I've been currently working at a LTC facility since mid-January 2016. We are quite short-staffed. My boyfriend and I are wanting to go to Cancun in July. I plan on putting in my vacation request this week. My facility has been known to be stingy on accepting time-off requests... and I'm kind of worried. What if I've already paid for my vacation, and they decline my request?
Those people are wasting their lives in a fairly meaningless grind.
Work to live. Don't live to work.
Or some can be working to get free air conditioning...at least I am...
I work less fall-late spring, then I add hours during the summer months-keeps my bills low and I make more money; not a grind when one is staying inside in the cool air.
I vacation in the fall; less people and the right temperature to enjoy attractions and cultural events.
If the OP had these plans made at the time of hire then this should have been negotiated at the time of hire not after 4 months working in a short staffed facility. OP's statement sounds like this was a recent spontaneous plan not a plan for months.
It is not the OP's job to staff the facility appropriately. Nurses should be able to use their time off without consequence. If nurses have to forgo vacations to keep a poorly run unit staffed, that is a management problem.
Where I work, if you don't have the time saved in your "bank" when you put the request in, you don't get the time off. And it doesn't matter if you will have the time saved up by the time of the vacation.
That stinks, considering you have to ask for days off so far in advance. It would be different if it were like an office job where you can get approval for a vaca day in 2 weeks.
Or some can be working to get free air conditioning...at least I am...
I work less fall-late spring, then I add hours during the summer months-keeps my bills low and I make more money; not a grind when one is staying inside in the cool air.
I vacation in the fall; less people and the right temperature to enjoy attractions and cultural events.
I agree. I find fall and spring to be less busy. Fewer people take vacations in April and October but the weather is still nice in some other part of the world.
I am a PRN employee, but all my FT and PT counterparts in LTC/SNF put in vacation requests, and they are almost always denied. They don't approve more than 6 weeks out, so they never know if it will get denied until right before the days requested. I am told it is standard operating procedure in this setting. In the hospitals I worked in, myself and my coworkers rarely had an issue with PTO.
And on an unfortunate note, my coworkers in LTC cannot roll over their vacation at the end of the year and the company does not buy it back, so they almost always lose it.
That stinks too. Does management take less than 6 weeks to plan for, say, an international trip? Get approval and then plan that hike up Kilimanjaro a month from then? My husband and I have travelled internationally and required months of planning. So have my parents and in-laws.
Use it ir lose it policies for PTO are a recipe for conveniently timed sick calls before that clock runs out too. Heck no is any facility going to get MY bennies. PTO is earned, therefore it is mine.
It is not the OP's job to staff the facility appropriately. Nurses should be able to use their time off without consequence. If nurses have to forgo vacations to keep a poorly run unit staffed, that is a management problem.
And if half of the nursing staff all want the same week off?
At every place I have worked there have been restrictions on the number of nurses that can take PTO in any given week.
Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
It is not the OP's job to staff the facility appropriately. Nurses should be able to use their time off without consequence. If nurses have to forgo vacations to keep a poorly run unit staffed, that is a management problem.
She isn't entitled to paid time off yet as a newer employee. An unpaid leave is rarely an entitlement and times not granted unless pre planned vacation at time of hire. If she had been there long enough to qualify for PTO benefits it might be different.
I wanna make a few things clear. I have NOT paid for my vacation yet, so dw :)
Also, I read the facility's policy, and it said that one LPN and one RN can go on vacation as long as no other LPN/RN are gone the same time. I msg'd my coworkers to make sure no other vacay overlapped.
I understand I haven't accumulated enough vacation pay or what not, so I sent the request as a *unpaid* leave of absense (if that makes any difference).
Also, I asked the RN who has been working there 5+ years and he told me 3 months is a good enough time of notice from reading the comments, that varies from a lot of places! He actually told me, "tell them that you already paid for your trip, and as long as you made sure with the other LPNs, she should let you go" I'm going for only one week anyway.
Anyway, thanks a bunch everyone for replying!
I have worked in many facilities. Never saw a policy that allowed for an unpaid leave of absence to take a vacation. That's not what LOA's are for.
You need to earn your vacation time... before you can take a vacation.
I hope the OP will come back and tell us how it all worked out in the end, whether the time was approved as a LOA but unpaid, or denied. I have seen many different policies in many different places, but the one common theme was that you could not take time off unless you had benefit time to cover it. If you didn't have enough vacation time then you couldn't take the time, it was really that simple.
I guess you could think of it this way, from the company's perspective. If an employee who doesn't need the paycheck but works there to keep up skills or whatever decides she wants to take off two weeks every six weeks then I think the facility would have to say No, you don't have the time accrued so you can't take it off. It isn't a PRN job, right? So the OP should expect that if they want to be very nice about it (this once!) then fine, she'll get the unpaid time off approved. But I wouldn't count on it happening again!
My husband and I have travelled internationally and required months of planning. So have my parents and in-laws. 
PancakeSaturdays
109 Posts
Oh good! Sounds like all is well and like you've got your bases covered.
After reading all of the responses, it sounds like you're in a fortunate position with how things are going to work out.
Enjoy Cancun! :)
- Tricia