Hi guys! So I’m a devout practicing Catholic and this next week is Holy Week. I just used several of my PTO days for personal and family obligations and don’t want to use more PTO. I currently work from 3-11:30 pm with split days off on Sunday and Wednesday. My company does tech support and we’re fairly large as there are several thousand employees altogether including a few hundred in my position. It’s a work from home call center job.
Our company does not have generous or flexible PTO. However, we can call out for any reason. The downside? We rack up points and can be penalized for too many occurrences. Our policy incentivizes people who call out fewer than 5 times within a 90 period and does not differentiate between illnesses and personal days. I’ve called out three times within the last 90 days. We’re also allowed to submit requests for unpaid time off up to 48 hours in advance. I don’t want to take any PTO and only want a partial day off for Good Friday so I can attend services. Good Friday services are being held at 3 PM or 7 PM and you can see where the conflict is.
So what are my rights regarding time off for a religious observance? I’ve had requests off denied before and I’ve made it clear it was for a religious reason but I’m thinking that it was denied due a high expected call volume. I ended up choosing to incur half a point and leave early anyways.