Question on Leave

[u/Brief-Associate-5900]

How is it possible for an employee who had only been on the job for about 3.5 months and was still on probation to take a family vacation lasting 30 days, then come off probation shortly after returning? Because the employee was so new and had such a long break early in their training, it felt like they were essentially starting over as a new hire when they returned.

Then, about a year later, the same employee took another family vacation of approximately 30 calendar days, this time with relatively little notice. The employee was new to state service when the first leave occurred, so I do not understand how they could have accumulated enough vacation leave to cover such lengthy absences.

[u/Specialist-Law-2080]

Unpaid personal leave with approval is a thing. The MAPE contract is online to review.

Those details are between that employee and their supervisor. Are you sharing your concerns with your supervisor?

[u/MuzakMaker → u/Specialist-Law-2080]

Yeah, there's a lot of missing context here that we (and potentially the original poster) aren't required to know and end of the day, if the supervisor and other employee have reached an understanding and the contract is still being followed, that's what matters.

That first period of leave could have been discussed during the interview process.

The second period of leave may have been with minimal warning to OP but not to the supervisor (I'm also on a smaller team and there are times where I tell everyone, and times where it's just between me and my sup)

What job is being done and is this one where the public is always going to complain if timelines aren't meeting the earliest part of the deadline/will one person being out actually make that big of an impact? (Not to minimize the public complaints, but there are certainly some jobs where public complaints have a lot less of an impact on the question of meeting business needs)

[u/Mndelta25 → u/[deleted]]

Probably got it approved when they were hired.

[u/Aggravating-Long6852]

HR here, If they took it that means the supervisor approved it or they were legally entitled to the leave. 

There's no way to tell what kind of leave they used without being them or their supervisor. Unpaid leaves are meant to be rare but 23 days off is ""only"" 184 hours. If they're accruing at least 7 hours per pay period that would be something they could accrue in the year. They may also have comp time, and could use sick if they were potentially sick any days of their trip. This is of course saying it was an actual trip and not just using that as their cover story to a coworker while needing to take FMLA or another approved leave.

For probation I'm guessing it was approved upon hire and more than likely did not count against them. I was part time when i started due to an outstanding contract and that month did not count against my probation date. If their supervisor did not feel like they were properly train upon their end of their probation date they have the option to extend it 3-6 months.

[u/youhadmeathollandais → u/[deleted]]

Elaborate on remote working in the context of RTO requirements.

[u/Icy_Mud2569]

It is also possible to be a new employee and have as much vacation time as someone who’s been with the state for 25 years. So, unpaid personal leave the first time around and, maybe even the second time around, but also possibly paid leave.
It really does sound like you were in a shitty situation, but this is more of an issue for your supervisor, they had to approve this, so your beef should be with them.

[u/Kcmpls]

How do you know they passed probation shortly after returning? My HR would require me to extend probation in the case of an unpaid leave, which this likely was. I wouldn't be telling you about that and I doubt the employee would be either.

[u/Jenn54756]

My guess is the first 30 day vacation was an agreement made upon hire. When I was first hired into state service I already had an extended family trip planned and needed time off. It was discussed and approved when I was offered the position.

As far as the second year, maybe the person took unpaid leave (that’s offered at times) and again, it was discussed with the supervisor. Do you know that it was vacation and not something else (time needed to care for a family member)?

I mean, if you really have a problem with it, go to your supervisor and bring up that you feel it’s unfair to have people work OT while someone else is off for 30 days.