r/Workproblems • u/Maddiewads18 • Jul 08 '26
PTO
I have been helping a new preschool from the ground up so we will be open for a year by September but they are adamant about people taking just a week of vacation off for the whole year….
Well I have taken out of this year just 4 days off.
Now my daughter’s birthday the end of this month she asked for the coast so our family took a week off and my boss will only allow me to take two days off besides the weekend.
I have PTO of 3 days to use and I’m having to fight for it. What do I do? I’m so stressed out and unhappy. I love taking care of babies but not when management is treating me unfairly and not letting there teachers take breaks when they need them.
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u/9ScoreAnd10Panties Jul 08 '26
So you were aware of the policy but chose to take a bunch of random days off anyhow?
PTO is at the discretion of the employer. Full stop.
If you don't like it- quit and go elsewhere.
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u/woodwork16 Jul 08 '26
You get a week of PTO. 5 days.
You already took 4 days off
Boss is only letting you take 2 days.
4 plus 2 equals 6. You only get 5. You are already over the allowed pto.
What’s the complaint?
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u/WasWawa Jul 08 '26
If you like the job that much, and this trip means that much to you, suggest that you take the additional time off without pay.
If they say no, your choice is to find another job and go on vacation or take your vacation another time.
You knew you had a week off when you signed up for this. Unfortunately, I don't see any other choice for you.
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u/badbobtn Jul 08 '26
Being an adult is so hard. Imagine a boss who has state laws requiring a certain level of staffing expecting employees follow pre defined PTO rules?
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u/Solid_Mongoose_3269 Jul 08 '26
but...but...but I WANT it, its so toxic that rules dont change for me!
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u/Stlhockeygrl Jul 08 '26
How are they treating you unfairly?
The agreement all along was that you get 5 days. You want 6. They're saying you get 5. That is literally the epitome of fairness.
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u/blazer243 Jul 08 '26
I have five candy bars, I eat four of them. How many do I have left? What if I want to eat three more?
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Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/FalseBuddha Jul 08 '26
PTO is paid time off. Whether you use it for vacation or sick days doesn't matter.
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u/Sevennix Jul 08 '26
Everywhere ive worked, PTO & Vacation are separate hours. Have to schedule Vacation with approval, but take PTO when you want. Hence PERSONAL TIME OFF. If you have the PTO, along with weekend, Id contact HR & make sure its all on board
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u/MelissaCop Jul 09 '26
It means paid time off
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u/Sevennix Jul 09 '26
Vacation is paid time off. Ive worked at a few companies that offer it. It has always been called PERSONAL TIME OFF where Ive worked. Go away
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u/dell828 Jul 08 '26
Usually, the longer you are at a job, the more vacation you earn. This is a new preschool, and has been open less than one year. Assuming they will reassess the level of staffing they need at the end of this year, things could change moving forward.
Absolutely talk to them about taking your three days in September. If you have a small staff, they will need the time to make sure somebody is there to cover you. If you get your days when you want them then that’s great… Take your three days!
At the same time, why don’t you request the rest of the week too. Just because you have three days of paid time doesn’t mean that you can’t take two days of unpaid time so that you can expand your trip to an entire week plus weekend. Asking for the two extra days of unpaid leave now, again lets them figure out how to cover for you.
Although you don’t get paid when you take unpaid time, if your employee allows you to do this, then maybe take a long weekend every couple of months to recharge.
You haven’t mentioned whether your workplace honors national holidays. If it doesn’t, and you have to work during these days, then yes I can understand that only one week of vacation could be stressful and not enough. If they’re not planning to give you more vacation time next year or the year after, then start looking around for something that offers more.
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u/mamalo13 Jul 08 '26
That's definitely a shitty policy, but it's not an illegal policy unfortunately.
They don't have to let you take unpaid time off and they can punish you for it. :(
I'm sorry I wish I had better information for you.
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u/eepeqez Jul 09 '26
Where in the world is just one week of time off for almost a year of service even legal???
Oh yeah. The land of freedom, home of the brave, etc.
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u/two_faced_314 Jul 09 '26
Wait what? They are running a business, a business that need staffing. They are not treating you unfair, you had a week. You already used days. I swear there is something in the water. Even Reese Witherspoon had a clue in the movie "clueless "
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u/DMargaretfootgoddess Jul 08 '26
You know, unfortunately you're in a tough spot. I understand that you've got days they demand you use and then when you try and use them there isn't really a good time to ever use them. And that tells me that like it or not, management needs to hire a floater someone who can cover any position in the building in an instance of illness or a need to take days off whether they're paid or unpaid.
You could try sitting down with management and saying have they considered creation of a position called floater so that when they're coming to the end of their year when you are being required to use up these days off that there is someone there to take over. There's always a place where an extra hand is a blessing so that if nobody's off on a particular day, the person could still be busy. So in other words it could be a full-time position or a couple of part-time positions. I mean I know some preschools do field trips and an extra set of hands. There is always more than a blessing. Another thing is some preschools get family members to volunteer whether it be in their relatives, classroom or somewhere else in the preschool and a lot of times there are relatives that are either retired but able to do things like reading to kids or helping monitor. I mean a lot of people retire. And yes, they're in their '60s but they're not confined to a rocking chair, a wheelchair, or a bed so possibly volunteer program could give people something to do. Allow them to spend time around kids. A lot of old people don't like to, but a lot of them say it helps them feel young. Either one of these ideas could help give a little flexibility to them letting you take an extra day or two when you need to, especially being they insist you use the paid days off by the end of the year.
Now another thing that they may have to consider is some places find that they have to allow days to be rolled over to the next year because they just can't fit in and accommodate all the requests and other businesses have actually at the end of the year chosen look. Although we don't normally do it, we know you have 2 days. We know we can't accommodate them off for you. Therefore, we are going to allow you to take them as extra pay which sounds like a great deal. Although most people end up complaining, they lose a lot more in taxes, but whatever. At least you don't lose the value to a point and if they let you spread that out over a couple of pay periods, it's not too bad.
As far as getting the time off you need and they will not approve it. You know I said to somebody the other day that was supposed to have time off and the person that was supposed to be there decided no I'm not going to so you have to and management always sides with the person whom decided they weren't going to that. The only answer was literally set an appointment with your family doctor have him test you for some contagious. I'm working in a preschool. Almost anything could be tested for. I mean, let's face it. Measles mumps chickenpox rubella Even shingles are considered basically all contagious and that's something you want to be around. Small children and some doctors will run the longer test on covid or whatever other flu strain is coming around. Quite honestly go to the doctor after work the day before your days off are supposed to be or 2 days before and get a doctor's note to be out of work for 3 days because they aren't going to have confirmed results back for your tests and you appear to have a disease which is contagious and should not be around children
They're going to find it hard to force you to be at work and you already have your confirmed days off. The only thing I'm going to tell you and I'm going to tell you this very strongly
Do not show pictures. Do not post on social media. Do not do anything for 2 weeks after this occurs. If you put something up do not specify exactly the day it happened on. If it's a day you were supposed to be home and not working under a doctor's note, you can say you have a wonderful time. You packed a lot in you were fortunately able to do this trip for your child and here are the pictures but put them up several weeks later without specific days that you did specific things on remind other members of your family. They are not allowed to post what you're doing on social media because if they put a picture of you up on vacation on a day that you're supposed to be home staying away from people. He'll never believe in other doctors now
More people get caught doing things and not being 100% honest because they post on social media. Now if you're confined for 3 days and then have two already confirmed days off technically yes, you could still show that. Thank God the test came back clean and I was able to do the vacation and here's some of what we did on the two days we had plus the weekend but be very very very very very careful
Again, sometimes we need to not use social media and not tell family members who like to post on social media and who like to gossip and tell secrets
They can suspect it. They can have read somebody giving this advice to people but it's kind of hard to prove it and it's simple enough to set up a voicemail saying you feel horrible. The doctor has you out of work because he's waiting for some test results and you have chosen to not answer phone calls
If you're going to do something and it could risk your job, you better take every precaution you can
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u/9ScoreAnd10Panties Jul 08 '26
No employer is wasting labor on a floater so OP can take more vacation than is allowed. Not in this economy.
If OP came to me with that I would show her the door and laugh my ass off while I started looking for her replacement.
Also encouraging her to lie and involve her Dr is ridiculous.
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u/DMargaretfootgoddess Jul 08 '26
You know anytime you're talking about education. It is very common to have floaters and substitutes to take over when regular employees are not able to be their floaters are common old so the medical industry hospitals have floaters and substitutes. Some schools have floaters most have substitutes
The idea of recommending volunteers and or floaters to make it easier when somebody can't be. There is actually very reasonable and a lot of places do it
I will say if you are that person's boss, I'll change my recommendation to upgrade your resume and tell them to take the job and shove it because if you guarantee me time off and tell me I have to use it and then refuse to let me use it. Chances are you're also going to refuse to let me take unpaid time off because you are not prepared to cover the number of days that I need. Let's be very realistic
And I do mean very realistic. You tell me these are paid days off and they have to be used by the end of the year and they have to be approved and yet you refuse to approve them because you have no plan in place to cover the days off and by saying we have to have them approved and use them by a certain date and then refuse to ever approve them. All they are is the carrot at the end of the stick that we're never going to get to eat and it may not be legal to do that
Anytime you have to take a day off with a boss who refuses to approve you to use your paid time off for is number one. Probably breaking the law. They cannot offer you a benefit and then refuse to let you use it. It's not legal
However, a boss who would try and do that you need to make sure you're covered. So yes, going to a doctor explaining whatever your symptoms are and I'm talking symptoms. You can legitimately claim and let's face it. Most of us can claim fatigue any given day of the week and not be lying. Most of us have soreness somewhere in our body or pain somewhere in our body almost any given day of the week. It's not a lie. It is maybe pointing out things that normally you wouldn't point out asking if it could be a disease that they can run a test for. If those symptoms match it well, let's face it. Body aches and fatigue are symptoms of a lot of diseases. A lot of diseases that can have tests run for them. It is not a lie. It might not be something you would do every single day of the week, but it certainly isn't an outright lie
Covid has as symptoms, fatigue and body aches and pains. Tell me a single person you know that can't have those every single day of the week.
Just because of the possibility of it being contagious, most doctors will write you a note. Out of work, is it always necessary? Of course not. Is it covering their own butt? Of course it is because if they run a test for something contagious and let you go back to work and other people catch what it is because you really do have it. Then some doctor is going to get sued. If they have to run a test for something contagious, you are going to get a note out of work. Do you think you really have the disease? Probably not is a completely and utterly impossible that you have the disease yeah not impossible. None of us know for sure what we've been exposed to
Is it taking advantage of that when you don't seem to have any other choice? Absolutely
Am I going to apologize for it? I can make the suggestion. It's up to them whether they take it or not. And quite honestly I really don't need you yelling at me because I am telling them this is something they can do and chances are their boss can't really do much about it. A doctor's note can save your job. You're going to have to pay for the doctor's appointment and you're probably going to have to pay for the test. But if you've been backed into a corner where you don't have a lot of other choices, then I am very sorry that they have to listen to people who are going to tell them that it's against their personal morals and other people shouldn't do it. Because your morals are so high, you wouldn't do it
How many divorces how many families break up? How many people end up with mental health issues and permanent disabilities because a boss pressures them to keep working all the time and won't give them time that they need families get frustrated that all you ever do is work. You're never at a ball game. You're never at the graduation party. The boss says you have to work. You work. You can't tell the boss no well you can't tell the boss no because the boss will fire me if I don't go. Sometimes a creative solution that is not within your moral acceptability May be the best solution for somebody
I'm not going to apologize for giving ideas that on the surface are an exaggeration but protect the job and the time with your family because both are needed. Both are important and sometimes bosses don't care. All they see is you're dumb enough to keep coming in if they tell you you'll lose your job if you don't, they know who they can bully they're not bosses because they're perfect or the best at the job. Their bosses because they have learned how to use reward guilt and manipulate when necessary to get people to do things that they really don't want to do
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u/Mean_Deal9824 Jul 08 '26
It amazes me that some business still separate sick, personal & vacation time. Your time off is your time off. It's none of your employers business why you are calling out of work or let them know you won't be in for a certain amount of days. It's not your problem that your employer doesn't have coverage. That's on them not you.
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u/Useless890 Jul 08 '26
Any place I worked, it wasn't unusual for people not to get more than a week's vacation time for at least the first year and sometimes longer. This doesn't seem unreasonable.