VACATION AND SICK LEAVE A typical vacation formula for regular, full-time employees might give 10 days (two weeks) per year for the first two or three years of employment and 15 days (three weeks) per year after the third or fourth year. Limitations are commonly placed on the amount of vacation that can be carried forward—a use-it-or-lose-it policy. This encourages employees to take regular vacations, which in turn improves morale. It also avoids the disruption of extra-long absences.
Sick leave may be 5 or 10 days per year. Employers need to specify in their employee handbooks what is covered by sick leave and what is not. For example, must the actual employee be sick, or does a sick child or spouse also qualify? How about routine, nonemergen- cy medical and dental visits for the employee or for the employee’s child? And believe it or not, the policy should address sick pets as well.