During my orientation period at a new job, management explained that we have paid holidays off, BUT the hours for that paid holiday come out of our PTO. This is mandatory and you can't opt in or out. I accrue about 4.5 hours of PTO per week and I work 10 hour shifts, meaning that on Thanksgiving (for which we get two days off), the PTO it took me 4 weeks to accrue will be used automatically. Then the same thing for Christmas and New Year's day, another 20 hours of PTO used.
How can they call it a paid holiday if MY PTO is paying for it??? My previous employer who offered paid holidays would just add in the equivalent of a full shift (8 hours or so) into the paycheck without touching PTO. This is mind blowing to me because it was pitched as this huge perk and it's just … not? Is this common practice?