Had a brief and spirited conversation today regarding vacation and sick leave time.
The core argument focused on employees not knowing how much time they accrue at what intervals. The basic issue seems to be people tend to think they have more time than they actually do. My argument remains, when there is no standard of reference readily available, pay stubs or employee knowledge terminals, how are they supposed to know? Its just ridiculous that only two people in an entire company of any size hold the key to that information! Honestly, each time you have to ask them for your vacation and sick time information, its like Oliver Twist asking for more porridge!
I personally believe an employee should on any given day know the time they have available for vacation and sick leave and the intervals that time is accrued so they can make an informed decision as to how that time is used! Front and center is better than clandestine cloak and dagger secrecy any day!
In summary, this information is a basic right and I think critical to being a basically happy employee ( you would be amazed at how many lawsuits are based on wage and compensation disputes)!
Run for Your Life if you find yourself working for a company that doesn't provide this basic information up front, because its only the tip of the iceberg! Oh and watch out for free lunches too!
And we're off...
