#PTO #TimeOff #EmployeeRights #WorkLifeBalance #OfficeCulture
Hey there! It sounds like you’re dealing with a tricky situation at work. It can be tough to navigate these kinds of conversations with your boss, especially when you have a good relationship with them outside of the office. But it’s important to address your concerns and make sure your rights as an employee are being respected. Let’s talk about how you can approach this issue with your boss in a respectful and constructive way.
Understanding PTO Policies
First off, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of your company’s PTO policies. Different companies have different rules and expectations when it comes to taking time off. Some may require employees to “make up” missed hours, while others may not. It’s crucial to familiarize yourself with your company’s specific guidelines regarding PTO and how it should be managed.
Evaluate Your PTO Usage
Take a look at your PTO history and assess whether you’re using it responsibly. Are you taking an excessive amount of unscheduled time off? Or are you using your PTO within the boundaries set by your company? It’s essential to have a clear picture of your own PTO usage before addressing this issue with your boss.
Communicate Your Concerns
When you’ve gathered all the necessary information, it’s time to have a conversation with your boss. Approach the discussion from a place of understanding and mutual respect. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when communicating your concerns:
Express your appreciation for your boss and the positive working relationship you have.
Share your understanding of the importance of maintaining productivity and meeting work commitments.
Explain how the current approach to “making up” PTO time is impacting your work-life balance and overall well-being.
Propose potential solutions or compromises that could address your boss’s concerns while respecting your rights as an employee.
Seeking Compromise
It’s possible that your boss may not be aware of the impact their requests are having on you and other employees. By opening up a dialogue and seeking compromise, you may be able to find a solution that works for both parties. Here are a few potential compromises that you could suggest:
Offering to make up the missed hours at a time that is convenient for both you and your boss, such as staying late or coming in early on a different day.
Suggesting alternative ways to maintain productivity, such as working from home or completing tasks remotely if the nature of your work allows for it.
Exploring the option of using a different type of leave, such as unpaid time off, for unforeseen circumstances that may arise.
Seeking HR Support
If your initial conversation with your boss doesn’t lead to a resolution, it may be necessary to seek support from your HR department. HR professionals are trained to handle these types of workplace conflicts and can provide guidance on how to navigate the situation further. Be sure to approach HR with a clear understanding of your company’s policies and a specific outline of the issue you’re facing.
Remember, it’s crucial to approach this situation with the goal of finding a solution that works for both you and your boss. By addressing your concerns in a respectful manner and seeking compromise, you can navigate this challenging situation while maintaining a positive working relationship with your boss.
In conclusion, addressing the issue of “making up” PTO with your boss can be delicate, but it’s essential to ensure your rights as an employee are being respected. By understanding your company’s PTO policies, evaluating your own PTO usage, and communicating your concerns in a constructive manner, you can work towards finding a resolution that works for both parties. If necessary, don’t hesitate to seek support from HR to further address the issue. Ultimately, open and respectful communication is key to navigating this challenging situation while maintaining a positive working relationship with your boss. Good luck! 🌟
Key takeaways:
– Understand your company’s PTO policies before addressing the issue with your boss.
– Evaluate your own PTO usage to have a clear understanding of your position.
– Communicate your concerns to your boss in a respectful and constructive manner.
– Seek compromise and propose potential solutions to address the issue.
– If necessary, seek support from HR to further address the situation.
You aren’t in the wrong. Tell him that you only “make up” comp time. This was not comp time, it was PTO. If he would like to make comp time available in addition to PTO, you’d love to have the option, but you will continue taking PTO as true time off and not comp time.
I have no idea what industry you’re in, but PTO means paid time off. It means that you are not working, and you’re getting paid for it. It does not mean “DTO” (a term I just made up) Deferred Time Off, where your boss gives you off for the day and you get a paycheck but then must work those hours for free at a later time.
I’m struggling to come up with a situation where your boss’s ask is reasonable. Only thing I could possibly think of is if you work on deadlines/contracts from clients and you’re taking PTO in the middle of a contract and you or the team is falling behind. Even then, I mean, idk.
>How can I talk to him about this without causing friction?
Congrats for being one of the few people on this sub willing to communicate like an adult instead of immediately burning it all down.
“Thanks for the offer but i prefer to just use up the PTO.”
Keep it simple, it’s your time and you should approach the issue accordingly. If he wants to push it make him explain why using PTO (which includes sick days) isn’t supposed to be used as such?
Why do you think that your boss is your friend? He socializes with your just so you have a soft spot for him when he asks you to perform extra work.
You don’t make up paid time off, without them, paying for the current time you’re working, that’s a labor violation and an easy lawsuit for most law school students, if you have friends that might be in college, I would start networking with them or start messaging, local law firms, looking for someone that will take it pro bono
It sounds like you have a decent relationship with this manager and would like to preserve it. So let’s start with the reality that his ask is totally unreasonable, which you know. Surely he also knows that this is not how PTO works, so it’s a little weird.
If it were me, I’d go to him and say, “hey, Greg, can we talk about the PTO thing for a minute? I’m confused because my understanding of PTO is that it’s time I can take off and doesn’t need to be made up. If you need me to make it up later, that’s comp time. Do we have a comp time policy? I wasn’t aware that we did when I started here. Just want to make sure we’re both on the same page.” Or something like that. You can open the “this is inappropriate” conversation without destroying the relationship.
You’re not wrong, but it could be that your boss is trying to make sure that you don’t go down the rabbit hole and exhaust your PTO and end up losing money on future paychecks?
My HR lady keeps me informed when my paycheck is going to be short
Salary or hourly?
I guess either way, is the deeper request that if you take PTO, your deliverables don’t fall behind? I.e. if you have a report due Thursday, you either reprioritize, buckle down (more focused working effort) or delegate to mitigate impact?
I guess the question is he actually asking for the hours to be put in off the clock? Or the effort to be increased if needed to make things stay on track?
If it’s the former, he can go get wrecked. Professionally at least.
If it’s the later, that’s not an unreasonable ask, especially if salary – typically those positions are paid more based on productivity/results not hours. With that in mind, every week I leave about a 10-20% buffer in my planned work because inevitably schedule changes and workload changes will fill that gap (and usually then some if I let it).
My boss does something kinda similar. I work a four 10 hr day schedule.
But he says he is merely offering to let me work another day to avoid using PTO. Save that for when you really need it.
I mean, it kinda makes sense, but also kinda seems shady a little.
Next worst is asking who you’re going to hand your work off to for planned PTO.
1. That’s you’re job.
2. No one, because you staff projects with a single person so no one can come up to speed and make progress in a week along with maintaining their own responsibilities.
Hey, boss… This PTO is Paid Time Off which means that the company has an agreement with me to allow me to delay payment of a portion of my wage such that I am able to take a few days off work without impacting my pay check.
Those hours are already paid for. They aren’t comp time or flex time which needs to be made up, they’re delayed wages which are owed to me in exchange for working the years here, and that deal is a retention tool as well because the amount I get increases with the number of years I’ve been here.
There’s nothing to “make up” here as these are delayed wages I’ve already done the work to have available to me.
Tell him what PTO stands for, specifically the O. Then say that if you’re required to make up the time you took off then once it’s made up you should be able to re-bank the time you used back into your PTO
My last boss made us take PTO for working remote. It wasn’t required, but “strongly encouraged”. I refused, twice, and bam: 11 months in, terminated for “not being a good fit”.
Or say you’d love to make it up at overtime pay.
You see this is actually really easy, what I would do is just simply tell him to go fuck himself.