Have excess vacation hours? There’s no better time to use them [1]
Have excess vacation hours? Leave sweeps are around the corner, so there’s no better time to use them.
What are leave sweeps?
Leave sweeps are the internal process of removing University and Classified Staff excess vacation and/or sick leave hours. The process occurs annually, guided by state [3] and university policies [4]. It helps ensure employees use their hard-earned vacation hours and allows them to confirm no errors occurred with their leave during the year.
Use your extra leave by June 30
Extra hours will be removed from your account after the July monthly payroll, so be sure to use them by June 30. If you are unable to use them by the deadline, you may donate your vacation time to a leave bank.
Each campus has its own leave sharing policy:
CU Boulder [5]
CU System [5]
Vacation and sick leave limits
Leave limits will vary based on your employee type: University Staff or 12-Month Faculty or Classified Staff. You may maintain hours up to your limit. Anything over is considered excess.
University Staff
University Staff and 12-Month Faculty have a limit of 352 vacation hours with no limit on sick leave.
Classified Staff
Vacation hours
Maximum vacation hours are determined by length of service:
- 1-5 years of service: 192 hours
- 6-10 years of service: 240 hours
- 11-15 years of service: 288 hours
- 16+ years of service: 336 hours
Sick hours
Maximum sick leave is 360 hours and does not vary by length of service. However, if you have 80 or fewer excess hours, 20% of it can be converted to vacation hours.
For example, if you had 40 excess sick hours, this could be converted to 8 hours of vacation leave.
Have questions about leave policies?
Click here [8]for University Staff leave policies or click here [3] for leave policies for Classified Staff.