Deadlines & Special Instructions

Veterans Day will be officially observed as a State of Kansas holiday on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. Fort Hays State University will be holding classes that day. If your workload allows, please seek permission, and coordinate with your supervisor to take the day off to honor and remember our Veterans. For guidance on entering your timesheet in Workday for Veterans Day, click on the link below according to your employee type for specific instructions.

IMPORTANT: The timesheet deadline for pay period 11/8/26-11/21/26 will be MOVED UP. All timesheets and time off requests must be submitted and approved by managers by Friday, November 20^th at 10:00 a.m.

• NON-EXEMPT (HOURLY) EMPLOYEES
  • Employees who work on Veterans Day and/or receive holiday time off must enter and submit the appropriate timesheet entries to ensure they receive the correct holiday credit and that their timesheet accurately reflects any hours worked on the holiday.
  • If the appropriate entry is not made by the employee by the timesheet deadline above, holiday comp time will NOT be accrued for working on the holiday
    • Non-Exempt (Hourly) Essential
    • Non-Exempt (Hourly) Non-Essential

• EXEMPT (SALARY) EMPLOYEES
  • Holiday credit will be automatically submitted for eligible exempt employees. If you do not work on Veterans Day, no further action is necessary.
  • Exempt employees who work on Veterans Day must enter and submit the appropriate timesheet entry to accurately reflect that they worked on the holiday.
  • If the appropriate entry is not made by the employee by the timesheet deadline above, holiday comp time will NOT be accrued for working on the holiday
    • Exempt (Salary)

• STUDENT EMPLOYEES
  • Must submit their time for approval prior to the 11/20/26 deadline. Hourly students working 11/20 and/or 11/21 should NOT clock in or out on these days. Managers will need to add the time blocks to the student’s timesheet. Find Manager-Student Employee – Add, Edit, Submit Time instructions and videos by searching in the FHSU Training Library for adding time blocks to student timesheets. Students attempting to clock in and out on 11/20 and 11/21 will result in unmatched time events that will not get picked up by the payroll run.
  • Student Employees

• Temporary Employees 
• Faculty

Fort Hays State University will close for the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of the business day on Tuesday, November 24^th, based on your regular shift. We will reopen on Monday, November 30^th, 2026.  Any non-essential, temporary, or student employee who needs to work during the Thanksgiving break (11/25-11/27) must seek PRIOR approval from their respective VP. If approved, the VP will notify Accounts Payable. Any essential employees scheduled to work or employees with VP approval to work will enter REG hours for the time worked.

Wednesday, November 25

Employees will submit one day of leave time using one of the following: Comp time, Discretionary Day, Vacation.

Employees who do not have enough leave available have two options:

1. Leave Without Pay: Enter Leave Without Pay for the day.
2. Advanced Leave: Enter Advance Leave. Your vacation balance will remain negative until you accrue enough leave to bring the balance back to zero.

** Any essential employees scheduled to work or employees with VP approval to work will enter REG hours for the time worked. **

Thursday & Friday, November 26^th & 27^th

These days are state holidays. Workday will automatically generate the holiday time off entry for employees eligible to receive holiday credit. Essential employees scheduled to work should enter REG hours for the time worked.

Fort Hays State University will close for the holiday break at the end of the business day on Friday, December 18^th, based on your regular shift. We will reopen on Monday, January 4^th, 2027. Any non-essential, temporary, or student employee needing to work during the holiday break (12/19-1/3) must seek PRIOR approval from the appropriate VP. If approved, the VP will notify Accounts Payable.

December 21^st, 22^nd, & 23^rd

Employees will submit one day of leave time using one of the following: Comp time, Discretionary Day, Vacation.

Employees who do not have enough leave available have two options:

1. Leave Without Pay: Enter Leave Without Pay for the day.
2. Advanced Leave: Enter Advance Leave. Your vacation balance will remain negative until you accrue enough leave to bring the balance back to zero.

** Any essential employees scheduled to work or employees with VP approval to work will enter REG hours for the time worked. **

After the holiday break pay period has ended, leave time will be automatically submitted for any employee that didn’t submit their time off requests and Accounts Payable did not receive notification from their VP that they were approved to work.

December 28^th, 29^th, 30^th, & 31^st

The Kansas Board of Regents has approved paid time off for these days. University holiday time off has been populated for all employees that earn holiday credit. The number of university holiday hours earned will be equivalent to the employees’ normally scheduled hours that day. Employees who have work schedules that do not require them to work these days of the week are not affected by the university holidays and will have no time off entry. If you do not see the university holiday time off entry on these days and you believe you should be eligible, contact Accounts Payable.

If you are an essential employee required to work on any of the declared university holidays, you will add an additional entry on your timesheet with the time entry type University Holiday Worked, equal to the number of hours worked. If you work a 2^nd or 3^rd shift, you’ll need to use the University Holiday Worked time entry code that matches your shift.

December 24^th & 25^th and January 1^st  

These days are state holidays. Workday will automatically generate the holiday time off entry for employees eligible to receive holiday credit. Essential employees scheduled to work should enter REG hours for the time worked.

Any employee with a holiday comp time balance as of 11/23/25 should claim holiday comp time off first to use up their balance before claiming vacation leave. Beginning April 1, 2026, any employee that has a holiday comp time off balance and attempts to request vacation leave will receive an error in Workday prompting them to use up their holiday comp time off first. 

The first day to use the 2026 Discretionary Day is Sunday, December 21, 2025. For eligible employees, whose work schedule includes their last workday of a week as Friday, the last day to use the 2026 Discretionary Day is Friday, December 18, 2026. For those whose last workday of a week is Saturday, the last day to use the 2026 Discretionary Day is Saturday, December 19, 2026.