Collection Management Procedures: Leave Requests

Guidelines Regarding Scheduling and Attendance

General Overview of Scheduling Per UM1262[1] (select quotes)

The standard work schedule is:

• 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday
• 7.5 hours per day; 37.5 hours per week
• 1 unpaid hour for meal break each day
• 1950 hours per fiscal year

Schedules that vary from the 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. workday, the Monday through Friday workweek, and/or 37.5 hours per week are considered to be non-standard. There are two types of non-standard schedules

• Alternative Work Schedule - when the department establishes the schedule based on the needs of the department
• Flextime - when the employee requests approval to alter his or her schedule, and the department agrees only if work flow permits

For employee convenience if work flow permits, Flextime allows full-time exempt and non-exempt employees to vary their arrival and/or departure times if they (1) work the required 75.0 hours in a two-week period and, (2) for hourly paid employees, do not work more than 40 hours in a single workweek. This arrangement allows variations in the length of the workday and/or the length of the workweek. The appropriate Dean, Director, or Activity Head and the Assistant Vice President for Human Resources must approve Flextime schedules.

Flextime variations that may be utilized, subject to approval and change by the department head and the Assistant Vice President for Human Resources, are:

• Core Time Schedule - The department establishes the required daily core time when every employee must be present. Employees work 7.5 hours per day, five days per week, but they may alter arrival and departure times before and after core time. For example: Every employee is required to be present between 9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Alternate work scheduling would permit employees to work from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with one hour off for an unpaid meal break. 
• Compressed Time - Employees are required to work 75 hours in a two-week period, but they may work longer days and accumulate excess hours to provide time off during the same two-week period. Bi-weekly paid nonexempt employees cannot exceed 40 hours in a single workweek.

There may be times when supervisors must ask employees to temporarily suspend their Flextime schedule due to heavy work volume, special projects, or seasonal needs such as registration. Supervisors also have the right to permanently suspend Flextime in their department. Advance notice of the need to suspend Flextime should be given as early as possible.

Paid Work Breaks

Up to two fifteen-minute paid breaks may be taken each workday if workflow permits. When permitted, the breaks are allowed in two blocks of time only, not in shorter, more frequent breaks away from work or in one 30-minute break.

Voting

(per Sylverna’s email below, 11/2/2010) TBR Policy No. 5:01:01:12[2], no UM policy

Department Heads,

All library employees are encouraged to vote. University policy does allow for granting paid time off to vote. Because of the extended hours of the polls, it is likely that most university employees can manage to get to the polls without having to take time off; however, there might be exceptions to that.  There might still be the need to accommodate scheduling needs of some library employees in order that they can vote. In all probability, we’re talking about an hour or less in most cases and that is acceptable.  Please be understanding and supportive of those in your department who need time off in order to vote. I should have sent this note out at the beginning of the early voting period, but it slipped my mind. This allowance should apply both to those who voted early as well as those who are voting today.

Thanks, Sylverna

Requesting and Recording Annual Leave / Sick Leave

 It is the responsibility of the department or activity head to administer annual leave for employees under their supervision, including establishing processes for requesting leave, granting approval, and recording annual leave use. [3]

The Financial Manager should establish a consistent process for how employees are expected to request advance approval for annual leave and planned sick leave as well as how they are expected to report unexpected absences.[4]

Unplanned Sick Leave[5] / Annual Leave procedures[6]

Call Department Head’s phone (901-678-4400) to request Sick Leave or Unplanned Annual leave...
if s/he is there, s/he will take the call to discuss the request.  If it is approved, s/he will fill out a leave slip for you and enter the leave on the departmental leave calendar and library leave calendar and email the department that you will be out for the day.

If s/he is not there, leave a message…
leave your name and say that you are taking X number of hours of sick leave or X number of hours annual leave (understanding that this means emergency, unplanned Annual Leave).  S/he or the designated Person in Charge will retrieve the message and fill out a leave slip for you and enter the leave on the leave departmental leave calendar and library leave calendar..  If you have to leave a message, details are not necessary; you can discuss the emergency with the Department Head at a later time.

If the Department Head is absent, the Person in Charge will check messages and fill in the leave form for Department Head to sign and return to you. 

The Person in Charge will enter the leave on the leave departmental leave calendar and library leave calendar and email the department that you will be out for the day.

The email to the department will only indicate that “so and so is out for the day” in the subject line and repeated in the body of the email.  The email will contain no other personal information, including whether it is sick time or emergency annual, or how many hours have been requested.

Vacation / Planned Annual Leave / Planned Sick time Procedures

Employee fills out leave request and submits to Direct Supervisor.  If the Direct Supervisor is absent on the day the request is submitted, the request should go to the Department Head for review.

THE FIRST DATE REQUESTED OFF MUST BE AT LEAST TWO WEEKS AFTER THE DATE SUBMITTED. 
The Direct Supervisor will return request forms within 24 hours of receiving them. That is, if you submit a request on the first, the request will be returned to you on the next business day and the first day off must be the 14^th or later.

Any requests with fewer than 3 days advance will be handled as emergency leave or sick time.

Department Head approves / signs it and puts in on the Departmental Leave Calendar
(Library Leave Calendar is for unplanned leave) and returns the slip.

You put the time off on your own Outlook calendar.

How to fill out the leave request forms

Name: your name

Date: date submitted

Type of leave:
enter the date(s) requested
on the appropriate line to reflect
Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Professional
Leave, etc.  The first date requested should
be at least three days after the date of the
day the request was submitted.

Hours / Tenths:  
the number of hours requested

Time in / Time Out
The time you will come in and the time you
will leave on that day (if the time off is the
middle of the day, one line should indicate
when you come in that day and when you are
leaving for your time off, then a second line
should indicate when you return from the
leave and then when you leave for the day.)

Name of Professional Conference Activity:
(only required for Professional Leave)

If Department Head, give name of person
in charge during absence: (self explanatory)

Approved: Signature indicates request has
been approved (disapproval would be
indicated by not signing the form).

NOTE: A signed form is an approval and
acknowledgement of the Department Head
for the time requested… one should not alter
the form after it has been signed, but should
submit a new request if changes are required.