Vacation denied

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi everyone, 

My sister is getting married (she lives out of state), of course during a very coveted vacation time for our unit (4th of July weekend) and I am in her wedding.  I work weekend option nights and have only been with my hospital for a year.  Per our policy, because I am weekend option, I am not allowed to ask staff to switch days with me.  I emailed my manager and scheduler back in October that I needed to request the weekend after July 4 off.  They informed me that vacations for the unit are all requested/scheduled end of December-early January by seniority and that it would be highly unlikely that I would get those days as they are usually requested first.  They only allow 1-2 nurses off at a time depending on the week.   I have friends who work at the same hospital, but their unit schedules vacations/PTO throughout the year and as long as they request before the next schedule is being made and multiple poeple aren't taking vacation at the time, they are able to take vacations as needed. 

Today, the scheduler texted me that it was my turn to pick my vacation week and I told her the dates.  July is no longer available so I had to pick a different week.  

I'm contemplating calling out that weekend, but if there will be 1 or 2 people already out that week, I fear that I will be leaving the unit short-staffed, especially since it's hard enough to find people who want to work on the weekends as is.  I'd like to talk to my manager about it to ask if there are any exceptions or at the very least, give her a heads up that I won't be there so that they have enough time to staff accordingly but from what I've heard from listening to another coworker who started after me, they have denied her PTO request for her wedding and are giving her a very hard time about giving her the weekend she's requested.. for her own wedding!  I fear my manager will not be as sympathetic to my own situation. 

I have only called out once for work due to sickness and our policy states that 4 call outs/occurrences would be a write up.  I'm not sure if there are exceptions to this rule if they know I'm calling out during I time I had requested to be off.  By the time July comes around my one occurence will have fallen off, but I still fear I could either be written up or fired if they find out I called off and took vacation anyway.  I am genuinely  not trying to screw anyone over with this situation, but I also can't miss out on my sister's big day.

I would really love to hear from anyone who has ever been through this who could tell me about their own outcome, or have advice on how to talk to my manager.

 

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

That's a tough one. My recommendation is to ask your manager if they would be willing to make an exception to trade shifts with someone this one time in order to be in your sister's wedding. 
 

If they cannot/will not make an exception to allow you to trade shifts, you will need to decide if attending your sister's wedding takes priority over this job. 

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Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

PTO: Prepare The Others

You are entitled to your PTO, it is outrageous that in 2024 administration is out here denying people their hard earned right to time off. 

This is a special time for your sister and family, let your manager know that you will be unavailable to work that weekend in no uncertain terms. You provided them with advance warning 6+ months ahead of time. 

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klone said:

That's a tough one. My recommendation is to ask your manager if they would be willing to make an exception to trade shifts with someone this one time in order to be in your sister's wedding. 
 

If they cannot/will not make an exception to allow you to trade shifts, you will need to decide if attending your sister's wedding takes priority over this job. 

I absolutely love this job, but hate this situation.  I agree it will be worth it to at least talk to my manager to try to work something out for a one time swap.  

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Okami_CCRN said:

PTO: Prepare The Others

You are entitled to your PTO, it is outrageous that in 2024 administration is out here denying people their hard earned right to time off. 

This is a special time for your sister and family, let your manager know that you will be unavailable to work that weekend in no uncertain terms. You provided them with advance warning 6+ months ahead of time. 

I agree!  I didn't find out about how they scheduled vacations/PTO until the time I emailed in October.  I figured if I knew I needed off, I'd just make sure to give enough notice and all would be fine since this is how all of my other jobs worked.  That's on me for not inquiring about it when I was hired.  

I know I would sorely regret not being there for her on her big day, so missing it is not an option.  

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Specializes in Hem/onc Case Management.

PTO=PREPARE THE OTHERS, Tell your manager you will not be there that weekend as it's your sisters wedding and you are a part of it. You do not get to pick the dates someone chooses for their wedding, this is not an event you can re-schedule. If she can not find a way to accommodate you,  you will be calling-in. She can choose ahead of time to over staff or up staff for that call in aka prepare the others for your call in, in advance so you are not so short staffed that weekend if she/he is a good manager.

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SunnyOnMySide said:

I'm contemplating calling out that weekend, but if there will be 1 or 2 people already out that week, I fear that I will be leaving the unit short-staffed, especially since it's hard enough to find people who want to work on the weekends as is.

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Maybe it isn't as difficult as you think it is; after all they don't seem worried about the possibility that you could leave over dealings like this. They also aren't worried about being unprepared if you call in at the last minute.

No sense in being more worried about it than the people who are paid to figure it out.

They make their decisions, you make yours.

We each have ways we would go about handling this based on our own personal situations. If you don't have other decent options for work (should it come to that) then your options are more limited. For me, I would go to manager in a friendly way and say something along the lines of, "please [let's be reasonable], I can't be here and I'm not going to be here, can't we try to work something out?" You are limited in what you can offer since already working every weekend, but maybe you could work a holiday you usually wouldn't be required to work, or pick up some week days at their discretion. Show that you will compromise if they will. At least then one's conscience would be satisfied having tried to compromise and having given them ample time to arrange for the absence. 

I've never had this specific situation but in other scenarios I found that when directly having these conversations in a friendly and professional manner people tend to be more reasonable.

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Time to move on.The facility thinks they own you. You are not asking for much. What a joke that you cannot trade with coworkers.

Look for a new job. Make sure that weekend  off is included in the pre -employment agreement.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

One of the things I like about my employer is that we are allowed to self schedule our PTO. You have to do it well in advance but that's OK since things like weddings and anniversaries are often schedule months in advance any way. There is a book in the Supervisor's office and you just look to see if the dates are availabl. It they are you fill out a request for those days and give it to the supervisior who oks it on the spot. 

Hppy

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

Managers are absolutely dumb as tacks if they think they can deny pto for a wedding and still keep that employee or not have a callout. I definitely recommend discussing it. It's in July, that's a long way away. They can work this out now and they need to. You can't miss your sisters wedding. If they won't work with you on this, you have time to get another job. And if you don't want to do that, they 100% deserve the callout and it's the managers fault.

 

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Most important events in life are birth, wedding, and death. It's worth the fight. Ask your Manager what they would do in your situation. Hoping for some creative solution to come. 

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Specializes in Infusion, MedSurg, Hospice.

PTO equals Prepare The Others. Go to your sister's wedding. Don't let a job cause you to miss out on family experiences. It's not your fault they have a staffing issue. If they are very short, perhaps the managers should step in and work a shift (ha!). There will always be other nursing jobs and you could get a new one the next day. You should always prioritize yourself over a job. Because they will always prioritize the facility over you (your family, and your physical/mental health). 

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