This happened at a previous employer. The boss was a good person and a decent boss. It was a large facility with twenty-four-hour staffing and high turnover. In any place with high turnover, you will inevitably hit a moment when the staffing level is critically low. The place really didn’t pay enough to be competitive but instead got most of their applicants because they were known to hire just about anyone.
I had been working overnights since I got hired and had just recently switched to mornings. The graveyard shift was predictably loose, and my special scheduling needs due to a partner who traveled a LOT for work had been handled without much fanfare or to-do, so I’d not used any paid time off (PTO) and there wasn’t a record of my specific scheduling needs.
The morning shift was, of course, much more rigid in scheduling, so when my partner’s work-travel schedule for the next few months was settled, I put in for PTO to cover the days they were gone so I could stay home with our kids.
There was a full month until the next trip, so I wasn’t too worried, but then it got denied.
I set time aside to talk to management about this, and to my surprise, I got shunted to the recently-hired new director of the facility.
Director: “I’m sorry, but we’re really short-staffed and are not approving any extra time off right now. I know it’s summer and everyone wants to go camping and fishing, but we can’t spare any hours until we hire and onboard more staff.”
Me: “I get that, but it is summer, and my kids are out of school, and my partner is traveling for work, so I’m not going to be in. It was kind of a courtesy of me to ‘request’ PTO; I won’t be in those days no matter what.”
Director: “Look, you’re going to have to make other arrangements. You can’t have the time, and if you don’t come in, you’ll be written up. I’m sure you don’t want to have that happen.”
Remember how I said they were known to hire anyone? This led to a lot of the management and executives in the organization looking down on the little guys like me and thinking we were all desperate to keep the job. This would be one of [Director]’s first wake-up calls, and I like to think it helped make her a good boss.
Me: “So… here’s the deal. If you don’t approve my use of this little bit of PTO, I’ll turn in my two weeks’ notice, and at the end, you’ll have to cash out the three and a half weeks of PTO that I’ve accrued. And you’ll still be down another staff person on those days. Or, you can approve it, and I’ll be here ready to go the following Monday, and you won’t have to replace me or pay out all my PTO right away. You don’t pay me enough to cover child care, and you need me a lot more than I need this job.”
Director: “Is that really how you want to do this?”
Me: “Yes, because I have been offered a job by almost every one of our partner agencies but have chosen to stay here. I want to stay here because this job is giving me skills that will look good on my CV in my future career. But if you don’t want to work with what my family requires, then I will find somewhere else that will — easily.”
Director: “Give me a day to consider it.”
Three hours later, I got an alert on our time clock and scheduling app that all of my PTO requests had been approved.
I never mentioned it again, and [Director] ended up being the best that facility ever had. One thing that set her apart was that she showed real respect for all the employees, and as a result, they all worked hard for her. Under her leadership, the turnover dropped by almost sixty percent even while the pay only increased to be on par with fast food.
The skills I gained there have continued to serve me, and in my application to grad school, I cited that job as being key to my development in my chosen career field.
