The below post is taken from the Video Blog, the Subject Matter Minute. If it’s a little hard to read, it’s because it’s taken from the spoken word. You can view the episode on YouTube if you would like. Find it here: Episode #40 – Leave
If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive. (I would prefer you view on YouTube, so I know how many people have watched)
You can also listen to an audio version.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Subject Matter Minute, I’m Matt Nagy, thanks for joining me! If this is your first time here…. Shame on you. (chuckle) Nah, just kidding… but if it is, you can find a link in the show notes to all the episodes and get yourself all caught up.
A brief mention of something related to one of the last regular episodes we had. It was about air ambulances in Wyoming. It was a little while back… episode #34. I got several emails from folks who have been paying yearly fees to ambulance companies or hospitals that were meant to cover a trip in an air ambulance. Well… just so you all know… The legislature passed a law that no longer allows membership plans like this. So if you are paying, stop! Or at least check into it.
I was going to treat that one person who really dislikes when I share personal info to some new stuff today, but then the episode got a bit long, so…. Sorry…. Maybe next time. 🙂
Let’s get to it… Did you know that there are 16 different types of leave available to state of Wyoming employees? I briefly covered the 2 major ones in an earlier episode, episode #12 – Full Benefits Package, but I haven’t covered the other 14.
So today, let’s talk about Leave.
So, the 2 major types of leave are Vacation and Sick leave. Since there are so many to cover, I’m going to leave those to episode #12. Let’s cover the other 14 as quickly as possible. Speaking of that… if you need all the details of any of them, you can find everything in the Personnel Rules Chapter 6… which is linked below.
The first one is a bit timely for me as I recently used some when my grandfather passed away. His funeral was in Georgia, so it was nice that you can take 5 days of bereavement leave when a family member dies. That gave me the week to deal with a wide range of things down there.
The next type of leave is Holiday Leave. Full time employees are given 8 hours leave per holiday from regularly scheduled work hours. We get:
- New Years
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- President’s day
- Memorial day
- Independence day (4th of July)
- Labor day
- Veteran’s day
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
It’s a day for each holiday. Unfortunately, it’s not like the University that gets a sweet Christmas vacation. We get one day. … but we’ll take it.
There are several if’s and when’s under holiday leave, so feel free to read about it in Chapter 6. But, generally, it’s a straightforward holiday day-off.
Next is Exempt Paid Time Off. So, if any employee exempt from overtime is required to work on a holiday they are granted paid time off at one and one-half hours for each hour worked. A little “thank-you” for taking one for the team and working on a holiday.
Next is Parental Leave. I cover this in full in episode #31. Check it out. But, what it says in short is that employees may, with Agency head approval, take accrued sick leave, comp time, vacation leave, or leave without pay beyond the time allowed under Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for purposes associated with the birth or adoption of a child.
Voting Leave. We are given 1 hour of leave with pay to go vote. Simple.
Ok… Court Leave. This one was interesting to me because I am currently in the jury pool and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to serve. I wasn’t sure if I’d get paid. Well, turns out we do. If you are called for jury duty or as a witness of the court, you are granted leave with pay. It says you need to provide written documentation of the obligation, but we do get paid. So that’s cool. Now I kinda want to get on a jury. 🙂
Now here’s one for all those who have interest in serving the state in a different capacity. Legislative Leave. If you get elected to the legislature, you have to take time served in that position as leave without pay. Sounds a little odd, but you do get compensated for performing these duties by the Legislative Branch, and on the bright side, you can keep your job.
Ok, let’s talk about Educational Leave. This one is fascinating. I kinda doubt this ever happens, but you can actually get leave for up to 24 months to acquire job-related training or education. Of course, this is up to the Agency head. Believe it or not, the rules are open to it being either paid or unpaid. So… if you can find a very convincing reason to get some training and you have a super cool agency head, you could get paid to get that training.
Next is Administrative Leave. This is used for several things. First of all, an agency head may grant an employee administrative leave with pay to participate in meetings, seminars, hearings, examinations, and employee organization meetings. I don’t even know what some of those things are, but for any other purposes, you have to get approval from the Governor.
This is also the type of leave that the Governor gives for local celebrations, like Cheyenne Day, and if they need to shut things down because of weather, or anything else he/she deems necessary. One of the popular and regular administrative leave days is the day that is given for the Friday after Thanksgiving. That’s an example of administrative leave.
Ok…. Personal Leave. This one is at the agency head’s discretion. They can give us up to two regularly scheduled days of personal leave. So, 16 hours. There is a specific list of things that it can be given for.
- Employee recognition programs;
- Participating in department wellness initiatives;
- Merit incentive programs
- Team-based recognition – project completion
- To volunteer
- Family departing or returning from active duty military service; and
- To attend military funerals.
Now some of these have to have prior approval from HRD, so look closer if you want to set something up. Also, volunteering has some rules associated with it, so check those.
There are a few prohibited activities. Personal Leave can not be granted for:
- Birthdays
- Early release for holidays, and
- Undocumented performance
Next is Military Leave. I’m just going to send you to the Statute for that. All it says in our rules is that it shall be granted in accordance with Wyoming Statute 19-11-108.
Leave Without Pay. This type of leave is granted at the discretion of the agency head. This type of leave can basically be used for anything that the agency head decides warrants it. But there are some specific uses associated with it.
- If you are injured on the job and receiving workers comp, you can use LWP.
- An employee on military leave is entitled to LWP.
- You can use LWP when all other leave has been exhausted, with permission, for medical reasons.
Please note that for everything except legislative leave, an employee has to use all accrued comp time, vacation or other available leave before leave without pay will be authorized.
The Governor may furlough employees due to lack of work or funding. An employee furloughed for lack of funding is on leave without pay.
Administrative Review Leave.
This is not typically good leave… but it’s not always bad. This is leave that you get placed on… for a maximum of thirty (30) days.
This traditionally happens when you have been charged with or are under investigation for a crime, or Allegations of misconduct have been made; or
You fail a fitness for duty evaluation; or, finally…
You need to be removed from the workplace because you are a witness or the complainant in an investigation.
And, finally, FMLA. FMLA is an episode unto itself, but suffice it to say, this federal act entitles eligible employees to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.
I will probably do an episode on that in the future, but I did put some information about it in the show notes. We did a very detailed video back in 2018 that you can watch if you really need to know.
Now I wasn’t going to mention Covid-19 in this episode, but there are a couple of new types of leave that have been created because of it. The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act or EPSLA which provides up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for employees for six qualifying reasons related to COVID-19. And the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA), which expands the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to provide leave for employees who are unable to work, including work-from-home, as a result of having to care for a minor child due to a COVID-19 related closure of a school or childcare center.
If you need more info on those at this time, please contact your HR representative. Or if you just need general info, google it.
Holy smokes…. I’m so sorry this ended up so long. But, there are 16 types of leave… So much for Subject Matter MINUTE, eh? Well, thanks for hanging in there, and I’ll see you next time.