A body is not a machine and thus it may rest from time to time to maintain the level of efficiency. Every employee of every company has the right to take some days off from their busy, hectic schedule and to just cool off. Leaves are extremely important to help maintain the work-life balance of an individual that helps them boost their productivity. All the companies whether governmental or non-governmental gives different types of leaves for all their employees and it’s the decision of the employees to use them either for sports, recreation, travelling or whatever helps them keep going!

Also Read: How to Write Leave Application for Office with Samples

Types of Leaves in a Company

Every employee has the right to various kinds of leave during his/her employment period.  Leaves can be classified into 2 broad categories:

• PAID LEAVES: The kind of leaves where the employee still receives the salary even if he/she takes a day off. There are certain amount of days already assigned as paid leave for the entire term of employment. So, these are the kind of leaves with pay. Generally taken during the time of accidents on duty, funeral, jury duty etc.
• UNPAID LEAVES: These are the leaves without pay. An urgent request of leave from the employee will result in an unpaid leave for the reasons not maintained under paid leaves. Like a medical check-up, urgent checking up on a relative and many more.

All the leaves can further be divided into 3 types:

• MANDATORY LEAVES: These are just like the holidays everyone used to get in schools and colleges without having the pay deducted. Holidays for certain religious festivals, off on weekends (which varies depending on the number of working days of an organization) and holidays on days of national importance.
• LEAVES: There are various kinds of leaves assigned by the companies, a curated list of which is given below:
  • MEDICAL LEAVE/ SICK LEAVE: The only kind of leave, that does not require prior intimation. A sick leave is generally taken when the employee is suffering form some kind of illness and leaves are required to get better. The range of sick leaves varies from 12-15 days available for the employee to use, which can be extended further in case of serious illness and if not redeemed can be carried forward to the next year. After two days of sick leave, a report from a trusted medical practitioner must be produced.
  • CASUAL LEAVE: Running in the range of 5-15 days, casual leaves can be used by prior informing the employer. This is generally taken by the employees when they want to give their personal life an upper hand compared to the professional life like in case of attending marriages, taking vacations. These kinds of leaves cannot be taken forward and holidays are not counted while counting casual leaves if they occur in the period between casual leaves.
  • MATERNITY LEAVES: These kinds of leaves are only for the women employees who plan on having a baby during their period of engagement. Expecting/ New mothers can take up to 3 months of paid leave to take care of the new-born baby, which can be extended up to 26 weeks with half pay and till 16 months of unpaid leaves. Maternity leaves can also be taken at the time of abortion or miscarriage, but then the duration of the leaves is curtailed.
  • PATERNITY LEAVES: Fathers of new born child or men who have adopted a child, are entitled to take 10 days to 2 weeks of paternity leave. Though not mandated by law, so it may or may not be provided by all the companies, but it depends on the HR of the companies. Paternity leaves can generally be taken within 1 month of the birth of the baby, to help take care of the child as well as the recovering wife.
  • PRIVILEGE LEAVE/ EARNED LEAVE: As the name suggests, these kinds of leaves are earned as a part of working for the organization, for a fixed period of time. These leaves are paid leaves and can be used after prior information. These leaves can be encashed or can be carried forward for a time period of 3 years. This type of leave, cannot be claimed for more than 3 times a year.
  • STUDY LEAVES/ SABBATICAL LEAVES: A leave which is of much longer duration than most of the other leaves. These leaves, mostly unpaid, are generally provided to the employees to upskill their knowledge base, like if the employee wants to study further, so that the person can be of more value to the company after he/she rejoins. Sabbatical leaves are generally granted after the employee has loyally worked for the organization for a stretch of more than 3 years and the leave stretches for a period of 6 months to the entire duration of the course.
  • QUARANTINE LEAVES: A rare kind of leave, mostly given when the employee is suffering from an infectious disease than can also be very harmful for other people of the organization.
  • BEREAVEMENT LEAVES: May not be a mandatory leave, but a sudden death of some loved one, leaves a hole in the heart than can’t be filled. Compassionate enough HRs may provide hassle free policies to use this leave for a period of 3-7 days, so that the employee can deal with the pain of sudden loss.
  • HALF PAY LEAVES: Not all organizations provide these kinds of leaves, generally government organizations do, where the employees can take leaves up to 20 days and will get half day salary for each day of leave taken. The employees are entitled to have these leaves only after they have worked for the company for a stipulated period of time.
  • UNPAID LEAVES: When all the leaves in the leave basket of the employee gets over, and the employee needs to take a leave, then those leaves will entail a pay cut.
• NON LEAVES: 3 kinds of non leaves are there that are offered by the company. They are:
  • COMPENSATORY LEAVES: This can be considered as bonus for the employees, who put in extra hours of hard-work. Also, employees who work on an off day, are eligible for this leave. The employees are generally automatically informed if they have a compensatory leave remaining.
  • WORK FROM HOME: In this, the employee still has to work, but the employee can choose to do so from the comforts of his/ her own house, which also helps the employee to maintain the work-life balance and thus work with much less pressure.
  • FIELD WORK: For research purposes, many companies allow the employees to go out in the field and thus analyse according to their requirements. This is not considered a leave but a working day as the employee is working, but just not in the four walls of the office.

These are almost all the kinds of leaves that all the offices in India provides. Having a proper knowledge regarding the various kind of leaves can come handy and is good to have a knowledge about. Leaves are the rights of the employees and thus must be enjoyed to the fullest after days of hard work.

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