Background:
I work in specialty healthcare at a company where we work in rotating on-site teams per week. Every single workday requires a minimum number of healthcare professionals to be on-site, while the rest can be WFH remotely counseling patients, handling requests, and other aspects of workflow.
The official policy is that holiday time (all of December + first week of January) is supposed to be a vacation blackout period, meaning restricted numbers of approved vacations (maximum 3 professionals approved off at a time). It is simply the nature of the job–you wouldn't want 0 doctors or nurses being available at a hospital because they ALL booked time off at a hospital for the same week, right? Or we cannot just have e.g. 1 person working because that person will be dying under the workload by themselves.
While Christmas week will be more manageable by sticking to the limit, it looks like New Years' week will be a shitshow with way too many people booked off for the entire week. Management had to have approved it, so the rest of us who didn't book time off will have to shoulder the higher workload with short staffing.
Since I'm WORKING Christmas week, I'm scheduled to be WFH that week and I do not at all want any rescheduling where they force me to come in to help. I know I am going to be tired and need the extra rest that WFH allows. They have done this before, and any time it is done, it is done without consent.
They know I don't have kids or some other dependents. But, I want to be able to professionally say I will not be able to accommodate ANY schedule changes, ahead of time. So, any advice on how to do this without looking like I'm “not a team player” and “just making weak excuses”?