PTO/Time-Off Request Workflow

Use this to request specific dates to be out for vacation or personal time.

Introduction:

Request your dates

Give a reason for short notice

Details and backup coverage

Who will be covering your support shift?

Approval:

Approval notice and status update

Relevant checklists:

Introduction:

Welcome to your personal PTO workflow.

You can quickly request a vacation or personal days off you'd like to take. You may also request backup coverage for any support shifts.

Once you apply for PTO, your manager will approve the request or let you know why it won't work.

As you know, the company has an unlimited vacation policy. Now that we've said that, you're probably already thinking about the beach!

If you'd like to know how much vacation time is standard, most employees take between 15 and 20 days off. This total does not include local holidays, sick, or personal days.

Remember that we need you to take time off! We want you to come back to work refreshed and relaxed. We also know you deserve it.

Here is what this workflow is for:

Local holidays: We'll figure out a better way to deal with them soon.

Personal time: Appointments, kid's events, etc.

Vacation time: Don't forget to include travel days.

Partial days off: For any of the above.

What this workflow is not for:

When you travel for work.
When you're going to be working from a different location.

When to put in your request

The sooner you apply, the better. However, there are some suggestions we'd like you to follow:

Please give two weeks' notice when requesting time off
If taking more than a week, please provide a month's notice

Our guidelines are to ensure we have coverage when employees take time off. Your help in giving reasonable notice will provide the rest of the team with the flexibility to take time off when they need it.

However, if you need to take time off with less notice due to a personal issue, your manager will try to accommodate your request if they can make it work.

This template is maintained by human resources and was designed in Process Street.

“Good luck is a residue of preparation.” – Jack Youngblood

Request your dates

Your name

Your manager’s name

Start date: The first day you’ll be out of work

End date: The last day you’ll be out of work

In the field below, we'd like to know how many working hours you'll be away from work. It doesn't have to be exact, but this will help human resources better track our time-off use.

One work day = 8 hours.

So, for example, if I'm going to be out Wednesday through EOD Monday, I'd put in 32 hours because that's four working days.

The number of working hours you'll be away from work?

Is the time at least two weeks from now? (Or four if taking a week or more?)

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.” – Anonymous

Give a reason for short notice

If it’s to rob a bank or anything more adventurous, please keep that to yourself.

Please provide a few details as to why the request is shorter than usual:

“Isn’t it amazing how much stuff we get done the day before vacation?” – Zig Ziglar

Details and backup coverage

What's your reason for requesting PTO?

If you're uncomfortable sharing, it's OK to say it's personal:

Use the comments box below to advise if you'll only be out for a half-day or if there's anything else you want your manager to know:

Comments box

Are you assigned a support shift during this period?

“The person who receives the most favors is the one who knows how to return them.” – Publilius Syrus

Who will be covering your support shift?

Please give details of the person covering for you below:

Employee’s name

Employee’s department

Employee’s contact details if needed

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." – Napoleon Hill

Approval:

Request your dates

Will be submitted

Approval notice and status update

Stop here if you didn't get an approval notice email yet (probably because you just submitted your request).

Sit tight, and ignore everything below for now – you'll get a notice as soon as your manager responds to your request.

If you DID get an approval notice:

Your manager has approved your time off request!

Here are the dates when you'll be away from work:

From: {{form.Start_date:_The_first_day_you’ll_be_out_of_work}} – the first day you'll be out of work

End date: {{form.End_date:_The_last_day_you’ll_be_out_of_work}} – the last day you'll be out of work.

Now let's update your status so everyone knows when you're not around.

It's important to let your teammates and others know when they shouldn't bother you, so you'll need to update a few things:

1. Update your Google Calendar to show you'll be out of the office: You don't want folks booking time when you're out, so block the time on Google Calendar as an Out of Office event for the relevant days.

YOUR TEAM: Please update the relevant Team Time Off Calendar with your Out of Office schedule.

YOUR MANAGER: Please update the relevant Time Off Calendar, that you share with your manager, with your Out of Office schedule.

2. Schedule an out-of-office auto-reply for Gmail: Please update your Gmail with the dates you'll be gone and a message indicating who can answer questions while you're away.

3. The last thing you'll need to do is to set your Slack status to "Vacation" or "Out of Office." But, you can't do that in advance unless you take off tomorrow (or the next business day).

Remember to make a note or reminder to update your status before you take off. It would help if you made the status indicate the dates you'd be gone and who can answer questions for you while you're away. For example:

OOO / January 19 / reach out to @EddyPoe with questions.

To change your status in Slack, click your name in the upper left corner, and then pick "Set a status."

Communication Tasks