Exempt Question

[k3am]

If you are on a PTO day and you end up answering emails, taking calls, etc, do you still mark that as a PTO day? Do you only mark the hours that you weren't spending on work? Do you/your employer have a certain of time spent that you use as a threshold?

ETA: I guess context would help. Work recently decided we're no longer allowed to cash in unused accrued vacation days. I have never reduced my amount of PTO I put in my timecard if I ended up needing to work for an hour or two here or there. But since they're taking it away because they really want us to "rest, unwind, and come back recharged," if I am not using my PTO to rest, unwind, and come back recharged, I don't want to use my PTO for it. 

[mae0111]

I'm hourly right now, so I count every hour that I work.

But when I was exempt, I spent years working through vacations, holidays, maternity leave. I'd finally had enough when I took a week's vacation and had worked 40 hours by Wednesday evening of my week off. I didn't put in for that week, and if I worked ANY hours after that on what was supposed to be a vacation day, I tracked the hours and only put in for the actual time I took off. Or if it was just one day off during the week, I took the hours off of another day that week.

[xctsclrx]

I charge what I work. If I take a PTO day and work 2 hours I charge the two and take the 6.

I'm salary but I still have to charge to the quarter hour and I can take leave to the quarter hour

[supertrooper1]

Our PTO is calculated in 15 minute increments. If I was contacted regularly on my PTO time, yes, I would change how much PTO I took and the hours I worked.

[mommyatty]

I have to work 80 hrs in a 2 week pay period. So I track what I work and if I work fewer than 80 hours, I take PTO. But we have “unlimited PTO” because they didn’t want to deal with holding the liability on the books.

[waverly]

I am exempt. But, I do put my hours in my timecard for payroll purposes.

So for your example, if I worked from home answering e-mails for 1 hour, then I would put in 1 hour worked for that day and 6.5 hours PTO. We work 7.5 hour days. We can use PTO in 15 minute increments although typically I do 30 minutes. Some forms of PTO such as holidays must be taken as full days, but regular vacation I do 30 minute intervals of PTO.

[sdlaura]

We have unlimited PTO so normally I just put a vacation day on my calendar even if I end up working some. But now we’ve been asked to start tracking it even though it’s unlimited. I generally just feel free to do personal stuff on work days but also expect to do work stuff on planned vacation days, so I don’t account for that in any way. (For context, 250-person company and I’m a partner).

[librarychica]

Feb 8, 2024 12:46:45 GMT -5 xctsclrx said:

I charge what I work. If I take a PTO day and work 2 hours I charge the two and take the 6.

I'm salary but I still have to charge to the quarter hour and I can take leave to the quarter hour

^wss

[sandandsea]

I reduce my pto time by the time I worked so my total for the day is 8.

We also have unlimited Pto but track hours (billable and not billable) so it doesn’t seem right to have more than 8 hours a day if the hours were pto.

[AdaraMarie]

Feb 8, 2024 13:16:55 GMT -5 librarychica said:

Feb 8, 2024 12:46:45 GMT -5 xctsclrx said:

I charge what I work. If I take a PTO day and work 2 hours I charge the two and take the 6.

I'm salary but I still have to charge to the quarter hour and I can take leave to the quarter hour

^wss

Me three. I don't work for free.

[rere]

Feb 8, 2024 20:00:41 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

Feb 8, 2024 13:16:55 GMT -5 librarychica said:

^wss

Me three. I don't work for free.

Ditto.

[k3am]

Feb 8, 2024 20:00:41 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

Feb 8, 2024 13:16:55 GMT -5 librarychica said:

^wss

Me three. I don't work for free.

I am hesitant because if I bow out early, I don’t put that on my time card, so it feels like it works out. I dunno.

[mommyatty]

k3am, I’m a little like this too. I kept a running tally generally at my old job, before I had to do an actual timesheet. Now, because I bill to projects and different budgets, it’s more exact, and I realize that I was seriously screwing myself in my tallies. After that many years of keeping the running tally, I still tend to do it. But now that I can fact check myself, I realize how often I’ve worked a LOT extra that results in my being able to take half to a full day off at least every other week. I never took those half to full days off, and I used to work a lot more hours than I do now.

[xctsclrx]

Feb 8, 2024 22:28:48 GMT -5 k3am said:

Feb 8, 2024 20:00:41 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

Me three. I don't work for free.

I am hesitant because if I bow out early, I don’t put that on my time card, so it feels like it works out. I dunno.

If I bow out early I do put it on my timecard. I can work 7 hours one day and 9 the next. Like mommyatty I have to work 80 in a two week span so it's flexible that way. I use all of my flexibility right now.

[twinmomma]

I just kind of fudge it. On my timesheet I just have to put how many hours of regular hours vs. PTO and it needs to be 40 each week. I don't have to enter actual daily hours. I only put in for PTO if it's official time off. If I duck out for an hour for a doctor appointment, I don't count it towards PTO because I know I'm going to make up the time eventually and it'll come out in the wash because of extra time I work other days without officially tracking it. My boss doesn't seem to care because he knows I get my work done. I report to the CEO and I'm senior leadership, so I'm lucky that I don't have a ton of oversight on my hours. I tend to give my staff the same levels of grace if possible.

[waverly]

My boss is ok if I leave early without putting it in my time card but only by about 30 minutes. So anything more than that then I use PTO. So basically I use PTO if I leave anytime before 3:30. If I leave at 4 then I don’t. This is if I do not log back in later that day.

[k3am]

This is whole thread is purely academic for me. I generally only touch my time card for full days out of the office. If I take a half day, I don't update it, if I work on my days off, I don't adjust the time off hours down, so it honestly probably all comes out in the wash. My manager HATES logging into the system to approve time cards (no time off = no need for him to log in and approve). I forgot to put in my December vacation, so I put in for January (per HR, when I let them know) and he was annoyed that I put it in.

About 1/4 of the time that I put in PTO on my timecard he never logs in to approve it, so those hours never drop off my accruals.

I think I'm just feeling spicy because of the whole no vacation buy back thing.

[sandandsea]

Also I think state law varies on this but in CA you are deemed to work a full day if exempt if you work at least 4 hours or so we were told by Hr several years ago. So we can’t enter PTO of less than 4 hours on a day.