Human Resource Blog

A personal day after called in resignation

I have an employee from our Florida store who called in Sept 1, 2009. She told the store manager that she was taking a personal day and that Sept 1 also is the start of her two week notice. Resigning Sept 13, 2009
Question is she entitled to take an accrued personal day? She has vacation time so and that is what we want to pay.
Please respond

There are a lot of variables here — is the employee exempt or non-exempt? Have you allowed other employees to take unpaid personal days in the past? Have you allowed this employee to take unpaid personal days in the past. Are personal days a benefit that your company genuinely offers, or did this employee simply invent them?

If the employee is hourly or a non-exempt salaried employee, there is no requirement under federal or Florida law that you pay her for one hour more than she actually works. So you need not pay this employee for her *personal day.* In Florida as well as other states, an employer has the right to require that vacation days be scheduled in advance and subject to prior approval by management. Essentially, vacations are at the employers convenience, not the employees. It would be very unusual for an employer to permit an employee to take paid time off during the employees last two weeks of employment. So you could legitimately not pay this employee for the *personal day* at all.

However, perhaps your company does, in fact, offer the benefit of paid impromptu personal days to employees. If employees have not been required to schedule these days in advance before, you may need to honor the employees request. This is especially true if you need her to keep working for the next 13 days.

If the employee is exempt, that is a slightly different situation. If she took the *personal day* due to illness or a serious health condition, then she might be entitled to payment. If the exempt employee performed any work at all during the day — even a few minutes, even working from home, then she is entitled to payment of her usual salary for the day. However, if she took the full day off for personal business, you can dock her pay. Again, there is no regulation that would require you to allow this employee to use a day of vacation spontaneously, but you may want to permit her to do so if you need her for the next 13 days.