How do they know that they’ll have a staffing shortage in six months? 

PTO can be such a contentious issue in already contentious workplaces. If your company is functioning well, an employee should be able to take off any days of the year they please with the paid time off they’ve earned. If they’ve earned a 2-week vacation and take it, the company should not be in utter disarray and on the verge of declaring bankruptcy by the time that employee returns. If that’s the case, they do not have enough employees, plain and simple. 

There are times when companies restrict PTO, and that’s understandable depending on the circumstances. You can’t have your entire team, or even any of your team, take off during the busiest season of the year, given your business has a «busiest season of the year.» Most companies have a busy season and a not-so-busy season, so hypothetically, it shouldn’t be a problem if multiple team members take off during the time of year when absolutely nothing is going on, and they can easily catch up on their work 

Some workplaces have a lot of work to do all the time, but they still need to let their employees take time off. If every season is the busy season, your employees will burn out if they have to work without taking their PTO. Imagine if your doctor worked 60-hour workweeks for a whole year and never took any time off. You’d probably rather have a well-rested doctor than him. 

The hospital employee in this story wanted to take time off for her sister’s wedding, but her employer wouldn’t even give her that.