A Refresher on Vacation Time

We still get fairly consistent questions about how vacation time works around the turn of the fiscal year (I know, I know, its October, but still good info…), and so we’d like to take a moment to address it again here.

As of June 1, 2015, vacation accruals came into effect making previous vacation ‘carryover’ model no longer a thing. Vacation time doesn’t expire under the current accrual method. Specifically, an employee accrues vacation time, in hours, based on their years of service, full-time/part-time status and number of scheduled hours per year. The vacation balance increases by the appropriate accrual rate at the start of every pay period. When an employee reaches the equivalent number of hours to make up 25 days of accrued time, they stop accruing time. The employee cannot earn that missed accrual time back. Once the employee starts using vacation time, and the balance drops below 25 days, s/he will begin accruing again at the start of the next pay period.

Going negative on vacation is also not allowed. The system can be a little quirky in that it currently subtracts scheduled days from the current balance, so sometimes a negative balance can appear to happen. However, at the time the paid time off is taken, the balance must be zero or above.

Vacation also accrues differently than sick and personal time. While vacation is accrued every pay period and is a running balance not bound to a fiscal year, sick and personal time is given in all at once on June 1st every year and does not carry over from one fiscal year to the next.

And finally, when leaving Arcadia, an employee can’t take their last days as vacation. All unused vacation time, however, is paid out to the employee after the leave in their final check.