Working Hours, Comp and Leave Time

BUSINESS HOURS

Normal UGS business hours are 8am to 5pm, with one hour for lunch, Monday through Friday.  If it becomes necessary for a full time employee to renegotiate regular working hours, this can be done, just not ad hoc nor after the fact.

Alternative schedules negotiated with your supervisor must total at least 40 each week. 

Your supervisor will provide the approved alternative schedule to the admin team each semester so that staff will know when to expect you and the front desk can give accurate information to students. If a schedule change is made within the semester, it is the employee’s responsibility to ensure the change is noted in the weekly "Updates" email.

EMERGENCIES, LATE ARRIVAL, AND SICK LEAVE

Employees are to notify their supervisor via email and/or call if they are going to arrive late or if they are going to be absent at least 30 minutes before their scheduled shift. Your supervisor must be notified of your absence via email for each day you are sick.

If it becomes necessary for you to be unexpectedly absent (you become ill while at work, need to take more than one hour for lunch, or have an emergency) notify your supervisor immediately via phone or email.

You can use your sick leave after you have reported to work on your first day of employment. Tell your manager you are using it as soon as possible on the first day you are out. Be careful when using your sick leave so that you will have days available to cover any future illnesses or injuries.

Unused sick leave carries forward into the next fiscal year. There is not a limit to the number of hours you can carry from year to year.

To see the University’s sick leave policies, go to the Office of Human Resources online Handbook of Operating Procedures.

KEEPING YOUR CALENDAR

Employees are to keep an accurate, public calendar of meetings, working lunches or coffees, workshops, educational meetings, etc. for the purposes of scheduling new meetings allowing for acceptable travel time, respecting lunch hours, etc. Staff should keep calendar events public and reserve private events for non-work related meetings. Exceptions are made for supervisors during performance appraisal periods.

RECORDING HOURS WORKED

Full-time employees are expected to work 40 hours per week and submit accurate weekly electronic timesheets Friday afternoon before leaving for the day.  Weekly timesheets are used to keep track of time worked and calculate accrual of vacation and sick leave.  To complete your time sheet, log into Workday. 

There are a number of categories of leave for recording time away from work, and it is important to know in what situations they apply.  Please consult UT Austin’s Human Resources website for descriptions of different categories of leave, and how to note leave when filling out your weekly timesheet. 

LUNCH AND BREAKS

Lunch should be taken between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. The minimum lunch period is 30 minutes and maximum is 60 minutes. Work out a consistent lunch period with your supervisor for the purpose of team and other group meetings.

All full-time UT employees are entitled to two, 15-minute breaks per day that are included as part of their 40 hours on their timesheet.  The breaks can be divided into smaller increments, but cannot be combined together to form a longer break nor can they be added on to one’s lunch break.  Any additional personal break time taken may not be counted as work time for timesheet purposes.

VACATION

You can use your annual leave after you have been employed by the State of Texas for six continuous months. You only need to meet this requirement once during your state service. 

Written notice (email) of the request to use annual leave is required. When foreseeable, employees shall give at least thirty (30) calendar days advance notice to their supervisor of their request to use annual leave. When advance notice is not possible, notice by the employee should be provided as soon as possible.

When looking to use vacation time, reach out to your supervisor for approval and then add it to the slc@austin.utexas.edu calendar. This is viewable by all Sanger staff, so keep the Subjects short (Your initials and Out of office/Vacation). DO NOT SUBMIT THIS TIME OFF TO WORKDAY PRIOR TO YOUR VACATION. It is a hassle to change once submitted and HR has asked us to avoid using the 'Time off' feature in Workday.

Time off requests of 1-3 days require less advanced notice. Requests must be made in writing (includes email).

Annual leave may not be used before it is accrued. When an employee exhausts all appropriate and available leave, leave without pay is the only option.

HOLIDAY LEAVE

The University’s holiday leave policies and vacation time (or Annual Leave) policies for benefits-eligible professional staff members are posted at https://policies.utexas.edu/policies/holiday-leave and at https://policies.utexas.edu/policies/annual-leave, respectively.

COMP (STATE COMPENSATORY) TIME:

Earning Comp Time:

Exempt employees can earn state compensatory time for meetings held or work performed outside of the normal business day. This does not extend to social activities held in conjunction with conferences or other events.  Employees who are assigned projects that exceed normal expectations and have specific due dates may earn state compensatory time for the time spent working on the project in order to meet the due date with prior supervisory approval. State compensatory time cannot be earned for reading or responding to e-mail outside of the normal workday. 

Written notice of the need to work additional hours is required for state compensatory time to be granted. You must request permission from your supervisor two weeks prior and state the agency need that necessitated the comp time.

*If you need to stay additional hours on one day, try to swap out those hours on another day of the same week, in order not to exceed 40 total work hours for the week (M-Sun). Work must be performed on the UT campus or approved alternative site (such as a FWA location, conference, planned outing, etc.).

As a full-time exempt worker, you can accrue state compensatory time (1:1), but you will not be paid out directly for this. You will need to use this time before it expires within 12 months of the week it was earned. 

Employees scheduled to work on an official holiday will receive holiday pay and may earn state compensatory time.  Exempt or non-exempt employees may be paid for state compensatory time earned on holidays only if it is determined that allowing compensatory time off would disrupt normal teaching, research, or other critical functions as determined by management. (Yes you can work on the holidays if your boss approves it)

Using Comp Time:

The employee shall request to use state compensatory time through his or her supervisor.

Staff can use up to a maximum of 20 hours of state compensatory time in a workweek with prior supervisory approval and cannot exceed two consecutive workweeks. There is a cap on the number of state compensatory hours you may earn. An employee’s state compensatory time balance cannot exceed 144 hours OR the employee’s current sick leave balance, whichever is higher.

Because UT comp time expires if it is not used within a year of its accrual, employees are encouraged to use their comp time before the end of August each year.

Earning Federal Comp Time:

• Only applicable to non-exempt employees at UT.
• Same policies for accruing it
• Earned at time-and-a-half
• Does not expire
• Can be banked for future use

Please refer to the UT HR page for more information.