Do I have to pay my secretary for the 2weeks of her wedding?

amother

Babyblue

Wed, Sep 07 2016, 11:11 pm

Title says it all...
I've been very considerate of her needs for a day off, or longer lunch breaks for her kalla classes, but now that she's actually getting married next week, I asked around a bit. I heard of one employer who pays regular salary, a different who pays nothing for the missed days, and a third who pays half.... what is the norm?

Talya

Wed, Sep 07 2016, 11:13 pm

Does she have a certain amount of PTO? It's ok if she has to use it for that. If not I'd say do it to promote good will if you can. She'll be happier working for you longer.

DrMom

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 3:50 am

Do you have policies in place re: vacation, time off for personal events, etc? If not, you should institute some.

I never heard if 2 weeks of paid vacation for a wedding!

amother

Babypink

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 4:40 am

As an employee, I'll say it's up to you obviously, I think it really depends on a few factors.
How long she worked for you, will she be staying after she has kids, how much is her work worth to you? If your relationship is worth a lot, it may be an investment. Will she doing advance work for whoever takes over or no one taking over but taking responsibility for missed work.
I do different office management jobs for companies, one boss would nickel and dime and always make it sound like I was doing too little, when I revamped the office, set up efficient systems and then would argue about every penny. I can't work like that.
In another place, they trust I'll get it done, I get a salary and if I need time off, they are fine as I do the work, staying later when needed.
I find I work differently when I'm treated better.

Amarante

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 5:55 am

It appears you don't have a policy regarding vacations which is very strange for a business.

I have never heard of a business giving two weeks off for a wedding. in my experience, people use their vacation to take time off.

In my experiences, allowing a worker a bit of flexibility in terms of appointments here and there, especially a personal assistant is quite a bit different than giving them two weeks paid time off.

You also run the risk of facing discrimination charges if you don't treat employees equally or at best have issues with morale if one employee is given a gift of vacation.

Giving time off is like giving a gift. Would you give your secretary a $2000 cash gift for her wedding.

My advice is to institute a formal vacation/sick day policy so that you don't deal with issues like this haphazardly.

DrMom

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 6:40 am

amother wrote:

We all do. But expecting 2 weeks of paid vacation time is taking advantage of your manager's generosity.

Last edited by DrMom on Thu, Sep 08 2016, 8:12 am; edited 1 time in total

watergirl

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 7:37 am

Ahuvah2 wrote:

The norm is to pay.

The norm for whom? Op has told us nothing about the job/office. Is it a frum office? A school? A law firm? There is no norm.

m in Israel

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 7:46 am

watergirl wrote:

The norm for whom? Op has told us nothing about the job/office. Is it a frum office? A school? A law firm? There is no norm.

This. And I would venture to add that in most of the world 2 weeks extra paid leave just because someone is getting married is actually NOT the "norm".

iriska_meller

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 7:51 am

I work for a large organization with very generous benefits. Our policy is you get 3 paid wedding days and the rest of time off comes out of your vacation bank.

busybee98

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 8:13 am

I think 1 week paid is very very nice. 2 weeks is excessive. If she wants to take 2 then mayeb she only has to use 1 week vacation time. As other said it depends on many factors.

cookiecutter

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 8:24 am

I agree with the posters who wrote that you should have a formal vacation policy so that you are at least working with set expectations. Assuming you don't, it should also depend in part on whether you have to pay someone else extra to cover her work, or if you are just looking to hold on to a little extra cash because you can. People who work together, especially in informal, no-vacation-policy type offices, need to pick up for each other all the time without thinking about every dime they can glean from it.

essie14

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 8:38 am

Ahuvah2 wrote:

The norm is to pay.

In what type of industry?
I have never heard of someone getting extra time off for her wedding.
It's extremely generous to be making allowances for her kallah classes and shopping.
Two weeks paid vacation on top of her regular PTO sounds excessive.

I've only worked in non-Jewish, very corporate environments with strict vacation policies. All my colleagues used PTO/accrued vacation time for their weddings.

amother

Babyblue

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 9:49 am

Whooooooo kids are finally in school(my youngest still on his way....)
To answer some questions, she works alone in the office, I backup from my home office for her lunch break, or whenever its hectic. For the next 2 weeks I ligned up more cleaning help as well as Babysitter for every afternoon from before kids get home till after 6. I will have to work more than full time, to field all calls and emails, cause will not have lunch break or help in this hectic season....in additon I have quite a few daily tasks that will have to be done while I take over for her too.... I'm bracing for tough 2 weeks ahead....
She works for us for almost a year and we are extremely satisfied Bh. (We still cant fathom how I managed without her so many years. ...) we actually increased her salary (without her asking for it)several times in the last few months cause we so appreciate how efficient she is Bh.

pmom

Thu, Sep 08 2016, 10:05 am

I think you don't need to pay for 2 weeks. we are a heimishe office with 12 girls all of whom got married while working here. we each had to use our vacation days (we get 1 week paid and one week not paid allowed vacation annually). we were allowed to go over our annual vacation allowance that year though.