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Interested in taking off the summer or winter?

Temporarily trade out money for time

With your supervisor’s approval, you could take unpaid leave for up to an entire season. Whether you’re interested in spending time with family, traveling or you have another goal for how to spend a season, it could be an option for you.

This temporary flexible work arrangement is available during defined eligible time periods in summer and winter. Consider your work responsibilities during these seasons, and you might discuss this possibility with your supervisor if you both expect less work volume during these periods.

Eligible seasons

Winter session
December 1, 2024 – February 2, 2025

Take full-week increments off

Work with your supervisor to determine the length of this temporary arrangement

As long as you’re within the dates of the defined eligible season, you can temporarily reduce your hours for as many full-week increments as you’d like.



Which dates do you want to take leave?

Consider the impact to benefits and retirement

Because you will be in an unpaid status, you’ll temporarily lose these benefits:

  • Paid vacation, sick and holiday leave
  • All retirement savings contributions (your contributions and our employer match)
  • Health insurance subsidy

You’ll pay the full cost of your health insurance during this time when you don’t receive our health care plan credit. Plus, the monthly cost of your health insurance premium will be deducted retroactively once you return to a paid status.

Your retirement eligibility date will be farther away
Eligibility for retirement is based on your years of service. Temporarily pausing your service by taking unpaid leave makes retirement eligibility farther away.

HR Policy & Procedure #83

Holiday leave



 “An employee who is in an unpaid status on a scheduled day immediately before or after a holiday shall not be paid for the holiday."

Use our proposal writer to further the conversation with your supervisor

After your initial conversation with your supervisor, it’s time to send them a written proposal. Our form helps you write your proposal, sends it to your supervisor and copies our HR Work-Life manager for reference.

Frequently asked questions

Can multiple people in one department be approved?

How many people and who specifically is approved for seasonal flexible work, and flexible work in general, is a decision at the discretion of the immediate supervisor or division head.

News

April 16, 2024

Annual period for employees to convert temporary disability leave to vacation leave now available through April 30

The annual period for University of Kentucky employees to convert their temporary disability leave (TDL) to additional vacation leave (VL) is now available through April 30.   Employees may request conversion of TDL hours to additional vacation leave through Employee Self Service in myUK. Employees should log into myUK, access Employee Self Service and select Working Time and Leave Requests.    

November 16, 2020

Reduced hours and unpaid leave options extended through August 28, 2021

Traditionally, the university offers two voluntary options for staff interested in working fewer hours during winter and summer: reducing their hours or taking unpaid leave. As part of our earlier COVID-19 response, we extended the eligible seasonal periods for reduced hours and unpaid leave to include extended dates in fall 2020 — and now we're including extended dates in spring 2021.

August 07, 2020

How to administer seasonal unpaid leave or reduced hours

You help make it happen in SAP The business officer in the employee's department will execute a "Position Update" action in SAP to update the employee's record. Detailed instructions may be found in the Payroll Reference Manual. Please refer to page 8 of the Position Changes/Transfers/Updates section. ​ Because the seasonal hours assignment is a temporary accommodation, there will be no need to change the attributes of the position.

May 05, 2020

Reduced hours and unpaid leave options for summer and winter now also available for fall

Update! Reduced hours and unpaid leave options extended through August 28, 2021 Traditionally, the university offers two voluntary options for staff interested in working fewer hours during winter and summer seasons. During those seasons, any interested and eligible staff may request to:

Flexible work

You’re eligible to request seasonal unpaid leave if you’re a regular, clinically non-essential, full-time staff employee who has successfully completed the 90-day, new hire orientation period.

Contact our office

Monday-Friday 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
(859) 257-8763
flexiblework@uky.edu