types of work leave

15 Types of Work Leave to Include in Your Leave Policy

The entire concept of the hyped workaholic energy and hustle culture is temporary. In reality, a reduced work-life balance will always harm their productivity

But it’s on you, as an employer, to create that awareness among your employees. Explain why they need necessary time-offs, offer them enough paid leaves, and encourage them to use them. Over the years, companies have included new types of work leave.


This article will cover different types of work leave in a company.

Importance of granting leaves:

Yes, leaves are mandatory. But moreover, it is important to magnify the reason behind it. 

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that more than 70 percent of employees have at least one form of paid time off. The rate is much higher among certain types of employers, such as large private companies and local, state, and federal government entities.

An employee has a personal life they need to be present at. It is important to understand that work is a part of life, not the entire life. 

The reason can be as simple as some scheduled chores like going to the bank, attending a family occasion, or more: their leaves are theirs, and they have the right to get those paid time off without the fear of losing money.

A fact to think about: employees not using their time-offs can negatively impact the company’s image.

The labor laws in all countries entitle a leave policy for employees covering several different reasons. Therefore, it is mandatory to cater to these laws, and all companies offer some basic categories of leaves.

Turning over a new leaf, a few companies are taking a step ahead and introducing new areas where leaves can be offered.

It goes without saying that time offs are needed for both the employees to take and the employers to give. 

Let’s go through different types of paid time off companies offer:

15 Leaves to include in your policy

Casual Leave

The basic/urgent/unforeseen instances can be the reason behind this leave. Casual leave can be a half/full day and is mandatory for many countries. 

However, if casual leave is not necessary, earned leave can also serve the purpose.

It can be used for a few days for personal reasons, but not for long-term vacations.

Any number of time-offs not taken can be carried off to the following year.

Sick Leave

As the name suggests, sick leave is given to the employees to recover from bad health or illness. Employees need to be able to get the time and focus on recovering without having to worry about losing pay. 

On average, companies offer around 6-15 days of sick leave per year.

It goes without saying that one cannot be too rigid about how many sick days one can take. Hence now companies are introduced to two sick leave types- one basic and the other unlimited sick leave, which we will cover later in this article.

[Here are some free templates to build an effective leave policy and more such policies within your organization.]

Maternity Leave

This is a long-term, very important requirement for new mothers. This is ideally provided for 3 to 6 months. This category of leave allows women to take care of their newborns, recover from their delivery, and take care of themselves.

Paternity Leave

As it is pretty evident, paternity leave caters to new fathers, partners of pregnant women, or someone who adopted a child. 

In most companies, paternity leaves are generally offered for a shorter period of time- around two weeks. But unfortunately, this leave is not mandatory by law. Hence many companies often do not even offer it.

Some companies are taking a good step by ensuring that new fathers get plenty of time to take care of their newborns and partners. 

Compensatory Off

Due to some urgent deliverables, your employee had to work on a public holiday or a weekend. Therefore, they are offered a compensatory off-day on a weekday.

It depends on individual cases and is generally handled first by the manager and then forwarded to HR.

Earned Leave

When employees contribute to more than 240 days of service annually, they can use this type of work leave for traveling or personal reasons. These leaves are calculated on a monthly basis depending on the number of days the employee worked.

Unpaid Leave/Loss of Pay leave

The number of leaves you offer to your employees might often be exhausted by the employees. In such cases, companies can provide unpaid leaves. However, this type of leave for employees comes with a loss of pay. 

This leave also includes any time-off taken against the basic leave policy template to be followed. For example, not giving notice prior enough the day off.

There is no such limit as how many unpaid leaves can be availed.

The above mentioned were some basic leave policies which are either mandatory or at least common within all organizations. But sometimes, they are not enough.

Thankfully, some companies are leaving no stone unturned and have introduced us to some special types of leave.

Menstrual leaves/Menopause leaves

While this is a debatable policy as to whether it is about giving special treatment to employees or not, menstrual leaves have recently been gaining momentum. Companies like Flipkart and Swiggy are offering this particular category of leave.

Recent news suggests that Spain plans to offer a 3-day leave to women during their menstrual cycle and severe pain.

Marriage Leave

While this might sound strange, employees often do not get enough time to plan their weddings due to work commitments.

In such a scenario, as they tend to balance work and preparations, work quality can also get hampered. Moreover, planning a wedding is a stressful task.

Show your employees that you care about important events in their lives. Then, give them enough time to plan things out and mentally relax after the event.

Unlimited Vacation

This leave permits employees to take unlimited vacation days off, as the name suggests. As a result, there is less focus on the working hours and more on the output delivered. The motive is to ensure employee wellness and give them enough ownership of tasks.

Unlimited Sick Leaves

Sick leaves are common, but the concept of unlimited sick leaves is comparatively newer. Offering the same just indicates that you trust their decisions and offer them to take care of themselves when they are not at their best.

These sick leave types allow them to return to work with full productivity and perform better.

Grandparental Leave

This thoughtful idea has the possibility of being a great perk to employees and serves as a means of employee retention.

It simply offers enough time to employees to undertake caregiving duties for their grandchildren without worrying about any loss of pay.

Pawternity Leave

It is highly recommended that all employers understand the role of pets in everyone’s lives. This leave offers employees day-offs to take care of their furry friends.

Non-Smoker’s Leave

This is probably one of the most creative ways to create awareness of smoking.

A company in Japan offered non-smoking employees an extra six days off to balance it with the regular smoking breaks taken by the other half.

Sabbatical Leave

After working for a stipulated period of time with one company, the employee can avail sabbatical leave. This is a leave that can be taken for a longer period of time.

This can involve getting a replacement and training them till the required person is not back. The leave can be taken for many reasons, including simply focusing on personal well-being.

FAQ

How many types of employee leaves are there?

There are three different types of leaves in an office: mandatory leaves, leaves, and non-leaves.

  • Mandatory leaves include national holidays, weekly holidays, and religious holidays.
  • Leaves include the mandatory categories- casual leave, sick leave, etc.
  • Non-leaves include compensatory time-offs, unpaid leaves, etc.

What types of leaves are there for work?

As discussed above, here are different leave types in a company:

  • Earned Leave
  • Casual Leave
  • Sick Leave
  • Maternity Leave
  • Paternity leave
  • Compensatory Off (Comp-off)
  • Marriage Leave.

Refer to the article for the rest of the policies.

How do I make a leave policy?

To start creating a leave policy, here are a few things you need to decide: 

  • The type of leaves you want to offer
  • What will be the rules to avail those leaves
  • Regular day-offs(weekend) to be offered
  • What are the public holidays according to the annual calendar

What is classified as personal leave?

Any leave offered for personal commitments, family issues, studies, or more are personal leaves.

Dhristi Shah

I am an Associate Content Marketer at Springworks. I love writing new content that relates to and helps you all (aka my readers).

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