MIT Time Portal Landing Page and FAQ

On this page:

What is the MIT Time Portal?

The MIT Time Portal is an application for entering employee or family sick or medical appointments for all salaried paid staff, as well as entering and approving vacation requests for those departments utilizing vacation within this application.

Who can use the MIT Time Portal?

• Sick & Medical Appointments: This tool is to be used by Campus-based, semimonthly paid staff (that is, salaried as opposed to hourly staff) who are eligible for MIT’s paid sick and sick family leave policies besides just the state-mandated benefits. This includes academic staff (including the “other academic” payroll category), research staff (including SRS), and administrative staff; it does not include tenured or tenure-track faculty.
  To be eligible for MIT’s general sick and sick family leave benefits, you must be paid by MIT, work 50% or more of the normal full-time work schedule, and have an eligible appointment of at least 3 months. See Employment Policy Manual for more information.
  • Additionally, semimonthly paid employees who are not eligible for sick leave under MIT’s policies yet (because they do not work enough hours or because their job isn’t eligible for benefits) are nonetheless entitled to earned sick time in accordance with the provisions of the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time law. Graduate students working at MIT are not eligible for this paid sick leave, nor are undergraduate students working during the academic year.

• Vacation Requests: While vacation benefits are the same for all eligible MIT employees, the method for keeping track of vacation differs according to employee type and/or department. MIT Time Portal is used by exempt, semi-monthly paid employees, but the vacation tracker module is not used by all MIT departments. If you are unsure whether your DLC uses the Time Portal for vacation requests, please contact your manager or department HR vacation administrator. The DLCs that currently use the Time Portal for vacation tracking are:

Aeronautics and Astronautics Alumni Association Audit Division Campus Construction Campus Planning Chemical Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering

College HQs CTL and SCM EVPT|Facilities Administration Information Systems & Technology Infrastructure Business Operations Infrastructure Services Libraries

Materials Science and Engineering MIT Medical Office of Digital Learning Professional Education Resource Development School of Engineering - Dean's Office VP for Finance

Accessing the MIT Time Portal

For semimonthly paid staff, go to: https://absence.mit.edu.

For all others, visit Atlas at https://atlas.mit.edu/atlas/Main.action?tab=home&sub=group_timevaca#.

Sick:

Entering an Employee or Family Sick or Medical Appointment

1. Click Create New Leave Request, OR click on the calendar for the (first) day for which you are reporting sick or family absence. The New Leave Request will display to the right with either the current date or the date you clicked on the calendar listed.
   Note: Illnesses longer than 3 consecutive days may be protected under FMLA. Please inform your local HR contact, or the Disabilities Services and Medical Leaves Office at hr-dsmlo@mit.edu for more information.
   
2. If needed, add additional days to the request by clicking the dates on the Calendar, or use the add another day link in the New Leave Request box.
3. Choose the appropriate sick reason for the Reason Category dropdown.
   
4. Enter the number of hours leave for each of the dates listed.
   • If you work a standard, 5-day a week schedule, the tool assumes that you work 8 hours every work day.
   • If you are sick for less than a full day, report the time in quarter hours (.25, .50, .75, and 1.0).
     For example, if you usually arrive at work at 8:30 but get in at 10:20 due to a medical appointment, record 1.75 as sick time
   • If you work an irregular schedule, you can record the actual hours you normally work on a given day.
     For example, a full-time employee working four 10 hour days and who is out sick for a day would record 10 hours for that day.
5. Click Submit.
6. The request will then go to your leave supervisor for their information only; approval is not necessary.
   Note: Sick time notifications through the Sick Portal do not require approval but employees are responsible for following their department sick or sick family reporting procedures.

Deleting (Withdrawing) an Employee or Family Sick or Medical Appointment

You can withdraw an absence for employee or family sick or medical appointments either on the day of or before the absence occurs (future absences). Absences in the past will need to be withdrawn by the employee's leave supervisor or the department's administrator for the time portal.

1. To begin, select the date of the request you wish to delete. If a request was entered with multiple dates, the entire multi-day request will display.
   • To delete an individual day from the request:
     1. Use the trash icon to the right of the day you want to remove from the request.
     2. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the day?"
     3. Click Yes to confirm. Repeat for additional date withdrawals.
   • To withdraw the entire request:
     1. Click the Withdraw Request link in the upper right corner of the request box. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the entire request?"
     2. Click Yes to confirm.
2. Your leave supervisor will receive notification that the request has been withdrawn.

Vacation:

Requesting Vacation Time

1. Click Create New Leave Request, OR click on the calendar for the first day for which you'd like to enter a request. The New Leave Request will display to the right with either the current date or the date you clicked on the calendar listed. (On mobile devices the New Leave Request may display below the calendar.)
   
2. If needed, add additional days to the request by clicking the dates on the Calendar, or use the add another day link in the New Leave Request box.
3. Choose the type of request (Vacation or Fifth Week) from the Reason Category dropdown. Your scheduled and available balances will be displayed above the dropdown.
   
4. Select Full Day or Half Day for each of the dates listed. Note: The Time Portal presumes that you work 8 hours per work day. Thus a “full day” is 8 hours and a “half day” is 4 hours. If you work a flexible schedule (i.e., something other than an 8-hour workday), there will be an additional field for percentage.
   To find the percentage: use your typical day’s work hours divided by an 8-hour work day, multiplied by 100. Examples:
   1. If you normally work four 10-hour days, enter 125% for 10 hours to be deducted from your vacation balance for a full vacation day, or 5 hours for a half day.
   2. If you normally work five 6-hour days, enter 75% for 6 hours to be deducted from your vacation balance for a full vacation day, or 3 hours for a half day.
      
5. Enter any notes, if desired.
6. Click Submit.
7. The request will then go to your manager, who will approve or reject the request.

Deleting (Withdrawing) a Vacation Request

You can withdraw a request/notification for vacation or sick leave either before or after it's been approved or viewed by your manager.

1. To begin, select the date of the request you wish to delete. If a request was entered with multiple dates, the entire multi-day request will display.
   1. To delete an individual day from the request, use the trash icon to the right of the day you want to remove from the request. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the day?" Click Yes to confirm. Repeat for additional date withdrawals.
   2. To withdraw the entire request, click the Withdraw Request link in the upper right corner of the request box. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the entire request?" Click Yes to confirm.
2. Your manager will receive notification that the request has been withdrawn.

Manager and/or Leave Supervisor Functions

Managers and/or Leave Supervisors can:

• View all sick time notifications and/or vacation requests for direct reports
• Approve or reject vacation requests of their employees
• Enter sick or vacation time on their employees' behalf
• Delete (withdraw) sick or vacation time on their employees' behalf

View Sick and Vacation Time for Employees

Employee leaves can be viewed in calendar or list format.

Calendar Overview

1. Select My Employees' Leave >> View Calendar and Manage Absences
   
2. It will show a monthly calendar with the names of your employees who submitted employee/ family sick or medical absences as well as vacation. all vacation requests and sick time notifications.
   (i)Items on the calendar are color-coded:
   • GREEN: Vacation requests that have been approved
   • YELLOW: Vacation requests that require approval
   • RED: Vacation requests that have been rejected
   • BLUE: Sick leave notifications

Detailed List Overview

You can switch to a list view by using the toggle button just above the right corner of the calendar.
NOTE: If you switch to list view, the color coding will disappear. You will be provided a column for “Status” instead.

Calendar view
List view

Vacation or Sick Time Usage by Employee

To see a list of all your employees and their balances, select My Employees' Leave and then either Sick Time Usage or Vacation Time Usage.

For sick time usage, managers can filter by both Benefits Eligible and Non Benefits Eligible employees (if applicable).

Entering a Sick and/ or Vacation Request on behalf of an Employee

The “View Calendar & Manage Absences” allows you to record employee/ family sick or medical leaves as well as vacation time on behalf of any of your employees (for example, if someone forgot to do so).

1. Go to My Employees' Leave and select View Calendar & Manage Absences.
   
2. Click the Create New Leave Request button above the calendar.
   
3. In the box that opens at right, select the Employee from the dropdown.
4. Select the appropriate option from the Reason Category
5. Adjust the date(s), if needed, and enter the appropriate number of hours.
6. Click Submit.
7. If you entered vacation time, you will receive a notification to approve this request. Sick/medical leave does not require approval. Sick time notifications do not require approval. However, both you and the employee will receive email notifications of the time submission.

Deleting (Withdrawing) a Request on behalf of an Employee

1. From the calendar, select the employee's name on the date of the request you wish to delete. If a request was entered with multiple dates, the entire multi-day request will display to the right of the calendar.
   1. To delete an individual day from the request, use the trash icon to the right of the day you want to remove from the request. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the day?" Click Yes to confirm. Repeat for additional single date withdrawals.
   2. To withdraw the entire request, click the Withdraw Request link in the upper right corner of the request box. You will see the message "Are you sure you want to withdraw the entire request?" Click Yes to confirm.
2. The employee and the employee's manager (even if that's you) will receive notification that the request has been withdrawn.
   a. Note: If Sick/ Medical leave requests are more than 60 days in the past, you will not be able to delete the requests. Please reach out to absence-help@mit.edu in these cases.

Approve or Reject Vacation Requests

When an employee submits a request for vacation, you will receive an email notification. Sick time notifications do not require approval, however as noted, employees are expected to follow the DLC sick and sick family leave reporting procedures.

1. Go to My Employees' Leave, and select Approvals.
   Note: The number next to the menu item indicates how many requests are pending approval.
   
2. The list of requests requiring approval will display.
   
3. Click on a line to display that request in a box at right.
   
4. Enter comments, if desired, and click Approve or Reject.
   1. Approved requests will display as green on the Manager calendar.
   2. Rejected requests will display as red on the Manager calendar.

Department Administrator Functions

In addition to having all of the above functions of a Manager, Department Administrators can also:

• Add new employees to the Time Portal
• Create the relationship between a manager and an employee
• Set an allocation flag for those with flexible schedules

Leave Supervisor Maintenance Tips

• Name searches have to contain at least 3 characters in order for search function to work
• Employee data is through the directory and not necessarily SAP
  • This means sometimes a non-employee can appear within the search field
    • Error message will appear for non-employee
• Certain persons will not show:
  • No Employees with unpaid appointments
  • No student data
• Different error messages will appear for different reasons why employees do not show; examples:
  • Supervisor not needed for job
  • No paid appointment
  • No access to view this person

Adding a New Employee

1. From the Admin menu, select Leave Supervisor Maintenance.
2. On the Supervisor Maintenance screen, select Vacation Time.
   
3. Under Department, enter your department and click Submit.
   
4. This will take you to another screen displaying the department employees. On the Department Employees Screen, click on + Vacation Supervisor.
   
5. In the popup, enter the name of the employee you wish to add under Employee, and their corresponding vacation manager under Supervisor, then click Submit.
   

Creating a Manager-Employee Relationship

Department administrators have the ability to set up the manager-employee relationships in the Time Portal.

1. From the Admin menu, select Leave Supervisor Maintenance
   
2. The Supervisor Maintenance window will open in a separate browser tab.
3. Click on either Sick or Vacation Time (both will update supervisor information)
   
4. You can search by Supervisor (manager), by Employee, or by Department, depending on what you need to do:
   • Search by Supervisor or Employee to change a Supervisor
   • For new employees, you must first search by Department, locate the new person, and assign the supervisor (new employees after 1/1/2022 will automatically have a supervisor as it is now a required part of the new hire application)

Setting an Allocation Flag

1. From the Admin menu, select Set Allocation Flag
   
2. Find the employee by entering their Kerberos ID or Department.
3. As you begin typing either a Kerb or Department name, the names that match will display.
4. Click on the desired name, and a box will appear at right with the employee listed.
   
5. Click Update to change the allocation flag for this employee.
6. Change the Percentage to True or False as needed.
7. Click Submit.

Policy Links

• Sick Policies:
  • MIT’s general policy for sick leave for benefits-eligible monthly paid staff is found here in Section 4.3.2
  • MIT’s policy on the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time is found here in Section 4.3.1. This policy applies to all paid employees, whether or not they are benefits eligible.
• Vacation Policies
  • MIT’s policy on Vacation, eligibility, accruals, etc. can be found here in Section 4.2-4.2.5

Questions or Issues

• Sick absences questions or issues: absence-help@mit.edu
• Vacation absences questions or issues: vacation-nonsrs-help@mit.edu
• Leave policy questions: leavepolicies@mit.edu

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