Time and Absence

Personal holiday

Last updated: September 11, 2025

This page applies to all contract covered, classified non-union and professional staff and salaried academic student employees.

All contract covered, classified non-union and professional staff and salaried academic student employees receive one paid personal holiday per calendar year.

To receive this holiday, employees must have completed at least four months of continuous University employment. There are two exceptions:

  • Classified non-union employees need only to be scheduled to have at least four months of continuous employment (meaning, they must hold a service period of greater than 4 months or, for employees in nonpermanent positions, have an appointment that is longer than four months).
  • Academic student employees (ASEs) are not subject to the four-month requirement, but must meet eligibility criteria as outlined in the UAW ASE contract.

Personal holiday hours

Employees who hold an FTE
  • Full-time employees receive eight hours of time off for their paid holiday.
  • Part-time employees receive a prorated amount based on their FTE percentage. For example, an employee who works 20 hours per week (0.5 FTE) will receive four hours of paid personal holiday.
Accrual for nonpermanent/intermittent employees

Because Nonpermanent Hourly and Intermittent employees are not assigned an FTE percentage, their personal holiday accrual is based on the “FTE equivalent” of the number of hours they worked in the month they take their personal holiday:

  1. An eligible nonpermanent hourly or intermittent employee schedules their Personal Holiday Time Off.
  2. At the end of the month in which the employee takes their personal holiday, the amount of accrued personal holiday hours are calculated based on the “FTE equivalent” of the number of hours the employee worked that month.
  3. The payment for the accrued personal holiday hours will then appear on the employee’s second paycheck of the month after the employee took their personal holiday.

Example: An eligible nonpermanent hourly or intermittent employee enters their Personal Holiday Time Off on October 10. At the close of the October 31 pay period, they were paid the equivalent of 75% FTE for that month. The employee will be paid for 6 hours of personal holiday on their November 25 paycheck.

Scheduling your personal holiday

Similar to other time off requests, to use this paid holiday, employees must request the Personal Holiday Time Off as follows:

For campus staff: Schedule your personal holiday in Workday using the Manage Absence business process.

Note for Nonpermanent Hourly and Intermittent employees: When entering the “Quantity per Day,” do not change the “1 hour” value. This is a placeholder amount equivalent to “a day” until Workday can calculate the exact Personal Holiday Time Off hours accrued based on your hours worked in the month. Do not use the “Edit Quantity per Day” to change this amount.

For medical centers staff: Follow your usual departmental time off request procedure.

Regardless of your work location, your personal holiday is expected to be taken as a single day of time off. However, use of the personal holiday in partial-day increments is allowed for the following reasons.

  • To care for your child, spouse, parent, parent-in-law, or grandparent who has a serious or emergency health condition under the Washington State Family Care Act
  • To donate a portion of your personal holiday (in four-hour increments) to any shared time off program
  • To accommodate a work shift that crosses the midnight divide

Any remaining hours that are not used for the above reasons must be taken all at once.

Deadlines for Using the Personal Holiday

Staff

Employees must use or donate their personal holiday by December 31 of each year. Unused personal holidays do not carry over to the following year and are forfeit if not used.

Academic student employees

ASEs must use their personal holiday within the 12-month period after they start, specifically by their Time Off Service Date (viewable by searching “View My Service Dates” in Workday).

Leaving University employment

Employees are not paid for any unused personal holiday hours if they leave state employment. However, the unused personal holiday will transfer with staff who leave the University for a job with another state agency without a break in service.