PTO Negotiation Paper

I negotiated with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of my organization for two additions to be made to the paid time off (PTO) policy. The first addition would give employees the option to cash-out accrued PTO in excess of 240 hours at the end of each year. The second revision would allow employees to carryover PTO hours from one year to the next. The current PTO policy does not have a cash-out option and accrued PTO over 360 hours must be used by the end of the year or the employee loses those hours. I believe both these issues are relevant because they force employees to take PTO when they might not otherwise take time off, just so they do not lose the hours, thereby decreasing productivity. The results of this negotiation would affect the

I then began with my opening offer and target. I advocated that employees have the option to cash-out all accrued PTO in excess of 240 hours and allow employees to carryover an unlimited number of PTO hours from one year to the next. I deliberately was not specific in the number of hours to cash out or carry over because I did not want to set my resistance point too low, and also because one other organization within the industry allowed an unlimited number of hours, so I believed my request was reasonable. Applying one of the best practices outlined by Lewicki, Saunders & Barry (2011), I was very open and honest as to why I was asking for the additions to the policy by explaining my interest was twofold: 1) it was a course requirement to engage in the negotiation process, and 2) because of decreased productivity towards the end of the year when employees are force to take PTO that they may not have otherwise have taken just so they do not lose their accrued time. Productivity affects the bottom line so I knew this interest would resonate well with the CEO and work in my