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Happy Memorial Day my friends. Lest we forget...
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Take less vacation so you can fulfill your reserve duty is not a good answer and actually might be contrary to the law on this matter. The law prohibits discrimination in any form, which this is.
You don’t have local HR? Regardless, they should be familiar with the Military Leave Act. Might ask them, then consult your own lawyer, but keep it low key
I’d speak to your immediate supervisor and HR about this. And do it early on! 🙂
Agree. Perfectly reasonable to ask for accommodation for reserve duty. Perfectly mercenary of them to refuse. Hope they don’t
Have you posted this question in your company bowl? If you are in a big firm, there should be veterans who can answer this, even if there aren't many in your group.
Check your portal for military LOA policies. Confirm it with HR.
My dude, I had the worst time with this for the first year. I found policy saying that it doesn’t impact it and my counselor/resource manager manually factors it in... bullshit. No one could give me answers but I finally figured out that you have to keep a manual utilization tracker and then submit it to your coach who presents it at year end. So basically, they will probably still have some bias because they’re seeing that they take an L when we’re gone but at least the right numbers get presented too.
Great tip, thank you! Your experience is exactly what I’m worried about. This method will help me get ahead of the curve before it becomes an issue
Thanks for the comments. Yeah, the response from the supervisor was to take less vacation and our HR is outsourced overseas so I’m thinking it not be worth it to make a bigger deal for my first year.
Your supervisor is only looking out for himself, hence the answer, which is against policy. You should be able to do your drills without impacting your career. Your firm's portal should have information regarding the steps to take. My advice, ensure this is documented with HR and give enough notice to your project's leadership about when you're going to be out. You should never be penalized for doing your reserve work.
OP are you at a small firm? The bigger houses tend to have all of these details ironed out already. You may need to read up on USERRA and educate them on their obligations.
Thank you for all the comments. I see utilization targets as a USERRA consideration, but our firm’s policy doesn’t address that. I’m at a large firm, but we have few veterans in my department. My supervisor is young and brand new to her role, so I’m trying to make sure I’m protected, but not come across as confrontational. Unfortunately, most of our HR is outsourced overseas and got confused by how in the same week I could work 3-4 days and be in mil status 1-2. I missed my utilization target by enough that it will get noticed in my annual review, so I’m hoping this will force function the conversation while not being confrontational.
Do other firms typically just adjust utilization targets? Or is it more common to just remove mil time from the denominator of utilization?
Consider providing your leadership with a calculation of your "actual utilization," removing your military hours from the denominator, so that they can present that alongside what the system is calculating. Utilization is definitely a USERRA consideration because it's directly tied to compensation and promotions.
My firm doesn’t count my military leave against my utilization, even though it hurt my director’s
Here’s a great resource that can help advocate for you. On the flip side, they also have programs to acknowledge employers who go above and beyond. https://www.esgr.mil/