As she hangs up the telephone, Joan Jackson realizes that she needs to consider changing her company's time off policies. She just received a call from an employee reporting off work because he is sick. This is the second employee on the same project team to call off this week and the unscheduled absence will likely cause a delay in meeting the project deadline. Joan, the president of Superior Software Services, is proud that her company has earned a reputation for providing high-quality software solutions. Superior recruits and retains top software engineers and also an impressive administrative staff. However, even with a talent staff,
Joan is concerned about the company's ongoing ability to meet project deadlines.

Over the past few months, unscheduled absences have caused Superior to delay the delivery of software products to a few clients. When a staff member calls in to take a sick day without prior notice, shifting employees to cover the work in order to meet a deadline is difficult. Joan believes Superior's time off polices may be causing some of their problems. Superiors offers employees 7 vacation days and 5 sick days each year. The company has a policy that employees may use sick days only for illness or emergencies. Employees may not schedule sick days in advance. Vacation days are schedule at the beginning of the year. Employees receive approval of their requested vacation days on a seniority basis, so most employees designate the days they will take their vacation within the first weeks of a new years
so they are able to effectively plan vacation travel. Joan believes Superior's current time off police creates an incentive for employees to call off at the last minute. She has learned from supervisors that many employees use their sick days to errands. 

These are often events that could be prescheduled time off, but employees do not feel they have a time off option to address such needs. Sick day cannot be prescheduled and vacation days are often already committed at the beginning of the year.
Joan believes that changing the time off policies could reduce the number of unscheduled absences, but she is not sure if her idea will address her concerns. She is considering replacing the current vacation/sick day allowance with a paid time off (PTO) bank. Employees would receive 12 PTO days each year. They would be permitted to schedule preferred days off at the beginning of the year so that they can make vacation travel plans. But, the remaining days could be saved for days when the employees is ill, or could be schedule ahead of time to take care of personal business. Joan believes this change, will encourage employees to schedule their time off in advance when possible. With advance notice of absence, supervisors will be better able to plan projects and meet deadlines

1.Do you think changing Superior’s time off policies will decrease unscheduled time off?

2.Beyond reducing occurrences of unscheduled time off, are there any other benefits to offering PTO?

3.Are there any disadvantages to offering PTO?