Compensatory Off | Meaning and Definition

What is Compensatory off?

Compensatory Off, sometimes known as compensatory leave, is time off that an employee is entitled to take during the workday as a reward for working at the employer’s request on a holiday or weekend. Simply put, if an employee works overtime at the request of his or her employer, he or she is entitled to time off or compensating time off afterward.

Compensatory time off is given to employees to thank them for the additional effort they put in to help the company grow. This is a method of looking after employees on behalf of the company so that the employees, in turn, look after the company by maximizing their efforts.

If the leave request exceeds the period allotted for overtime, the leave will only be granted in exchange for the overtime work. The employee is instructed to look for other options for the remainder of the proposed leave term. The majority of rules and procedures may differ based on the kind of business and the employee’s position.

How to calculate Compensatory Time off? 

Organizations can rely on time tracking software to calculate the compensatory time off an employee can avail. Additionally, the employee can maintain the data of his work in a spreadsheet or timesheet to calculate the accrued compensatory hours. According to standard rules, the employee may get a time-and-a-half basis. For example, if an employee has worked for an hour on holiday, he can avail 1.5hours of comp-off time. Generally, comp-off leave expires after 60-90 days, so employees are encouraged to avail the leave.