The employee master already knew each hire date. That allowed the AS/400 to grant the right amount automatically—even when people joined throughout the year.
Annual paid leave increases with length of service: ten days after the initial qualifying period, then eleven, twelve, and so on. In a company where everyone joins on April 1, the schedule is simple. We hired people throughout the year, so new grant dates appeared every month like pins on a music box.
The employee master already held each date of hire. Once the date and years of service were known, the AS/400 could calculate both when to grant leave and how many HOLCOUP records to create.
Part-time and temporary employees might join on April 19 or April 28 rather than the first of a month. We deliberately treated every April hire as an April 1 hire for this purpose. Someone who joined on April 30 received a small advantage, but the operation stayed consistent and never disadvantaged the employee.
Each grant remained valid for two years. The familiar idea of a forty-day maximum is often simply the overlap of two twenty-day grants that are both still valid.
I also made the system consume coupons with the earliest expiry first. Using a newer entitlement while an older one silently expired might be technically defensible in some operations, but it did not feel fair or natural to the person who had earned it.
CHAPTER 03 · PART 02 · EPISODE 7 / 9 STORIES · 35 STORIES TOTAL