Follow up about my layoff last week, please help!
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Anonymous
I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support. I found a copy of a letter that was sent from HR. When we transitioned to the new company last year, our PTO earned from Company1 was put into a special bank. The letter states that bank would expire 1/1/2017. Then we would follow the company's regular PTO policy. It says that we would not carry over any hours from that bank into 2017. Then it states "nor will you receive a payout for any positive balance at the end of the year or at the time of your termination." I think it is worded vaguely and seems to be referring to the Special PTO bank, not PTO in general. This along with the fact that in my meeting with HR I was explicitly told I would get my PTO makes me wonder if they even know what the heck they are doing. What do you think? |
Anonymous
| OP, the short answer is that if it's a matter of interpretation, you have anywhere from a short skirmish to a full on war on your hands, depending on how you both want to handle it. How many PTO days are we talking about? I would maybe reach out and ask them to split the difference and bury it in the severance package (like if you think you have 4 weeks of PTO to be paid out, just ask them to bump up the severance by an extra paycheck - something like that)? It depends on how much it is obviously - but they can probably do something like that more easily than change the entire PTO policy. They don't want a battle over the policy, and practically speaking, they have the most leverage right now. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks for your reply. Whoever you are, you are very generous to share you knowledge and expertise with me.
The options then are: 1) Just let it go and move on. Pros/cons: I can start to focus on moving forward, but take the hit of the loss of $2000.00 earned PTO. 2) Send email to HR with my concern and ask to split the difference: Pros/cons: at least I will have tried, CON: is there any way they will try to take it out on me? Any further advice is greatly appreciated |
Anonymous
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PP - I guess I'm a little unclear as to where you are in the process. Do you have a package that has been fully presented to you? Did you sign anything? Are you a singular layoff or part of a group?
What do you need/want from them (besides the cash)? Why are they doing this - is it contractual or out of the goodness of their heart? Only you know how much you can push back on this, I'm not sure what you mean by try to take it out on you. Nobody is going to slash your tires, you asking for clarification is not an unreasonable thing and happens quite frequently even. |
Anonymous
HR Director here, my guess is you signed an annual acknowledgement of the employee handbook, which contained the new policy. I highly doubt they had everyone in the company sign something specifically stating that policy was changing. If it's just a handbook acknowledgment and the correct policy is in the handbook, you don't have any recourse and the HR person is just an idiot for not knowing his own policies. |
Anonymous
I think this is the question that determines how much leverage you have. If they're just handing out go away money that exceeds the value of your PTO I don't see why they would be inclined to give you more money. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Thanks everyone. They did not produce any paper I signed but did produce the new updated PTO policy so I don't think I have any recourse. I agree the HR director is an idiot for not even knowing the policy herself (or reviewing it prior to our discussion). The severance is out of the goodness of their heart, there is no contractual obligation. So I am just going to shake this off and move on.
Again, thanks to all of the posters here who have been so helpful and informative. |