After one plus year of working for my current supervisor I submitted a one day PLT (Personal Leave Time) request and it was denied. Reason: she thought the person that backs me up might request the same day and that person had a deadline to use their PLT. Okay, whatever.
A month later I submitted another request, this time for one week at the end of September. A week later the request came back denied. Reason: she thought the person that backs me up would be busy (there is a monthly process that person runs blah blah blah). This time, not okay. If I don’t take at least two weeks by the end of September I will lose them. We work at a University and it is unheard of to take the first two weeks. But after the first two weeks things settle down in my department. The back-up works in a different area.
My supervisor thought the ideal thing to do would be to take a day here and a day there. I am not on board with that suggestion. I had planned to fly to the city where my father lives (in a nursing home) which is over a thousand miles from where I live. A day here, day there is not going to accomplish my goal.
I have only worked for this person one year but I have over 32 years of experience working for this employer and the maximum six weeks of vacation accrued each year.
I am not a lawyer but, if you get desperate enough, you MIGHT be able to use the Family Medical Leave act to overrule her denials. One of the covered circumstances is:
“to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent — but not a parent “in-law”) with a serious health condition”
You might have to bend the truth a bit but she will not be able to do anything about it if you submit the proper FMLA forms and say that you need to go visit your father to work out some details regarding his long-term care. The only problem is that FMLA is unpaid and I don’t know if you can get it paid if you the vacation time available.
You don’t ask your boss for PTO. You tell your boss you’re taking PTO. You are entitled to time off with reasonable notice. Tell your boss you already have vacation plans and you’re going.
Do you know the back-up person? If so, I would go to them first and explain your situation and see if they have a problem covering. If you then go back to your boss or HR, you can say “I already spoke to my back-up and made sure she can cover” it makes you look responsible and negates the boss’ reasons for the denial.
Taking a day here and there would certainly be ideal for your supervisor but it’s not something he or she can enforce.
Your back-up will always have things to do. If you can’t sit down and discuss this directly with your supervisor, I’d second going to HR. I work in a university too and things definitely settle down after the first two weeks of the fall semester.
Are you in an academic department and/or is your supervisor a member of the faculty? Faculty (and I speak as one) don’t always understand how jobs and PTO work.
I was also going to suggest FMLA. A parent in long-term care is a reasonable justification for FMLA leave and most doctors have no problem signing off on that. At my university, it requires that you burn through your paid leave before it switches to unpaid leave. In your case, it would accomplish exactly what you want. The only drawback is that you will lose two weeks of FMLA leave should another need arise.
Personally, I have a bigger problem with your first denial. At the time you requested leave, your backup had not made a request. Leave should be first come, first served, so you should have been approved. If the backup then made a request, she would be denied. It’s up to her to make requests in a timely manner before the hours expire. Plus, it was only one day. How much trouble could that possibly be even if both of you took it?
Your boss is not being fair at all with her leave policies. I would take this to HR. To keep things civil, approach it as a clarification of the leave approval policies. They should take it from there.
Most companies have a clause about "the needs of the department’’ can be used to denied vacation. If you tell your boss you are taking PTO he can say no. Working under a union contract I had my vacation time turned down several times because of timming.
IN this case it sound like the supervisor is abusing the needs of the department and the OP may be able to file a grievance and get his time off. I would talk to any union covering the work place or go to personal with this problem.
This happened to Mrs. Cad. I’m curious what the legal ramifications are for a company if they have to give you sick leave or vacation by law or terms of hire but repeatedly deny it and so you end up losing it. Wouldn’t they have to pay you for the time off they denied you or can they just never approve vacation?
Universities (and most large companies) generally pay out PTO when a person is on FMLA leave. So if a person needs to take a week’s leave due to FMLA, that will come out of the employee’s PTO “bank”.