Vacation?

[Nurse131382]

Does anyone else have issues with vacation time being approved when others are expected to be on maternity leave? I put a request in 5 months ago and since then 2 employees have started and will be taking maternity leave June/July/August and I requested a week in June off. Does anyone else struggle with this? What have you done to get the time off or have you just not taken it? Thanks

[canigraduate]

Make sure of your PTO policy. A lot of places have certain dates when you can submit requests. For example, you want off during August, you have to submit in February. If you sent your request too early, your manager has some ammunition.

Otherwise, I would tell her that you won't be there that week and that she'll need to find coverage. Or get herself a new punching bag, I mean, employee. Seriously, though, I would request a meeting with her and HR and go over your request, along with the fact that you wouldn't be covering any of the maternity leave shifts anyway.

It's not your problem that your manager is incompetent and can't find coverage for maternity leaves. Everywhere I have ever worked has had either float or agency cover when there have been multiple maternity leaves at the same time. One place I worked just gave up and hired another FTE and two PRNs. We had about 6 maternity leaves in an 8 month period.

[BeckyESRN]

3 years ago, my (now former) floor had 5 nurses go off for maternity leave in the same month! Vacations were still honored and all shifts were covered. Our vacations were set in January each year, for the entire year. Everyone got a least 1 week in "prime time" aka summer/holiday week. Up to 3 nurses could be off on the same week. If you didn't have the PTO or didn't want your vacation you could relinquish it and others could bid on it-it went by seniority. If there was a week that didn't have the max number of vacations scheduled, you could always sign up up until that schedule was being worked on, so about 4 weeks in advance.

What they are trying to do to you really sucks! Maternity leave and vacations are 2 separate issues and you should not be punished for that!

[Dikid]

Fake a pregnancy?

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[Jaykalkyn, BSN, RN]

Yeah, that is unfair, its like a punishment to you for not being pregnant and due during your vacation.

I would plead my case to the boss, then take it up the chain of command. If all else fails, I would call out sick that entire week. And if they tried to retaliate, I would pull out the "my health is none of your business" card.

[NotAllWhoWandeRN, ASN, RN]

Yeah, that is unfair, its like a punishment to you for not being pregnant and due during your vacation.

I would plead my case to the boss, then take it up the chain of command. If all else fails, I would call out sick that entire week. And if they tried to retaliate, I would pull out the "my health is none of your business" card.

I don't blame you for being upset about your vacation denial (as if you are singlehandedly responsible for ensuring the facility is well staffed), but be VERY careful with calling in sick after you've been denied a time off request. Some workplaces specifically penalize you for that because they've had people play games with them.

On the other hand, I've already had a request denied for a week in October/November. The basis is that I don't have enough PTO banked right now, which I understand in a way, but I'll accumulate twice as much PTO by then as I'm asking to use, and the scheduler ignored me when I asked about working with her about dates off and hours of PTO used. I have a friend visiting from another country, which is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I WILL quit this job and find another one of they are so stubborn they can't even give me a few days in a row off (PTO or no) for international shenanigans.

[twinsmom788]

Quit!