10/23/2026
Starting around now, the vacation board in a lot of plant offices starts to look like this.
Six people on second shift still have PTO that runs out Dec. 31. All six asked for the week of Christmas. Second shift has fourteen people, and the line needs nine to run.
Nobody's being unreasonable. They earned the time, and the policy says use it or lose it. But somebody has to tell two of them no, and the later that call comes, the worse it lands.
Worth doing this week: pull PTO balances for everybody, see who's sitting on more than a week, and post a request deadline on the board, with first-come or seniority decided before the requests pile up.
If your PTO balances live in one spreadsheet and the schedule lives on a whiteboard, that's the gap we close for shops your size:
https://axiomhrs.com/outsource-hr-and-payroll/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=thu-dec-pto-board
Human Resource Solutions