Personal Days Off with Pay
A personal day off with pay is not a vacation day with advance notice, and not a sick day when the employee is too ill to enjoy the day off — it's a day off just because. It's because the employee needs a mental-health day from life to do nothing or a friend from out of town showed up at the front door and wants to do something tomorrow. It's really just a way to add to an employee's vacation bank, and you're giving them permission to take the day off for themselves. A personal day off is an employee's “day for me.”
You can give employees the option to preplan the day off like a vacation day, but by calling it a personal day, it sends the message to the employee that it is a benefit above and beyond the vacation time that they earn and deserve. It's an extra thank-you for doing a good job. They can use it to do weekday shopping during the holidays when the mall isn't so busy, or to chaperone a field trip at their child's school.
Your written policy on personal days should indicate what happens to unused personal days at the end of the year. May they be carried over to the next year? Also, if more than one personal day is given per year, may two days be taken consecutively?
Give as many personal days as you wish, but two per year is the standard for a lot of companies. There should be discretion when requesting a personal day off. Unless it is an emergency, a day off should not be taken when it is an important day for the employee to report to work.
