my company decided to close for 2 weeks last year — and charged me a chunk of this year’s PTO for it

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager .
A reader writes:
I have a question I’ve been curious about since it happened to me at the end of last year. My company decided that since a “large portion of the company” had not used their PTO, they were going to close the company for the last two weeks of the year. Anyone with PTO remaining would have those days deducted from their remaining 2022 balance, and anyone who had used up their PTO days would have it deducted from their 2023 balance. As a result of this action, I lost 12 PTO days for this year, 2023. This was announced in early November.
I have a family, and I usually take two weeks off a year plus random days as needed, so by the end of the year (and before this was announced) I’ve used my PTO. I’ve never minded working the week between Christmas and New Years because it’s usually slow and I work from home.
Is this a normal thing? I understand they did it as a book balancing act, but honestly, every time I think about the fact that I’m going to be working from the beach this summer while my family has a good time, I just want to walk out the door. I was ready to enter this year looking for a promotion and now even if they give it to me, I’m so annoyed I don’t know if I want it.
No, this is not normal and it’s a horrible practice and tremendously unfair.
There are some companies that close at the end of the year and require people to use PTO for it, but that’s something that’s announced well ahead of time — like when you’re first being hired — so that you can plan your PTO accordingly. This isn’t something you can spring on people in November, after they’ve already used all their PTO for the year (as you had) if it means you’re going to subtract it from their allotment for the following year. By doing that, they gave you absolutely no way to avoid the situation you’re in now, where you have significantly less time off available to you this year and no choice in the matter.
Frankly, it’s not great when companies make people use PTO when they’re closed even if everyone knows that’s the deal going in! It’s bad for people who need or want that time for other points in the year, and it’s not particularly inclusive (the week of Christmas isn’t necessarily desirable holiday time to the many, many people who don’t celebrate Christmas). But at least when people know that’s the system from the start, they can make decisions for themselves accordingly. Springing it on you in November is remarkably crappy.
And their reasoning is bad too — a large number of people hadn’t used their PTO yet? Well, maybe there’s a reason for that! Maybe they have people saving it for childcare or medical needs (in which case they truly screwed those people), or maybe you have a culture that discourages time off and they need to address that. And obviously their logic completely leaves out people like you, who had used up your time and now are going to suffer for what seems like the company’s whim.
Have you pointed any of this out to anyone in power there? If not, it’s worth trying especially if you can get some of your coworkers to push back with you.
But no, it’s not normal and it’s not acceptable.
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