Vacation/Holidays - New game to play

Nurses General Nursing

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Don't you love it when you book months in advance for a vacation or a holiday break, you have approval from your manager, and appropriate time off - ONLY to have your manager later state that you might not be able to take your vacation or visit with your family.

My rule: If I dropped money on it, I AM GOING. TOUGH KADODDLES!

If staffing and scheduling is such a problem, perhaps you could have told me that 6 months ago!!! . You also should have hired those 5 RNs you interviewed last month (like any reasonably competant manager would do).

You should have also not lied to me by saying "Take your vacation, we will be staffed"

I booked a Christmas vacation with my family - 3,000 miles away.

Regardless of what you say or imply or threaten - I AM GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY.

I TOLD YOU 6 MONTHS AGO.

You keep threatening me about my 1-time SEVEN DAY vacation, but you seem to jet set 4 times a year to Europe and expect me to swallow that pill.

Specializes in geriatrics.
That is one of the perks of my remaining per-diem after 3+ years: they can't take my vacations away from me :) I'm simply "Not Available."
I'm planning to work full time for another year or less. After that, I'll either decrease my FTE or go PRN. That way, there's much more flexibility with respect to time off. Totally worth it, IMO.
Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
Don't you love it when you book months in advance for a vacation or a holiday break, you have approval from your manager, and appropriate time off - ONLY to have your manager later state that you might not be able to take your vacation or visit with your family.

My rule: If I dropped money on it, I AM GOING. TOUGH KADODDLES!

If staffing and scheduling is such a problem, perhaps you could have told me that 6 months ago!!! . You also should have hired those 5 RNs you interviewed last month (like any reasonably competant manager would do).

You should have also not lied to me by saying "Take your vacation, we will be staffed"

I booked a Christmas vacation with my family - 3,000 miles away.

Regardless of what you say or imply or threaten - I AM GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS WITH FAMILY.

I TOLD YOU 6 MONTHS AGO.

You keep threatening me about my 1-time SEVEN DAY vacation, but you seem to jet set 4 times a year to Europe and expect me to swallow that pill.

Sounds like good personal boundaries to me.

If I were your manager I would expect that you are going to be gone and if I had not adequately planned for that I would plan on spending some time providing nursing care in your absence.

Specializes in FNP, ONP.
I'm amazed that you're allowed to take vacation around Christmas, do you not have a holiday rotation? At my previous hospital, no vacation time was allowed in Nov or Dec at all, and we had a holiday rotation so we knew which holidays we'd be working. If you've already gotten the approval, I'd do whatever necessary to get that time though!

When I accepted my last three positions I have had it written into the employment contract that I will never work between December 20th and January 10th, or July 1st and July 20th, ever, come hell or high water (I also have a list of several other miscellaneous non-holiday days I do not ever work). At one place, they implemented a holiday rotation after the fact. I was, of course, exempt by virtue of the employment contract to which I held firm. Plan ahead folks.

When I accepted my last three positions I have had it written into the employment contract that I will never work between December 20th and January 10th, or July 1st and July 20th, ever, come hell or high water (I also have a list of several other miscellaneous non-holiday days I do not ever work). At one place, they implemented a holiday rotation after the fact. I was, of course, exempt by virtue of the employment contract to which I held firm. Plan ahead folks.

I mean absolutely no offense here, but that would tick me off to no end if you were my co-worker and everyone else was expected to cover holidays and you didn't pitch in. Good for you for planning ahead but I feel bad for your co-workers. Lol you wouldn't be very popular where I work.

Specializes in Addictions, Acute Psychiatry.

There was a mention about "that's why all nurses should have a union..." We do and it's effectively neutered. One union rep got fired (bullying move to warn others not to stand up for coworkers) and the others are more afraid for their own jobs, so they have been rolling over, so we might as well not have one. We've got state and federal laws being broken here (refusal to pay OT telling staff "that's comp time" if you have to stay over, etc). There are plenty of mandated written rules management ignores and if anyone complains, bye bye! I've never seen such a dangerous environment for nurses with absolutely no recourse! In this job economy, everyone's scared to say anything and no one will back anyone up because they get canned in no time! We all need the jobs! I didn't complain when forced to take comp time on a few occasions, and a few other policies were broken regarding floats to other units and safe practices, safe staffing, etc. I'm usually one to stick to my guns! No one hires a lawyer 'cause no one can afford one (and no one would show up to a class action interest group out of jobless fears)!

It's amazing what even county, federal and state jobs can do when unchecked. It's a sign of the times (hey, they got rid of Habeas Corpus, they can do anything)! Two of our BEST staff just got sent home for a week for NOTHING they did wrong (I'm talking nothing at all)! If I hallucinated and say you stole my house, forged papers and foreclosed on it and you don't even know my name prior to admission (that's how ridiculous the complaint was towards seasoned staff-our best, but I can't go into detail out of fear they'll see this). So now they suspend staff although ALL staff clearly saw nothing happened (and documented "patient was hallucinating" confirmed by Psych but the fact a complaint came in at all, GOOD staff heads rolled! It's just a matter of time here, everyone says, 'till you get fired through no fault of your own. Truly a hostile environment from people who interact with the loose cannon responsible for all of this and we can't fix it! New mgr every few months (not even 6 months) for YEARS now and each of them do their job, lodge multiple complaints from harrassment, hostile wk environment, illegal this and that and what do they do? They fire the manager pointing this out and get another! We've got one position drunk with power and everyone's scared to death to report because previous reports have resulted in the lost job of a decent person.

I cannot count the Sunday's I've worked where Monday's schedule wasn't even printed yet! People can't take vacations and lose their time (no kidding, it's that bad). We looked and there's no confidental tattletale line or we would have used it.

I'd just lay low and don't count on a union in our "New World Order"!

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I mean absolutely no offense here, but that would tick me off to no end if you were my co-worker and everyone else was expected to cover holidays and you didn't pitch in. Good for you for planning ahead but I feel bad for your co-workers. Lol you wouldn't be very popular where I work.

Keep in mind that Blue Devil is also a NP, which likely gives them far more leverage in negotiating such demands than the average floor nurse would have. Not saying I approve or disapprove of what he/she (can't really tell from the Klinger avatar) has done, just that they probably have an advantage that most nurses don't.

Specializes in Addictions, Acute Psychiatry.

Can't fault someone for negotiating a contract. I'd certainly do so, as well, if I had the capability.

Specializes in FNP, ONP.

Quote from Elladora

I mean absolutely no offense here, but that would tick me off to no end if you were my co-worker and everyone else was expected to cover holidays and you didn't pitch in. Good for you for planning ahead but I feel bad for your co-workers. Lol you wouldn't be very popular where I work.

Keep in mind that Blue Devil is also a NP, which likely gives them far more leverage in negotiating such demands than the average floor nurse would have. Not saying I approve or disapprove of what he/she (can't really tell from the Klinger avatar) has done, just that they probably have an advantage that most nurses don't.

No offense taken. I could not care one bit less what anyone thinks about my ability to advocate for myself. I'mnot the least bit offended that some would not like it. I wasn't always a NP when negotiating my time off. That I may not have been "popular" with coworkers because I negotiated favorable employment contracts is of no concern to me. My career has never been about winning a popularity contest and I don't go to work to have fun or make friends (I am well liked, and I do have fun, but that is not important to me, it's just a bonus and stems from being consistent, fair and honest). My family vacations at those times annually, and that's that. I will never accept a position that I know in advance is going to interfere with family commitments. Why would I? That is a recipe for conflict. Better to make clear my needs from the outset. The employers had the option of not agreeing to my contract terms and we could have gone our separate ways, but they agreed; no one could logically fault me for their own failure to negotiate better for themselves. :shrug: And now, as a NP, not much is different. I have had one NP job and when I was negotiating this contract, I was, again, crystal clear about dates I will never be available for work or call. It was not a problem.

If I tried that upon my getting hired I'd be laughed at and told to have a nice day. One doctor I interviewed with told me, repeatedly, that there were 300 people that applied for that position and there was no shortage of good candidates, so doctors and managers have that mentality with us regular nurses. That same doc, when I mentioned I had a young child, immediately asked who would take care of him when he's sick because he had a previous employee miss too much time with sick kids. They don't want to hear you say that you'll be the one taking care of your sick child because, while dad could probably take a day off or my parents could watch him, sick babies just want mama.

It must be nice to tell employers when you will not work, and to get that much time off! The most I ever got was 2 weeks vacation and 10 sick days! And this isn't meant to be mean, just strictly envious.

I'm amazed that you're allowed to take vacation around Christmas, do you not have a holiday rotation? At my previous hospital, no vacation time was allowed in Nov or Dec at all, and we had a holiday rotation so we knew which holidays we'd be working. If you've already gotten the approval, I'd do whatever necessary to get that time though!

She'd rotate between taking the week before and the week after Christmas, so she technically wasn't "violating" company policy.

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