Taking a personal day off, what is the limit of it?

[Du1point8]

Booking time off for a funeral of a grand parent and thought no problems, covered it with the client and they are fine about it.

Contacted the consultancy company and they are saying personal days are for direct family only, so its only parents and siblings, grand parents don't count and I will need to use a days holiday for it.

First time ever I have heard of that particular ruling... I have taken the 'holiday' to just get it on the books, but what is the norm out there and is this just a little strange making someone take a holiday to go to a grandparent's funeral?

[SydneyBridge]

I had to do the same
My sister, who is a teacher, got told to phone in sick for our Grandmother's funeral
This is what my employer says-

Compassionate Leave
:-

For Husband/Wife/Partner/Child – 5 days (+ 1 day for funeral if applicable)
For other close relatives i.e. Parents/Brothers/Sisters – 3 days

[sherbertdip]

Direct family is the rule for the large Government Department I work in.

Grandparents, cousins, nephews etc need to take Annual Leave.

[Du1point8]

Strange I have never had this in the past and its always just allowed, the client had no problems at all with it.

Makes it worse is the OH (still GF) is allowed to take compassionate leave and is not even family yet.

Suppose companies work in different ways.

I have been told that the graduates they take on (make up a large % of the company) have in the past royally taken the piss, having several grandparents dying every year and taking the occasional monday off after living in the pub from friday to sunday night...

It means the experienced hires like myself suffer from the immaturity of the grads... not happy but I know for next time.

[anonymous-user]

SydneyBridge said:

I had to do the same
My sister, who is a teacher, got told to phone in sick for our Grandmother's funeral
This is what my employer says-

Compassionate Leave
:-

For Husband/Wife/Partner/Child – 5 days (+ 1 day for funeral if applicable)
For other close relatives i.e. Parents/Brothers/Sisters – 3 days

This is similar why I work. Now I have looked at it, isnt it crazy that should your partner or child die you only get a week off!!!

[edc]

Are you a PAYE employee or are you 'contracting'?

[prand]

edc said:

Are you a PAYE employee or are you 'contracting'?

Or at least fee earning for a consultancy? As a client I'd be more than sympathetic and accept you wouldn't be in on the day, but I would certainly not expect to pay for it.

[Du1point8]

prand said:

edc said:

Are you a PAYE employee or are you 'contracting'?

Or at least fee earning for a consultancy? As a client I'd be more than sympathetic and accept you wouldn't be in on the day, but I would certainly not expect to pay for it.

salaried by a company that I work for, they sub contract me out to a client who are charged on billable days, the client would not be billed for this anyway as its not a billable day with me not in the office.

[nick s]

MonkeyMatt said:

SydneyBridge said:

I had to do the same
My sister, who is a teacher, got told to phone in sick for our Grandmother's funeral
This is what my employer says-

Compassionate Leave
:-

For Husband/Wife/Partner/Child – 5 days (+ 1 day for funeral if applicable)
For other close relatives i.e. Parents/Brothers/Sisters – 3 days

This is similar why I work. Now I have looked at it, isnt it crazy that should your partner or child die you only get a week off!!!

That's absolutely ridiculous! At my place you get as long off as you need, all paid (within reason). Lady on my team just had 4 weeks off because her sister died. She was encouraged to take more time off!

[edc]

Look at your employee handbook/manual for a bereavement or leave of absence policy.

[Du1point8]

edc said:

Look at your employee handbook/manual for a bereavement or leave of absence policy.

nothing at all that I can find or see... just sick and then the standard disciplinary sections.

[HenryJM]

The main thing to split out is whether you can have the time off and whether you are paid for it.

Unless written into your contract you have no right to be paid under bereavement or similar leave, but you do have a right to take time off unpaid. Of course many companies will, to an extent, pay you but that is discretionary unless written in as a right in the contract/terms.

[fido]

I had to take off an afternoon in similar circumstances and they let me make up the time (i.e. work longer or in my evenings) thus getting around the holiday rules, which to be fair was very reasonable.

[skeeterm5]

I don't care what the company policy says, I use my judgement about the right thing to when for the individual when any of my team ask anything like this.

S