Voluntary Shared Leave: An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

Voluntary leave sharing programs allow an employee to donate accumulated leave to a coworker who is experiencing a hardship and has exhausted their leave balance. This study examines a voluntary leave sharing program at a state agency and concludes that the program is an effective strategy for reducing the agency’s unfunded liability posed by accumulated leave balances. Such programs may also be an appealing type of family-friendly benefit as female employees are also more likely to participate in the program and receive more generous donations of leave than their male colleagues.

Improving Work–Life Balance for Female Civil Servants in Law Enforcement: An Exploratory Analysis of the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act

“…In other words, if an employee takes 4 weeks of paid parental leave under FEPLA, they would only have access to 8 weeks of unpaid leave under FMLA. Likewise, if an employee takes all 12 weeks of paid parental leave under FEPLA, they would have no remaining access to unpaid leave under FMLA but could access other available leave pools such as annual (and sick) leave, sabbatical leave (if offered), and a leave sharing program (Bradbury, 2020; Mulvaney, 2014; Office of Personnel Management, 2015). Despite these stipulations, FEPLA is considered a major victory for all work–life advocates and has major implications for improving work–life balance in the federal sector (Girardin, 2020; Ruhm, 2017).…”

“…In regard to employee benefits, paid parental leave was reported as the top family-friendly policy among all work–life programs and benefits—actual or proposed—for improving work–life balance and reducing turnover intentions among women in masculine organizations such as federal law enforcement (Yu, 2019). This is relevant because prior to FEPLA’s enactment, many female employees either depleted years of annual (and sick) leave, both accrued and advanced, to have a child and bond with it for 6 to 12 weeks, forsaking any outstanding days for upcoming doctors’ appointments, family emergencies, and health and wellness days for the next 3 to 6 months, or reluctantly exercise up to 12 weeks of unpaid but job-protected family leave under FMLA, creating undue financial hardship for their families (Bradbury, 2020; Yu, 2019). Furthermore, many of the women in this study report having children later in their careers to accrue such leave (Yu, 2019).…”

“…Lee & Kim, 2018;Yu, 2019). Although both women and men benefit from such policies, they are primarily designed to enable women's participation in the labor force, who still retain primary child care responsibilities (Bradbury, 2020;Caillier, 2012;Feeney & Stritch, 2019;Newman & Matthews, 1999;Saltzstein et al, 2001;Schulze, 2011;Yu & Rauhaus, 2019). In addition, changes in employee demographics make "work-life programs [and certain employee benefits] critical management tools for creating a flexible [and] supportive [working] environment to engage employees and maximize organizational performance" (Office of Personnel Management, 2020e).…”