PTO Days

There are many who are familiar with the expression PTO. Paid Time Off is magic to many working people's ears as it allows them to escape their jobs and take a vacation. Or if one is sick, one can call in to the job and tell of whatever illness they are suffering with knowing they will be paid while they languish and recuperate from what ails them. My job moved my department from the Wall Street area of NYC to Jersey City, NJ and many of my department were none to happy. This has manifested in many not showing up for work for numerous days. We have been at the new location for about eight weeks and about 60% of my department's workers have not completed a full week of work. Many of the absences are unscheduled, and the amount per my group is massive and exemplifies the dissatisfaction with the move from NYC to NJ. Before we left New York it was obvious many of my department had used most of their PTO, as it is a normally weird practice to abuse the system of PTO days, and many had done so before it actually accrued. The company for which we worked has always forwarded the time to the workers as a sign of good faith, and of course doing so knowing it would be easy to recoup whatever money was extended via PTO when the person left the employ of our job from the last check of said employee.

What is shocking is the rate that days are being used via PTO in our new facility. It is as if people do not want to be here, and are therefore risking being looked upon like irresponsible employees. And this is happening from the managerial level all the way down to temporary employees. But what is baffling is that they all need their jobs. No one is independently rich (to my knowledge) and works to appease some work demon they have inside themselves. So it is astounding that the manifestation of not wanting to be someplace acts out in taking unscheduled days that may not be paid for because of over extension of the usage of PTO.

It is certain that the vibe is different when going to work. When working on Wall Street one knew that though the job was not creative nor paid well, when one stepped out of the office one could find a vibrancy from the neighborhood in which the job was located. There may be a concert of major stars just blocks away in Battery Park. We have all seen, with our office views of the Statue of Liberty, concerts directly across the street with such performances from Janet Jackson, James Brown, Black Eyed Peas, Wyclef Jean, Nora Jones, Mos Def, Robert DeNiro, to name a few. And now, what do we get? Jersey. So, people are not happy as the neighborhood in which the job is located, while it is a neighborhood consisting of skyscapers on par with the ones left on Wall Street, does not have even a percentage of the vibrancy that was in the neighborhood of Wall Street. The place becomes deserted come five o'clock and literally tumbleweeds could roll down the avenue without bumping into anything. It is so desolate, but with the monstrosity that is the skyscrapers in the area, it looks like a vacant set of a very big budgeted blockbuster movie in a metropolis.

Having said the above, it is understood why people would be disillusioned about the job and what it once offered in terms of outside entertainment, but one thing is certain, bills still have to be paid. So, yes it is understood that there is an adjustment period, but for 60% of the staff to have had an unscheduled absence at least once a week for all the weeks we have been in New Jersey, and many to do so when their PTO has already been exhausted and therefore will not get paid for the days absent, is beyond incomprehensible.

But then, those are the types of people I work with. They are inexplicable in their actions.