My mom is 70, and has been a nurse for 50 years. Long story short, this lady climbed the ladder in my youth working 70+ hours a week at a home health care agency; making 6 figures but never being home for her family, only taking time for herself 2 times a year etc etc. (My mama is a damn saint and ill fight anyone who disagrees). She walked away from it all when we moved to small town USA 20 years ago. She was born and raised in this town and took on a job as the “shot lady” for our local health dept making $10/hr. In the 20 years we've been back she moved on and up the ladder again in the small hospital in our town. It's just who she is. Hard working, always goes above and beyond etc. That type of worker.
She's currently a behind the scenes nurse who manages scripts for 4 Dr at said hospital. She's ready to retire. And of course she's trying to make the transition easy for everyone.
She gave her boss 6 months notice. She also has ungodly amounts of PTO to use up or Uncle Sam is going to take a huge chunk. Her boss told her to put in her times she wants off and it's worked so far. (She's been taking a week or so every 2 weeks, it's been a nice transition for her).
They first asked her to wait until 2023… just because… and she said no.
Her and her best friend booked a trip to Cape Cod which happen to fall on a time she hadn't put in for PTO yet. So she puts in for that week. It falls rather close to her end date but no biggie right?
Her boss's boss told her “We may not be able to approve that time off because we will need you here to train your replacement.”
There are 3 other girls my mom has trained in the past year to do her job that are still working for them…
My mom was slightly defeated until I told her she needed to go in and tell them she's retiring effective immediately (paperwork is all done with corporate, no red tape, she just doesn't want to lose all that PTO) and watch their faces. Her 401k is great, her retirement is all set, she's gonna be fine financially, but she wanted to “be nice”.
We will see what she decides to do if they “cant” give her that time off…