Partial day
A partial day is a day on which somebody attended for materially less than their scheduled hours, without the day counting as an absence. A person who worked three hours of an eight-hour shift had a partial day. Present, but not for the period expected.
Systems recognising only present and absent must round a partial day to one of them. Both roundings lie.
Call it present and the report shows full attendance for a day that was mostly empty. Call it absent and somebody who came in and did real work is marked as not there at all.
Keeping it as its own state makes the pattern visible. Scattered partial days are life. A cluster in one team in one month is usually about something else.
The status carries no judgement and should not acquire one. Somebody sent home when a client cancelled, somebody who left for a school call, somebody whose machine died: all produce the same record. Treat the status as a flag that something needs explaining.
Where this shows up in PeopleMuster
PeopleMuster carries Partial as its own attendance status, beside Present, Absent and Leave. These days show in the distribution rather than rounding into another.
Questions people ask
How short does a day have to be to be partial?
Your policy decides the threshold. Anything from a couple of hours short to half the shift is used in practice. Define it once, or it will be applied inconsistently.
Is a partial day the same as a half day?
No. A half day is a planned and approved arrangement. A partial day is what the attendance record observed, planned or not.
Does a partial day affect the attendance rate?
That depends on whether your rate counts days or hours. A day-based rate usually counts it as present, which is why the hours figure is worth reading alongside.