About Leave
Leave at UNC-Chapel Hill
UNC-Chapel Hill offers eligible staff and faculty many types of leave programs as an essential employee benefit. Whether it’s to recharge, recover from illness, care for a family member or manage other commitments, time away helps to ensure a healthy work-life balance and supports overall well-being. We encourage staff and faculty to use this essential resource.
Some leave programs are through the North Carolina Office of State Human Resources, some are federal programs and others are UNC System programs. The UNC Leave Team, along with campus departmental HR Representatives, help to administer these programs.
Who earns leave?
Permanent SHRA staff, EHRA Non-Faculty staff and twelve-month Faculty working 20 or more hours a week earn leave on a monthly basis.
Leave-earning employees accrue hours for vacation (Vacation Leave, Annual Leave or Personal Leave) and Sick Leave each month. Part-time employees earn leave on a prorated basis according to hours worked per week.
See information for individual leave programs and policies for details about eligibility and accrual rate.
Reasons for Leave
Carolina’s leave programs offer time away from work for a variety of reasons, including:
- Going on vacation
- Furthering education
- Recovering from illness
- Caring for an immediate family member
- Serving in the military
- Carrying out civil duties
- Volunteering in certain community activities
- Grieving the loss of a loved one
The University encourages staff and faculty to use the available leave resources to take care of themselves and their families, cultivate a healthy work-life balance and prioritize their overall well-being.
See information for individual leave programs and policies for details.
How to Request Leave
The process for requesting leave depends on the type of leave being requested and the length of the leave period. The toggles below outline the process for the different leave types. Refer to each of the specific Leave programs & policies for complete details.
Use this leave request is for common, shorter-term leaves, including:
- Sick Leave, as for a medical appointment or minor illness (i.e. cold or flu)
- Vacation Leave, Annual Leave or Personal Leave for taking vacation days
- Bonus Leave and Special Bonus Leave
- Personal Observance Leave for any single day of personal significance
- Bereavement Leave following the death of an immediate family member and for travel time for a memorial event for the death of a Carolina colleague
- Civil Leave for absences due to jury duty or to subpoenas for court appearances
- Community Service Leave (CSL) for certain volunteer activities
- Educational Leave to participate in certain job- or career-related study
- Comp Time
How to Request
- Manager approval is required prior to use, so be sure to discuss your leave plans with your manager.
- Upon using requested leave hours, enter leave hours in TIM in ConnectCarolina Self Service on the corresponding timesheet.
How to Enter TIM Hours
- Log in to ConnectCarolina Self Service.
- Click the TIM tile.
- In the My Timecard tile, click the right-facing arrow at the top of the tile to open your timecard.
- In the Date column, locate the appropriate date when you used the leave hours.
- In the Pay Code column, click on the cell that corresponds to the accurate date.
- In that same cell, click the drop-down arrow to the right to open the menu for choosing the corresponding TIM leave code.
- In the drop-down menu, scroll to find and select the corresponding live TIM code.
- The leave TIM code should now appear in the appropriate field in the Pay Code column.
- In the Amount column type the number of leave hours used into the cell that corresponds with the accurate date on which you used the leave.
- The number of hours should now appear in the cell.
- Click the Save button at the top right of the screen to save.
- You can then enter more leave hours as needed or exit from your timecard.
Please reach out to your departmental HR Representative to confirm the leave request procedure for the following leave types:
- Community Service Leave (CSL) — upon using the the requested leave hours, you will enter leave hours in TIM in ConnectCarolina Self Service on the corresponding timesheet
- Military Leave
- Administrative Absence
- Voluntary Shared Leave (VSL) — both donating and receiving it. You will also use the online Leave Request Form as part of the request process.
If you do not know who your HR Rep is, contact the HR Officer for your school or division. You can find HRO contact information on the HR Officers Directory.
Longer leave periods for family and/or medical reasons use the online Leave Request Form and may require you to upload supporting documentation. Reasons for taking family and/or medical-related leaves include:
- Your own serious health condition
- Birth of a child and/or bonding with newborn
- Care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition
- Military Caregiver Leave to care for a covered service member or veteran
- Placement of child with employee through adoption or foster care
- Qualifying exigency leave to attend to qualifying activities or events when your family member is on covered active duty or called to covered active duty
Corresponding Leave Types
Use the online Leave Request Form for the following leave programs for longer periods of leave for family and/or medical reasons:
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- Faculty Serious Illness Leave (FSIL) and Faculty Parental Leave (FPL)
- Family Illness Leave (FIL)
- FMLA Military Caregiver/Qualifying Exigency Leave
- Paid Parental Leave (PPL)
- Voluntary Shared Leave (VSL)
Learn more on the About Family & Medical-Related Leave webpage.
How to Request
You access the online Leave Request Form through the My Benefits tile in ConnectCarolina Self Service to request leave for family and/or medical-related reasons. Certain leaves may require you to upload supporting documentation.
- Manager approval is required prior to use, so be sure to discuss your leave plans with your manager. If possible, give at least 30 days’ notice. If you learn of your need for time off or a leave of absence less than 30 days ahead of time, request the leave as soon as you are able.
- Discuss your request for leave with your departmental HR Representative.
- Log in to ConnectCarolina Self Service to submit your request using the online Leave Request Form.
- Log in to ConnectCarolina Self Service.
- Click the My Benefits tile.
- Click the Leave folder on the left menu.
- Click Submit a Leave Request on the left menu to open the Online Leave Request Form.
- Follow the prompts to fill out the online Leave Request Form.
Learn more on the Online Leave Request Form & Other Leave Forms webpage.
Who is immediate family?
Some leave policies, like Sick Leave and Bereavement Leave, only apply in cases related to immediate family.
For these policies, immediate family follows the definition used in the Sick Leave policy and outlined in the toggle below.
- Self (employee)
- Spouse
- Parent (biological, adoptive, or person who stood-in as “parent”)
- Child (biological, adopted, legal ward, foster care, or person for whom employee stands-in as “parent”)
- Grandparent and great-grandparent
- Grandchild and great-grandchild
- Sibling (biological or adoptive)
- Step-, half-, and in-law relation of the above
- Other dependent within the household
