“In return for flexibility, we ask you to invest in our purpose, making sure your work gets done and gets done well, so our organization can thrive, our customers are supported, and your colleagues can balance their lives, too.”
Responsible Schedule and Paid Time Off (PTO)
What it is
It is flexibility in setting your schedule. You take off the time you need to take off. You make up the time you feel you need to make up. Everyone gets 20 hours of PTO every month, to use as they see fit. Let’s say you have a dentist appointment this afternoon. If you want make up the time later, do it! If you want to take PTO (and have enough saved up to cover it), do that!
We will only allow employees to accrue 120 hours of PTO. We do that to encourage employees to take time off.
What it isn’t
It is not complete freedom to work when you want. Normal business hours are 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. We are a collaborative group and our customers work traditional work hours. Therefore, we expect the vast majority of your work to be done during normal business hours. You can talk to the board about alternative work schedules, but we can’t promise anything.
Why
Work/life balance is important to us. Work is important, but family and personal wellness are important too. Too often we get sucked into the culture of “work is everything” and we neglect our own mental and physical health, our families and our friends. We want you to love your work and hope that you are excited to come to work every day, but we want you to enjoy everything else, too!
Expectations
Our Responsible Schedule and PTO policy is two-way street. We offer our employees flexibility because we want to invest in their personal lives, but the investment needs to be mutual. In return for flexibility, we ask you to invest in our purpose, making sure your work gets done and gets done well, so our organization can thrive, our customers are supported, and your colleagues can balance their lives, too.
Communicate, communicate, communicate!
You are still accountable for tracking time off and we expect us all to hold each other accountable. The PTO system will be our way of measuring everything regarding PTO, including the amount of notice given, paid time off and comp-time.
When you get back from vacation, the system will send you an automated notice asking if you ended up working during your vacation. If so, we’ll add the amount of time you worked back to your PTO. Likewise, if you enter a record into the PTO system and tell us you will make it up later, it will send you a notice to ask if you actually made up the time. If you haven’t within 7 days, we’ll deduct the time from your PTO. We trust you to be honest.
The PTO system also provides a calendar to see everyone’s work schedule in one place. We will occasionally present detailed PTO statistics to everyone so that we are all aware of how much time everyone is, or isn’t, taking off and their use of comp time. It should be apparent if someone is abusing the system or isn’t taking enough time off.
Critical services must be covered at all times. For example, all the developers cannot be inaccessible at the same time. At least one developer needs to be available at the drop of a hat for fires. Critical services currently include:
- Customer Support
- Development
- DevOps
When it comes to covering critical services, PTO will be granted on a first-come-first-serve basis. Therefore, don’t forget to enter your planned time off early.
Other expectations:
- Normal work days begin between 7 and 8:30 am and end between 4 and 5:30 pm
- If you are coming in after 8:30 am or leaving before 4:00 pm, let people know by entering a record in the PTO system (unless you have an approved alternative work schedule, under which a different expectation will be set)
- If you are stepping out for 30 minutes or more, enter it into the PTO system
- If you are taking a day or more off, do your best to give us at least a weeks notice
- If you are taking a week off, do your best to give at least a months notice
Extended leave of more than 5 days should be rare, justifiable and planned in advance as much as possible. Talk to the board members to work out a plan that works for you and the company. We would love to accommodate everyone’s desires, but understand it might not work for the company.
As a final thought, we expect you not to abuse the system. If you feel like someone is abusing the system, let someone on the board know. They will address any concerns.
Parental Leave
Bolero provides 4 weeks of paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child to all employees who have been with the company for more than 6 months. Parental leave can be used during any time the first six months following the birth or adoption. Paid time off can be extended with accrued PTO.
Crisis Leave
Bolero provides 4 weeks of paid time off for crisis leave situations. The following are reasons under Crisis Leave:
- The serious illness of the employee, employee’s spouse, employee’s child, employee’s stepchild, or employee’s parent
For purposes of this policy, a “serious illness” is defined as follows:
- An illness that requires at least one overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or other residential health care facility under the treatment or supervision of a physician or other licensed health care provider
- An illness that requires an absence from work for more than three days as recommended by a physician or other licensed health care provider
- A chronic or long-term illness that is incurable or so serious that if untreated would probably lead to incapacity for more than three days, and requires continuing medical treatment or supervision
If the crisis is health-related, employees may be required to provide medical certification. For the purposes of this policy, Parental Leave and Crisis Leave cannot be used in conjunction.
Crisis leave requires approval from the board. Requests for crisis leave will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Whether or not the reason for the leave is appropriate under the policy
- The employee’s record of leave use
Leave of Absence
Regular employees, including those on corrective probation, may be granted leave of absence without pay with approval of the board. Such leave may be granted for a maximum of three months. An approved leave of absence ensures the employee the same or a similar job upon returning to Bolero.
All accrued PTO must be used before the effective date of a leave of absence. Except for certain instances involving military leave, an employee who has an accrued vacation balance will not be granted leave without pay. Bolero may, however, choose not to pay an employee for an absence that is not appropriately requested or approved.
PTO does not accrue during a leave of absence without pay.
Insurance benefits may be continued during a leave of absence with the employee paying the entire premium. Employees should notify the board prior to the leave for further information.
Workers’ Compensation and Injury Leave
Employees who are eligible to receive workers’ compensation (including temporary employees) are entitled to work-related injury leave with full pay for up to five scheduled workdays (40 hours or normal number of hours scheduled in a week). This leave, for illness or injury arising out of and in the course of employment, is not charged to PTO leave.
Employees receiving workers’ compensation for job-related injuries or disease may use all PTO leave to supplement the payment up to, but not to exceed, their regular rate of pay.
After all PTO leave has been exhausted, employees are not entitled to leave or pay benefits other than workers’ compensation. Employees may be put into a leave without pay status during this time without adjustment in the service date.
For a regular employee disabled with a work-related injury, a position will be held open as long as the department can function with the vacant position. At some point (not later than six months after the date of injury) the employee, if unable to return to work, will be separated from Bolero.