Dear Colleagues:
This message provides you with information about the 2023 winter close schedule to assist you and your employees in planning for the year-end break. As we do each year, we have scheduled this year’s winter close to best align with the University’s needs and the unique timing of how this year’s planned time away falls on the calendar.
The 2023 winter close will be from Thursday, December 21, 2023, through Wednesday, January 3, 2024, with the following dates designated as University holidays:
- Monday, December 25, 2023,
- Tuesday, December 26, 2023, and
- Monday, January 1, 2024
Regular operations will resume on Thursday, January 4, 2024. Except where operations must continue, all areas of the University are asked to close during this two-week period. Any decision to keep a department open must be approved by the Dean, Vice President, or Vice Provost overseeing the department.
This year, for areas that close for the entire period of December 21, 2023, through January 3, 2024, the University will provide three (3) additional days off with pay. The additional days off with pay may be taken on any normal workday during the close period that is not an employee’s normally scheduled day off or a designated University holiday. For the other normal workdays during the close period that are not designated by the University as official holidays or a paid day off, employees may use accrued vacation time, any available PTO, approved time off without pay, or any combination thereof.
All departments are asked to administer time off during this week in a consistent fashion, and not to award University paid time off for other dates. The winter close period paid days off are solely for use during the winter closure. Where the Dean, Vice President, or Vice Provost has decided that an area will not close due to operational priorities or other critical work that must be done, employees in those areas will have the flexibility to use the three paid days off by January 31, 2024. Days used outside of the two-week Winter Closure period require supervisory approval to ensure operational effectiveness.
Please communicate the plans for your departments to all employees as soon as possible so that they may make appropriate plans for the use of their accrued vacation and PTO.
Should you require additional information, please contact me or visit https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/benefits-rewards/time-away/university-holiday-schedule.
Regards,
Elizabeth Zacharias
Vice President of Human Resources
Stanford | University Human Resources