How Can We Prevent Employees from Extending Leaves with Weekends? Seeking Advice!

Dear Seniors,

I am working for an IT company. Our weekend is Saturday and Sunday. Now we are facing a situation where few employees take leaves for a whole week, for example, Monday to Friday. This means that last week's Saturday and Sunday and the week of leaves' Saturday and Sunday are also holidays for them!!!

Now, my company wants to know if we can deduct any one of the weekends (Saturday and Sunday) from their leave balance. What can be done to prevent this manipulation of the two days off per week? Is it possible to implement a rule where one of the weekends is considered as part of the leave days? Alternatively, could you please suggest some other alternatives??

Kindly reply to me as soon as possible.

Khyati Pandya HR Ahmedabad pandya.khyati@gmail.com

If the leaves are taken with permission, then you cannot consider Saturday or Sunday as leave. Unless the preceding day is an absence (leave without permission), you cannot do the same.

Dear Mr. Shreekanth,

Thank you for your valuable interventions. However, my question remains unanswered.

The issue that employees are facing is that they take leave from Monday to Friday, i.e., all five working days of the week. Our policy designates every Saturday and Sunday of the month as official holidays. Therefore, whenever they take leave from Monday to Friday, they can also utilize the upcoming Saturday and Sunday, as well as the previous week's.

Now, my company would like to clarify if it is permissible to deduct any of the Saturdays and Sundays as leave. This means that even if these days are considered official holidays as per the policy, can they be subtracted from the employees' remaining leave balance? In this scenario, if five days are taken as leave, the deduction would be seven days from the leave balance.

Khyati Pandya HR Ahmedabad [Login to view]

Hello Khyati,

In my opinion, some companies consider Saturday and Sunday as leave when someone wants to take leave on Friday and Monday. However, you have to establish a policy for this, and it should be in a defined format so that you can deduct the two extra leaves, i.e., Saturday and Sunday, from the leave balance. This policy can also be applicable for five days of leave.

Thank you.

My suggestion is not to approve such leave unless it's an emergency or supported by a valid reason.

Add this point to your leave policy stating that, "Keeping productivity in mind, any employee intending to take continuous leave of 5 working days in a week must provide prior notice to the HR department at least 10 working days before their leave commences. Approval must be obtained before the employee takes leave; otherwise, all leaves from the previous Saturday to the current Sunday will be deducted from their leave account.

In case of illness, employees must provide a medical certificate along with the doctor's prescription. (Obtaining a medical certificate is straightforward nowadays). Otherwise, all leaves from the previous Saturday to the current Sunday will be deducted from their leave account.

The company reserves the right to amend the policy if necessary in the future. Consider changing the policy to designate even Saturdays as half-working days and odd Saturdays as official days off for employees. The half-day can be utilized for training purposes.

Hope this is helpful to you.

- Babu

Hello Khyati, In my opinion, some companies consider Saturday and Sunday as leave when someone wants to take leave on Friday and Monday. However, you need to establish a policy for this, and it should be in a defined format so that you can deduct the two extra days off, i.e., Saturday and Sunday, from the leave balance. This rule can also apply to five-day leaves.

Thanks, Dear Mr. Manohar...

The rule already exists in our organization. The prefix and suffix leave rule is already in place. However, the question is, out of the two weekends, can we consider any one of them as leave and not as a weekend off?

Regards,
Khyati Pandya

My suggestion is don't approve such leave until and unless it's an emergency or supported by a valid reason.

Add this point to your leave policy stating that "Keeping productivity in mind, any employee in order to avail continuous leave of 5 working days in a week should provide prior notice to the HR department at least 10 working days before they intend their leave to commence. It must be approved before the employee takes leave. If not, all leaves from last week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave account. In case of being sick, they have to produce a medical certificate along with the prescription given by the doctor. (Getting a medical certificate is very easy these days). Otherwise, all leaves from last week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave account.

The company reserves the right to amend the policy if required at a future date. Change your policy so that even Saturdays are half-working days and odd Saturdays are declared as official off for the employees. The half-day can be used for training purposes.

Hope this is helpful to you.

- Babu

My suggestion is don't approve such leave until and unless it's an emergency or supported by a valid reason. Add this point to your leave policy stating that, "Keeping productivity in mind, any employee wishing to avail continuous leave of 5 working days in a week should provide prior notice to the HR department at least 10 working days before their leave commences, and it must be approved before taking leave. If not, all leaves from the previous Saturday to the current Sunday will be deducted from their leave account." In the case of sickness, they must provide a medical certificate along with the doctor's prescription. Otherwise, all leaves from the previous Saturday to the current Sunday will be deducted from their leave account. The company reserves the right to amend the policy if required in the future. Consider changing the policy so that even Saturdays are half-working days and odd Saturdays are declared as official days off for employees. The half-day can be utilized for training purposes. Hope this information is helpful to you.

Thanks a lot, Mr. Babu, for understanding my question. I will try to convey these ideas to my COO. Can you please advise if I can implement a policy like this to prevent the manipulation of weekends off? Regards, Khyati Pandya

Policy on Leave and Loss of Pay

In line with my view, if any employee takes or avails LOP (Loss of Pay) or unauthorized leave on the last day of the week and the first day of the subsequent week, the holidays or weekly offs falling between these leaves would also be treated as Loss of Pay.

Regards,
Sum

The prefix and suffix leave rules already exist, as well as prior permission for leaves. The issue is, can we consider any one of the weekends as a leave and not as a holiday?

Regards,
Khyati Pandya

Yes, you can. I have done the same in my organization. I did face a similar kind of problem, and despite several warnings, the issue persisted. So, I implemented the 2nd and 3rd rules. My management agreed to add this as part of our policy and asked me to avoid verbal communication. Instead, I sent an official email copied to the CEO, COO, VP, and directors. If any employee showed dissatisfaction, I immediately stated that the policy had already been approved, and it's a management decision. However, we cannot frame a different policy for every employee, and all this is done to increase productivity.

You can implement this in the leave policy under the Work Hour and General Rules clause:

WORK HOURS: Weekdays 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM (In case of work pressure and customer demand, this may have to be extended.)

We are closed on the second Saturday and fourth Saturday of each month, and the rest of the Saturdays, we work between 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. In case of work pressure and customer demand, working on weekends may be essential, and your cooperation is expected during that period.

All employees are expected to be present at the workplace on or before 9:00 AM.

General Rules:

1. Any leave other than Sick Leave during the probationary period/Training period will be counted as Loss of Pay (LOP).
2. An employee on probation will be eligible for this policy after completion of their probation period, and leave is calculated based on the date of joining of the employee. Leaves will be taken on a pro-rata basis for all employees joining during the course of a year.
3. At the beginning of the year, confirmed employees will be eligible for full Casual Leave (CL), Sick Leave (SL), and Earned Leave (EL). Earned EL can be availed in the subsequent month of that particular year.
4. All the holidays and weekly offs between the start date and end date of CL will be treated as leave for employees if it is an unplanned leave (without notice before 10 working days).
5. All the holidays and weekly offs between the start date and end date of SL and EL will not be treated as leave for employees (for EL, prior notice of 10 working days is necessary).
6. Clubbing of leave with EL and CL or CL and SL or SL and EL is not permitted.
7. Any employee availing continuous 5 working days in a week should give prior notice of at least 10 working days before the employee intends their leave to commence, and it must be approved before the employee takes leave, or else all leaves right from the last week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave account.

If it's a sick leave, the employee should submit a medical certificate along with the prescription from the doctor, or else, all leaves starting from the last week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave balance.

- Babu

Thank you very much, Mr. Babu. Unfortunately, I am unable to take alternate Saturdays off as it was a rule we had in place previously. However, in order to align with current trends, we have extended working hours and designated Saturday and Sunday as the weekend.

Do you have any other suggestions I could consider?

Regards,
Khyati Pandya
HR
Ahmedabad
[Email Removed For Privacy Reasons]

Could you please clarify what sort of alternatives you are looking for so that I can share my ideas on it.

As far as I am concerned, I believe the following rule is the best and will certainly work out.

Any employee availing continuous five working days in a week should give prior notice of at least ten working days before the intended leave commencement. It must be approved before the employee takes leave, or else all leaves from the previous week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave account. If it's sick leave, the employee should submit a medical certificate along with the doctor's prescription. Otherwise, all leaves from the last week Saturday to the current week Sunday will be deducted from their leave balance.

- Babu

Mr. Babu,

We do not want to define the type of leave. We are facing this situation! Prior permission before taking leaves is already a policy in our organization.

My company wants to implement a rule that anyone who takes a full week's leave, their weekend days will also be considered as leaves and not as holidays! So I would like to know if there is any rule like that in any other IT company. Or, if we really want to go with the rule, what will be the consequences?

Khyati Pandya HR Ahmedabad [Login to view]

Yes, Khyati, you can consider one or both as leave, but you have to put it in your policy.

According to the Factory Act, a worker is required to have complete rest for 24 hours after working 48 hours (6 days). This means that only one day of weekly off (after working for 6 days) is the liability of the employer. In excess of this, the employer can offer more weekly offs, but that is one kind of welfare benefit that is not a right of an employee.

Dear Samyak1,

What is wrong if the employees avail the benefit of the weekly offs on Saturday and Sunday?

Do you want them to work on Saturdays and Sundays?

It is nothing but the typical mentality of not letting employees "enjoy" their leaves. You are so persistent with your query/demand to find a "solution." I do not know if you are yourself applying your mind or bowing to management pressure.

Don't you think that allowing employees unhindered leave on Saturdays and Sundays (which in any case are weekly-off days); you are ensuring better "Quality of Work Life" and that the employees spend some time for self-renewal with their families and thus work on the weekdays with enhanced motivation and productivity?

If you are not able to find a 'legal' "solution"; perhaps a better idea would be to suggest to your management that they chain the employees at their workplace on Friday evening after the close of office hours and release them on Monday morning - it might appeal to the 'middle-ages' mentality of your business owners and satisfy their egos.

Warm regards.

P.S.: Please do not take the suggestion seriously - it is made in a lighter vein.

Dear Raj,

I think you still need to go through my company's problem. Being in the IT industry, we have given all the flexibility and liberty that any good CMM level company provides. Judging some issue without knowing what other benefits we give to the employees shows your lack of maturity!! (Don't mind, I am also trying to be witty).

FYI!! We have flexible hours! Work from home facility! Flexibility for all the things which you can not even imagine! If any employee works for more than 45 hours, then we carry forward those hours in terms of leave or monetary benefits!! This is just an example of the benefits which we give!! I hope you will change your perception about my management!!

By the way, if you do not have the "Middle Age" mentality!! Then can you suggest me some "Young Age" mentality solutions???

Warm regards.

P.S.: Please do not take the suggestion seriously - it is made in a lighter vein.

Khyati Pandya

Dear Khyati,

Thanks for your feedback; it makes me genuinely happy.

It is good to know that yours is a CMM level company and you have several employee-friendly schemes, which provide an improved quality of work life (QWL) to employees, including yourself.

Under the circumstances, and considering your employees are white-collar IT "geeks," I would suggest that you simply make it known (preferably informally) that management does not appreciate employees taking undue advantage of the employee-friendly policies. Employees taking frequent week-long leaves which include the weekends as a prefix and suffix shall not be viewed or rated favorably during their performance appraisals. They would also be given back-seats in case of performance-based bonuses, incentives, or promotions.

At times, making such informal policies known (through the grapevine or otherwise) may work well, as your employees are highly educated and qualified professionals. Also, if you find an employee doing this frequently, you can "counsel" them through a well-drafted "advisory" letter. Hope this helps.

Warm regards.

Dear Mr. Raj,

Thanks a lot for your valuable guidance. We are now on the way to prepare a policy for it! We are considering the points you have put across. Thanks a lot again for the valuable intervention.

And yes, by the way, my organization is not at a CMM level. We are ISO certified only. But we will soon have CMM! :-)

Khyati Pandya
HR
Ahmedabad
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