We know it is important for you to be able to balance your work life with your personal life. And, we know that occasionally you may need to request time away from work for medical or family reasons. If you need to use leave, we are committed to working with you to help you care for yourself and your family while still ensuring that the needs of our patients and communities are met.

We also know that adequate staffing is critical to helping us ensure we continue to provide the quality patient care and services our community expects and deserves. Through our strategic leave-management plan, we carefully balance our employees' needs for leaves of absence for medical, family or personal reasons with our need to ensure our organization is staffed appropriately to meet our patients' needs.

Recently, we analyzed and implemented leave-management changes that are best for our patients, our employees and our organization, including aligning our Leaves of Absence Policy with federal guidelines. (See the June 2006 issue of The Carilion Pulse for more information on this alignment.)

During our second phase, we focused on centralizing and streamlining our leave-management process. Effective April 30, 2007, the types of non-FMLA leave available were consolidated into one comprehensive type of leave—Personal Leave. Also effective April 30, we implemented an enhanced process for tracking and managing all leaves of absence. 

Please see below for more information on the types of leave available and the links to the right for information on what to do if you need to take leave, tools to help you manage your leave of absence and frequently asked questions about leave.

Carilion offers Family and Medical Leave, based on the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), Personal Leave and Military Leave.

Family Leave and Medical Leave (FMLA Leave)
Family and Medical Leaves allow you to be away from work for certain qualified reasons while maintaining job and benefit protection. Under FMLA, employers are required to provide up to 12 weeks, a maximum of 480 hours, of unpaid leave to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons.

Our Leaves of Absence policy aligns with federal guidelines for FMLA. Detailed information, including more information on FMLA eligibility requirements and covered reasons for FMLA, is available on the Department of Labor's website by clicking
here.

Personal Leave
Personal Leave provides time off for personal needs not covered under FMLA.  Personal Leave is any time off that is granted for reasons including (but not limited to) family issues, extenuating personal needs, elective office or formal studies that result in promoting the interests of Carilion. This leave may be used for medical leave when you aren't eligible for FMLA.

Personal Leave Eligibility

To be eligible for Personal Leave, you must:

• Be full-time, regular part-time or part-time.
• Have been employed with Carilion for at least six continuous months.
• Have no active corrective actions on file for the past 12 months.
• Use PTO and EIB first, if available.

Personal Leave Guidelines

• You may use one event of personal leave during a calendar year.
• You may take Personal Leave for a minimum of seven calendar days and maximum of 42 calendar days.
• Your benefits will continue at the employee rate for the duration of approved leave, if applicable.
• You are not guaranteed job protection for Personal Leave.
• Manager approval required.

Military Leave
Military Leave provides time off for service in the uniformed services. All employees are eligible. Contact the HR Service Center when you receive your military orders and inform your manager. Click here to learn more about military leave.