even here at Alienware 3 years = 3 weeks, then again im sure your pay is a billion times better than mine.

Rootus take me with you!

Just to reiterate - in my experience, especially in big companies, there's a huge difference between you going to HR and saying "I want this", and your manager going to HR and saying "He deserves this". It's never good to represent yourself if you can help it.

Meh.. I think I finally got it sorted out. It was partially my own fault. They just rolled out a new HR application that you can see everything they have on file for you. It was my fault for now following up on the fact that I was entitled to a third week at my promotion. It was not my fault, however as I didn't know being promoted entitled you to a third week at my level.

The long and the short of it is they are paying me for the last year I had an extra week of vacation and I didn't take it because I didn't know I had it. As of right now in the system I have 4 weeks (or 160hrs) of vacation on file, I don't plan on disputing it any more. Oh well.. this company is still a mess.. but there are worse ways for this to all end that I can think of.

-Nah-

man, i gotta put 8 years in to get 3 weeks vacation

all companies are different. i got laid off at worldcom 3 days shy of 5 years. that would have given me 3 weeks, but they would only give me compensation for 2 weeks even though part of the 3 days was weekend.

anyway make friends with someone in HR and they can help you. they'll tell you sneaky ways to get around shit and all that.

i have an interview tomorrow with cingular. too bad they aren't still AT&T, but cingular is better than a lot of companies i've worked for.

Quote:

I am offended you thought this would be funny or cute. That's offensive.

It's not meant to be funny or cute.


Your post count would take more than a full week of nonstop posting to match.

You got yer third week in tiny snippets you stole from the company.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Man, you guys need to get into the insurance industry. I've been with my company for just under a year and I have 22 days of vacation this year (24 if you count the two I rolled over from the end of last year).

And I get an extra day every year up to the 5 year point, then I get 5 more days every 5th year =).

I don't even know if I get vacation. I assume I must, but basically if I feel like coming in I come in, and if I don't I don't. If I go away for a week or two, I say "I'm going away for a week or two". I think they just sort of take it for granted that you won't abuse it. I guess if I said "I'm going away for a month" they might balk; I should try that sometime

Kin wrote:

Man, you guys need to get into the insurance industry. I've been with my company for just under a year and I have 22 days of vacation this year (24 if you count the two I rolled over from the end of last year). And I get an extra day every year up to the 5 year point, then I get 5 more days every 5th year =).

You are on a PTO system and not a Vacation/Sick day system?

1 year = 30 days for me.

When I worked for blue cross and blue sheild you didnt get any vaction or sick or personal days. How it worked was if you were under 1 year every 40 hours you worked you got 7 (off hours) and can use them at any time for any reason as much as you want.

I forgot the scale after that but each year you got more hours per 40. It was great you just needed a 24 hour notice for 8 hours off and like 48 hour notice for 24 hours off and so on.

At one point i just saved up and started taking every other friday off, since the company and my department was so big they didn't care. Then 9/11 came and it all was gone.

Your company sounds so bizarre, from your previous posts, that it sounds like you should be able to walk in there wearing nothing but a green turtleneck and scream "MOO GOO GAI PAN" and all they'd say is, "You need to fill out a testicular waiver, in triplicate."

the goodwill gives vacation breaks?