Time off is important!! We are human beings. While our work is very important, failure to rest & recharge is a “lose-lose” – less fun, more burnout, worse science. Penn has very generous time off policies and all team members are encouraged to use their time off.

Full time staff

PTO for full time staff is governed centrally by Penn HR. Please see the full guidelines here.

Briefly, upon hire you have 5 days of Paid Time Off (PTO). After your introductory period, which consists of the first four months of employment (3months for internal hires), you accrue 1.25 days/month with your first 0-2 years of service. This increases to 1.83 days/month with 2-3 years of service and then to 2 days/month with 3 or more years of service. You accrue 1 sick day/month (this does not increase with years of service). You also have time off for bereavement, jury duty, disability, and other reasons found at the link included above.

The University also offers a “Special Winter Vacation” where the weekdays between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are observed as “days off”, affording staff members the opportunity to enjoy well-deserved time off with pay. Each year the Vice President for HR announces the dates on which the special winter vacation is observed.

Lastly, at times, Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs) may work evenings and weekends as needed/requested by participants. To accommodate this, we have an informal “flex system”, which allows staff to accumulate flex time for later use. For example, if scheduled for evenings, staff can adjust their hours by starting later or working longer and using that accrued flex time at a later date. Similarly, weekend work can be compensated with a day off in the following week(s). The Clinical Research Manager (CRM; the amazing Sage Rush) will provide access to the flex time tracker.

Graduate students and post-doctoral trainees

While PennLINC does not have a formal time-off policy for non-staff research trainees (graduate students, post-docs), they are nonetheless strongly encouraged to take an equivalent amount of PTO each year. This guidance has the potential to be superseded by Penn-wide unionization efforts.

Conference travel

Please note that attending a scientific conference is NOT PTO; even if it is really fun, it still counts as work. If you choose to travel before or after a conference, that is considered PTO.

Birthdays at PennLINC

Your birthday is important!! A lab birthday captain keeps track of birthdays. Our current birthday captain is Juliette - please add yours to the birthday spreadsheet that she maitains. All PennLINC members also get their birthday off without reporting it as PTO. Have fun & celebrate!!!