Time away from work

Taking time off from work is important for your overall well-being and productivity in both your professional and personal life. You may also find the need to take extended time away from work for health, family, or other reasons.

Stryker offers a variety of benefits that allow you time to relax, recover, care for family members, honor personal commitments, and more.

For questions or a current copy of your vacation and sick time policies, please contact myHR.

View the 2025 U.S. holiday schedule.

In the event of a disability, Stryker offers short and long term disability benefits. Contact your myHR team should you need to take advantage of these benefits.

• Short-term disability — If you need more time, you can receive company-paid short-term disability (STD) benefits. Coverage begins on the first day of disability due to accident, outpatient surgery or a hospital stay, or, in the case of sickness, after the eighth day of total disability. For exempt employees, the benefit pays 100% of your eligible earnings (reduced by other income benefits) for 180 days.
  For non-exempt employees, the benefit pays 100% of your eligible earnings during the first 56 days of disability. For days 57 to 180, the benefit pays 60% of your eligible earnings (reduced by other income benefits).
• Long-term disability — For longer illnesses or injuries, long-term disability (LTD) coverage begins after you have been disabled for 180 days. LTD insurance pays 60% of your eligible earnings, up to a maximum of $15,000 per month.

For more information, see the Summary Plan Description.

If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR.

In the unfortunate event of the death of an immediate family member you will receive ten days of leave for a spouse, domestic partner or child. Employees experiencing the death of any other family member listed in the policy will receive three days of bereavement leave. For family members covered under this policy please refer to the LOA Standard.

Sometimes you need to take an extended period of time away from work to care for a new baby or family member or to recover from an illness. Through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you may be eligible to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Qualifying situations include:

• Your own serious health condition that makes you unable to perform the functions of your job.
• A serious health condition of your child, spouse, or parent that requires you to care for that family member.
• The birth of a child that requires you to take time off to care for the child (six or eight weeks depending on natural or Cesarean childbirth; will run concurrently with STD).
• The placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care.
• Covered military family leave.

Leave Eligibility

To be eligible for Family and Medical Leave, you must have been employed by the Company* for a total of at least 12 months within the last 7 years. You must also have worked at least 1,250 hours for the Company during the 12 calendar months immediately preceding the commencement of your FMLA leave.**

* You must have been employed at a covered worksite — a site with at least 50 employees within a 75-miles radius.

**Under USERRA regulations, the time spent fulfilling an employee’s military service obligations will be counted in determining whether the employee meets the 1,250 hour and 12 month requirements.

If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR.

We are proud to offer parental leave to all U.S. employees as part of our commitment to your overall wellbeing. When your leave is approved, parental leave will be paid at 100% of pay. This leave can be taken in two week increments within the first year after the date of birth or placement of adoption.

Eligibility:

• Parental leave is available to all U.S. employees—including both moms and dads—who add a child to their family by birth or legal adoption on or after January 1, 2017.
• Domestic partners are eligible for this benefit as long as they are the legal parent of the child.
• You must be a Stryker employee at the time of the birth or adoption to be eligible for this benefit.
• Parental leave expands to six weeks for births or adoptions that take place on or after 04/01/20.

You may be able to take an unpaid leave of absence for nonmedical personal matters, including family matters not covered under Family and Medical Leave when you have exhausted all of your paid time off. Personal leave may be used in rare and extenuating circumstances and is at the Company's discretion and are not covered by any other applicable leave.

If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR.

To support your service to your country, you may be eligible for an approved leave of absence consistent with the requirements of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). All documents must be provided to myHR Leaves prior to any leave commencing.

If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR.

If you are called to jury duty, you can receive the paid time off needed to meet your civic obligations.

If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR.

To ensure our employees have the time and resources they need to care for family members with serious health conditions, we offer caregiver leave. This leave provides employees up to six weeks of paid leave, available every three years at 100% pay to care for their family members.

• Eligibility for this leave aligns to the eligibility defined in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in the Leave of Absence standard. If you have any questions or need to request a leave of absence, please contact myHR. Employees requesting caregiver leave must contact myHR before taking any time away from work.

Need to know more about time away from work? Contact myHR at 877-795-2002 or the myHR website.

You can also find Leave of Absence policies at Practices and policies.