We are a 35‑person company with mostly local employees and three remote employees. We hold mandatory quarterly meetings, followed by voluntary company outings. Recently, an outing began at 3 p.m., and attendees were paid for the full day. Employees who chose not to attend took the afternoon off and asked not to use PTO. We want to pay attendees, but require non‑attendees to work or use PTO. Has anyone implemented a policy like this?

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Not this specific situation - but it would be an easy add to a PTO policy, handbook supplement or an FAQ docs for PTO and Events.

As long as there is somewhere that clearly calls it out, when you send the invite to staff you just need to say “reminder to review our company event/pto/your policy name here for PTO rules”.

If it’s problematic then you can also call out “team members who can’t make the event need to take PTO or work standard hours”.

You just have to define it. I worked at a start up that got bought out twice and sometimes we were too lenient because things weren’t in policies. Get it documented and then you always have a reference tool!

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From an employee relations standpoint, you’ll want to separate two concepts that often get blurred: compensable time and voluntary social events.

You’ll want to keep the distinction simple: if the event happens during scheduled work hours, it’s work time.

If the outing starts at 3 p.m. and is truly voluntary, you have two compliant choices:

• Treat it as work time:
Attendees are paid through the day. Non‑attendees keep working. No PTO needed.

• Treat it as non‑work time:
Attendees are off the clock after 3. Non‑attendees must work or use PTO.

The confusion comes from mixing the two — calling it voluntary but paying people for not working. Most companies avoid that by adopting a clean policy:
“Events during business hours count as work time. Employees who opt out continue working their normal schedule.”

It keeps things fair, consistent, and easy to administer.

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Ill go with this one.

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