Taking time off from work is important for your overall well-being and productivity in both your professional and personal life. You may also find the need to take extended time away from work for health, family, or other reasons.
Western Digital offers a variety of benefits that allow you time to relax, recover, care for family members, honor personal commitments, and more.
Western Digital’s vacation time allows you to take paid time off of work, with the following limitations:
Non-Exempt Employees
Non-exempt employees accrue vacation time based on years of service, pro-rated for part-time employees. Vacation hours can be used as soon as they are accrued, with your manager’s approval. Vacation advances can also be requested (up to 24 hours), which allows vacation time to be taken even if hours have not been accrued, with employee agreement that pay will be deducted if your vacation balance is negative at termination. Sometimes employees do not use all of their accrued vacation hours in a year. These hours can be carried forward to next year up to a set limit on the total number of hours you can accumulate. While Western Digital encourages you to take scheduled time off for rest and relaxation, you should be aware that your vacation request may be denied if granting the request would impose a burden on business operations.
Below is the vacation accrual rate schedule (prorated for part-time employees):
| Years of Service | Accrual Rate (Pay Period/Annual) | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| 0 years until 4th anniversary | 4.62 hours/120 hours | 180 hours |
| 4th anniversary until 9th anniversary | 6.15 hours/160 hours | 240 hours |
| 9th anniversary until 14th anniversary | 6.77 hours/176 hours | 264 hours |
| 14th anniversary and forward | 8.31 hours/216 hours | 324 hours |
Western Digital exempt employees who are converted to a non-exempt position at any time during their employment with Western Digital will receive an initial vacation bank of 8 hours for every year of service (up to 40 hours maximum) and will accrue additional vacation hours as of the conversion date and in accordance with the accrual schedule above.
Exempt Employees
Exempt employees at all levels do not accrue vacation time. Instead, employees at these levels will work with their manager to coordinate time off. Requests should be made before vacation is taken and as far in advance as possible. While Western Digital encourages you to take scheduled time off for rest and relaxation, you should be aware that your vacation request may be denied if granting the request would impose a burden on business operations.
It’s important to remember that with responsibility comes accountability. While there is no maximum amount of vacation, requesting excessive vacation may jeopardize your ability to deliver on performance expectations. You can expect your manager to deny requests for excessive vacation (for example, one week every month may be considered “excessive”). By continuing the practice of review and approval by your manager, we ensure consistency with our past practices and policies to ensure fairness and predictability of results.
Western Digital provides 11 paid holidays to regular, full-time employees. Each year, Western Digital posts the observed Holidays on Connect.
Shift employees and part-time employees have slightly different guidelines for holidays:
- Shift employees (exempt and non-exempt) may not take work off for holidays without permission from their manager
- For shift employees, holiday pay (8 hours of work for each of the 11 holidays) is added during the pay period in which the holiday occurs
- Regular, part-time employees will have their holiday pay prorated if the holiday falls on a regularly-scheduled workday
- Generally, U.S. Holidays include the following:
| Holiday | When Observed: |
|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | January 1 |
| Martin Luther King, Jr. Day | Third Monday in January |
| Presidents’ Day | Third Monday in February |
| Memorial Day | Last Monday in May |
| Juneteenth | June 19 If Holiday falls on Saturday, observed on Friday. If Holiday falls on Sunday, observed on Monday. |
| Independence Day | July 4 |
| Labor Day | First Monday in September |
| Thanksgiving Day | Fourth Thursday in November |
| Day After Thanksgiving Day | Friday after Thanksgiving |
| Christmas Holiday | Varies by Year |
| Christmas Day | December 25 |
Even the most health conscious people get sick sometimes. When that happens, you can count on Western Digital to allow you time to rest or receive treatment.
- Sick Time
- Non-exempt regular employees are awarded 48 hours of sick time to use within the calendar year, starting January 1 (or on the date of hire or transfer into a non-exempt position). Unused sick time carries forward year to year, up to a maximum of 288 hours.
- Exempt regular employees are awarded 40 hours of sick time to use within the calendar year, starting January 1 (or on the date of hire or transfer into an exempt position). Sick time does not carry forward year to year. Note: If you are an exempt employee and you have used all your sick time, you are eligible to receive up to an additional 40 hours of pay during the year for time missed due to your own illness, or to care for a family member. Each instance of time away must be separate and non-concurrent.
- Voluntary Disability Insurance / Short-Term Disability — If you need more time, you may be eligible to receive Voluntary Disability Insurance (VDI) benefits (employees in California) or Short-Term Disability (STD) benefits (employees outside of California). Coverage begins after five (5) business days of disability and pays 75% of your salary. VDI benefits end after you are no longer disabled or a maximum of 52 weeks. STD benefits end after 180 days.
- Long-Term Disability — For longer illnesses or injuries, long-term disability (LTD) coverage begins after you have been disabled for 180 days. LTD insurance pays 66.67% of your salary, up to a maximum of $15,000 per month.
For more information, see the Disability Insurance section. If you experience a work-related injury or illness, please contact the following to report a claim:
- Outside California: Injured at Work — Outside of California
- In California: Injured at Work — California Employees
In the unfortunate event of the death of a family member, you may receive up to three days of paid time off for bereavement, depending on the deceased’s relation to you.
See Connect for more details.
Sometimes you need to take an extended period of time away from work to care for a new baby or family member or to recover from an illness. Through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you may be eligible to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
Qualifying situations include:
- Your own serious health condition that makes you unable to perform the functions of your job (runs concurrently with short-term disability (STD).
- A serious health condition of your child, spouse, or parent that requires you to care for that family member.
- The birth of a child that requires you to take time off to care for the child (six or eight weeks depending on natural or Cesarean childbirth; will run concurrently with STD).
- The placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care.
- Covered military family leave.
Leave Eligibility
To be eligible for Family and Medical Leave you must:
- Have worked for Western Digital for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive);
- Work for a division of Western Digital that employs 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius during 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding year; and
- Provide at least 1,250 hours of service in the preceding 12-month period.
For more information, contact HR or see Connect for more details.
California employees may be entitled to take leave or transfer to an alternate position because of a disability related to pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions.
See Connect for more details.
CFRA authorizes eligible California employees to take up to a total of 12 weeks of paid or unpaid job-protected leave during a 12-month period. Eligible employees can take the leave for one or more of the following reasons: The birth of a child or adoption or foster care placement of a child.
See Connect for more details.
Provides new parents with 12 weeks of paid time off following the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. In addition to the new birth parent, the spouse or domestic partner is also eligible for this benefit. This new program is a complement to our current paid disability benefit for new birth mothers.
See Connectfor more details.
If you have exhausted your vacation time, you may be able to take an unpaid leave of absence for nonmedical personal matters, including family matters not covered under Family and Medical Leave.
See Connect for more details.
For exempt employees, Western Digital will pay for up to two workweeks of jury duty. Such salary may be offset by any amounts received as jury or witness fees. Any jury or witness duty performed in excess of this amount is unpaid.
For non-exempt employees, up to 80 hours of jury or witness duty will be paid by Western Digital in any 12-month period at the employee’s base hourly rate. Any jury or witness duty performed in excess of this amount is unpaid, or, where permissible by state law, you may elect to use accrued vacation time.
See Connect for more details.
To support your service to your country, you may be eligible for an approved leave of absence consistent with the requirements of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).
See Connect for more details.
Employees are eligible for paid time off for the purpose of voting only if they do not have sufficient time outside of working hours to vote. The intent of the law is to provide an opportunity to vote to workers who would not be able to do so because of their jobs.
See Connect for more details.
All U.S. employees are eligible to take unpaid leave for emergency duty as a volunteer firefighter, reserve peace officer, emergency rescue personnel or Civil Air Patrol. Volunteer firefighters, reserve police officers, emergency rescue personnel and members of the Civil Air Patrol may also take up to fifteen (15) work days off per year for the purpose of engaging in fire, law enforcement or emergency rescue training. “Emergency rescue personnel” is defined as any person who is an officer, employee, or member of a fire department, fire protection or firefighting agency of the federal government, state, city, county, district, or other public or municipal corporation or political subdivision, or a sheriff’s department, police department, or a private fire department, whether that person is a volunteer or partly paid or fully paid, while he or she is actually engaged in providing emergency services.
See Connect for more details.