PTO

Any advice?

Take more days off? Six days off with 40 hours scheduled immediately before and after sounds sucky, anyway. That's what people do when they don't have PTO.

Use more PTO. No way would I put up with losing that much PTO. At a minimum, figure out how long it takes you to accrue one day, and request one day for each period of accrual.

Yes, take more days off and during the same week.

I guess I don't understand what the problem to be solved is.

The whole point of PTO is that so you can take several days off in a row WITHOUT having to work your full shifts immediately before and/or after the days off. Are they denying you requested time off?

Yeah I'm not understanding the dilemma here...I pretty much take PTO days every month.

Use them before you lose them...

Can you donate any of it to a sick bank for staff with FMLA or other type issues?

Is there a reason why you can't take more time off? Take more than six days. I would never let my PTO go to waste. I would use every last day till I have no more.

180? Yikes! So glad I can accrue more. I think it stinks that your cap is so low, but it seems to be and easy problem to work around.

As others have said, plan you time so that you have to use hours. Take a calendar week off rather than taking parts of 2 weeks, so that way you are forced to use PTO. Try taking a day here and there to give yourself long weekends. If you are taking Wednesday through Monday off, add some days immediately before and after these days.

However you decide to do it, I don't think you should have to be forced into a situation where you lose PTO.

I am salaried and currently have zero PTO of any type.

What is the actual problem here? Use your paid time off and thank your lucky stars.

So at my job we have a PTO cap of 180 hours. After you hit 180 hours you cannot accrue anymore, so we lose out on 6-8 hours a pay period. I've called in once in the last 3 years. I do request days off from time to time for events and vacations. The problem I am running into is that even if I take off 6 days, say Wednesday through Monday, I am still unable to use my PTO because I am scheduled 40 hours or more prior to and immediately after those 6 days off. My facility does not cash out PTO unless a person is ceasing employment. To be able to use PTO I would have to take more consecutive days off or make sure that all requested days fall in the same week. On average, myself and the other nurses, are losing $150-200 a pay period due to the PTO cap and inability to use the PTO. Has anyone else run into this? Any advice?

When you are requesting days off, are you specifically requesting to take the day on PTO or just have the day off? If you are only requesting to have the day off, that's why they are still scheduling you for your full hours around those requested days off. I would specifically tell them you want to use your PTO on the specific dates you want off so that you aren't still working your normal full hours.

If this is a full time job and your PTO is expected to cover vacations as well as sick time, the cap sounds way too low. (Not that this fixes your current problem, but it's something to take up with your union or employer.) For reference, I accrue vacation and sick time separately (and they cannot be used interchangeably). The cap for vacation is 320 hours and the cap for sick time is 700! We don't get them paid out if we leave, so there's no reason not to take them. (With that said, I never call in sick...saving those for a rainy day.)