My wife (39F) has just put in her notice for medical scheduling call center in my area. She begins a new position in about 10 days doing the same job for a different company who's paying an extra $3/hr. The boss to whom she gave her notice was one of those who always loved changing policy on the fly to punish people for taking time off. When wife needed to take an hour for a doctor's appointment, the boss would use wife's PTO to cover. When she had to take time off to care for a sick kid, the boss would write her up for missing work, then use her PTO to cover the time. According to the boss, the company had a PTO borrowing policy that did not state it was to be paid back by the time someone left. Nowhere in the personnel policies does it state that an employee who owes PTO will have it garnished if leaving prior to paying back the time. The way the boss used it, she kept all her employees under her thumb by keeping them negative in their PTO – you need to leave early, using PTO; you need to take time off for family, borrow PTO; need to see a doctor for a personal issue, PTO; don't have PTO, work it off by staying late or skipping lunch. The boss would not give the employees the option of just taking an hour off their paycheck. This boss used all those nickels and dimes to remove every employees PTO to prevent them from taking extended time off. Whenever an employee would take extended time off, or just a day, there was always a write up about how it affected the company.
When boss would need time off, however, there was always a great excuse – getting a new cat, need to see a friend, have to get oil changed, etc. Well, wife decided to put notice into work, and boss threatened to withhold the hours she “owes” from her paycheck, despite her working through that time. Wife decided to call HR, and I suggested she use the keyword “retaliation” to get their attention. Turns out, the boss had it wrong the whole time – she thought a “purchased PTO” program was the same as borrowing PTO. This boss fumbled the whole mess and used her misunderstanding of the policy against all the employees to keep them working through their family's lives and important events. This boss singlehandedly became the one aspect of the job that kept people wanting to flee, but prevented them from doing so. In the end, that “borrowed” PTO was the PTO the company GAVE the employees, while the positive PTO was what the employee “purchased” with their hours of work. Then the boss said “Since you didn't give two weeks, you'll not be allowed back for a re-hire.” Like anyone would ever go back to that lady. Wife spent three years at that company, worked at least 12 Saturdays a year, skipped her lunch for months on end to make up for PTO, all so she could get threatened by the boss to cut her last paycheck in half for having the gall to find a better paying job. Boss should feel lucky wife even gave her notice. Good Riddance!