So the owner of the restaurant I work at has been doing this thing in the last couple years where he closes for one week in order for management and back-of-house to get their annual week off without having to be short staffed (it’s a smaller, family-owned place). I took a two week trip in June and asked that my PTO be used while I was gone, to which he gave a tepid “ok, sure.” When I got back I saw these days were not added to my paycheck, and when asked about it he said he’d put it toward the week when we’re closed.
My thing is, isn’t PTO for employees to use at our discretion? Like, I didn’t choose to be off this week, this isn’t the same as me putting in a vacation request. If the owner closes their business for a week to go out of town, shouldn’t it be on them to pay us for the hours we’re missing rather than us paying ourselves with our own PTO? I don’t have a great understanding of this issue, but it feels like we’re being taken advantage of.