I unfortunately don't think you'll get anywhere.
I am curious, when you joined, you never at any point asked how much PTO you get per year? I also thought everyone is given a learning module that contained info on PTO.
I do recall a "how to request time off" module but the info it contained focused on which computer application to use to submit time off requests, it was purely about the "how to" once you have decided to take time off. I don't remember it mentioning whether I can take time off, how often I can do that, PTO accrue rates, the yearly cap, do the unused hours roll over to the following fiscal year, what happens to your PTO if you don't take time off, can you cash them out, and other similarly important topics. Since I joined, I've asked my manager at least twice about PTO and each time I was just told that "you accrue at different rates according to hours worked per week, years of experience, etc etc", and the conversation just ends there. He did not mention at any time that there was a cap, and that I will stop accruing once I reached that cap. I found out about the cap entirely on my own two months ago quite by accident when I had some down time to randomly browse the HR website. I came upon a section of articles on PTO, went through all the links, found a table that explained how PTO is accrued, calculated my own accrue rate, and figured out myself that I will reach the cap in less than two months if I don't ask for some time off soon. But they had put me on the PIP at that time, so I figured asking for time off at that juncture is like asking for trouble and is pretty much out of the question. But as soon as I was off the PIP, I tried resuming the inquiry on PTO and how to take time off for Christmas so my fiancé and I can take turns to drive 7 hours back home together to visit our families for the first time in a year and a half (and to update them on my pregnancy), but again, my inquiry went nowhere. I was in fact told by my manager that it was too late to request ANY time off since it was already mid-December, and that time off requests are finished with for this year. He said if I want time off, I would have to wait until January 1st to put in a time-off request for next year when time off request submissions are open again. One of my technicians urged me to ignore what he told me, and encouraged me to talk directly to my scheduler. As soon as I contacted the scheduler, I was told we were overstaffed this month and that finding coverage for me for Christmas is actually easy. Two days after I talked to the scheduler, I was granted to use 4 of my PTO days and received 9 consecutive days off work as a result.
So five days after talking to the scheduler, I started my Christmas break. I can now accrue again, but I lost out on about 4.286 PTO hours. I have my tech to thank, otherwise I am sure it would have turned out worse. I just don't understand the vague and mixed messages on what should have been a simple matter. I even asked my manager whether I could cash out my PTO hours before I hit my cap since I am not allowed to use them, and he ignored me. When I was finally granted time off, it was too last minute for my fiancé to ask for time off from his workplace. So now we are both stuck here for the winter and can't go home to see our families for Christmas. I really should have asked for time off much earlier on, but the vibes I had gotten was that PTO is just not that interesting of a topic to discuss, especially with one's manager. I had better results talking to my technicians, which was surprising.
