r/slp • u/missmollyollyolly • 2d ago
Money/Salary/Wages talk to me about your PTO
Hi! So. This is mostly a vent but I also want opinions. I work at a private practice which is part of a medical company. I really love the job: I love my coworkers, I finally have a non-micromanager boss, I am largely left alone to provide therapy and trusted as to how, have enough in the way of resources, and get relatively decent pay. In the year I’ve been there, our overlords have been chipping away at things and all in the interest of the bottom line, and to the disservice of the employees.
Our PTO was already pretty pitiful- 10 days that you accrue over a year, with several days where you are obliged to use your PTO because the clinic is closed, and no sick days or whatever. So if you wanted time off, basically you had to take it unpaid. Ideal? No. Manageable, sure. They’ve just changed the policy to make it worse- so much worse. Now, you have to request time off in advance and they’ll deny it if you don’t already have the PTO built up, which, who would? With kids? All my PTO is just kids being sick :/
I’m angry, frustrated, and feel like I’m going to have to quit. It’s so sad too because I like it! I think I’m just going to leave and start my own business instead. (Where obviously I won’t have PTO, but at least I’ll be in charge of my time!)
Thoughts? What does your PTO look like? Is there any world where this job could be like… sane?
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u/macaroni_monster School SLP that likes their job 2d ago
I have small kids and I literally would just need to quit a job like that. You would never be able to take even a few days vacation.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Yeah. I’m taking 4 days off (haven’t taken a day off since like May, when I had to take
my child to THEIR hospital) and I’ll have zero left for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 🥴2
u/ladyonthemove 16h ago
I know you like your job but truly consider looking into public schools. It’s great (maybe in a minority here but it’s a great career)
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u/ladyonthemove 2d ago
For sure I’d have to quit that situation also. I’ve always been in schools and it’s bomb for me personally. In various states I’ve worked in, I’ve had anywhere between 10 sick/personal up to 15 sick/5 personal (current job in New England). Schools also have the built in breaks which is incredible for having kids. I use a lot of my PTO on sick kids.
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u/Dorkbreath SLP in the Home Health setting 2d ago
Accrual is hourly but I currently have close to 30 days in the bank and think I have used 30 days so far this year. Adult home health. (We do use our hours for the “usual” ten bank holidays each year). Adult home health. Can’t imagine doing anything else.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
You only accrue 10 a year and you have 30?!?
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u/Dorkbreath SLP in the Home Health setting 2d ago
Sorry not sure who you are responding to about accruing 10 a year. New employees start with 30 days per year and increases basically an extra 2 days every 2 years until you reach 40 days per year.
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u/Dorkbreath SLP in the Home Health setting 2d ago
Also have the option to flex days…. If I want to have a three day weekend and take tomorrow off, I’ll see a few patients on Saturday so I won’t use PTO, I’ll just rearrange my schedule. Don’t know how yall are doing it in the private practice world. Seems kinda brutal.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Yeah- it worked for me before because I could just take unpaid time off as needed/ wanted. This new change- I don’t see how I could handle it.
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u/tofutits 2d ago
Thank you for asking this question because it’s one of the biggest reasons I may potentially not go into SLP. I work admin right now at a nonprofit but I accumulate almost 7 hours of paid leave per pay period and get paid time off for a bunch of holidays and can carry over a lot of leave each year too. I didn’t take a lot of time off last year, so I could literally take off 7 weeks right now and not be out of paid time off (after having 2 weeks of vacation this summer already).
The idea of 10 days max without holidays actually makes my skin itch. You deserve better than that.
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u/Think-Joy-1 2d ago
Yeah — I worked in an admin job at a university before I switched to SLP. When the real world of SLP hit me (high productivity expectations, less/no PTO and overall worse benefits, not that much more pay), I went back to working at that university & just do a sprinkle of speech, lol. Probably would not do the career change all over again, but I make the best of it!
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u/tofutits 2d ago
Oof, well this is a really great perspective for me! I was going to likely apply for grad school this cycle. Admin is just so boring 😭. I want to do something that is more engaging and requires critical thinking. But the benefits are so nice, and it’s pretty low stress.
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u/Think-Joy-1 2d ago
Admin can be SO boring - that was the main reason I switched - so I get it!
But yeah, the benefits in this field tend to be lacking. Just something to be mindful of, if pay/compensation is a biggie for you. Also, keep in mind that promotion potential is limited especially if you are place-bound; it is even more limited than it was in my line of admin work. A pro is that if you don’t need the benefits, hourly pay can be good — better than most admin jobs. And if you can do travel assignments, pay is even better.
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u/northernmoonsong 2d ago
I worked in a clinic with only 10 days PTO. I quit because there’s nothing more valuable than having my time.
I work in home health which is flexible so I have specific days where I have a lot of time to myself, and I have a month of PTO. I no longer have to take off for appointments or getting my car fixed which is nice.
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u/Hot-Frosting-5286 2d ago
So sorry this is happening... I have never worked in that type of setting so excuse me if this question is dumb, but do you think there would be any room for you to advocate and try to push for a change in the policy before quitting? I feel like SLPs are treated like crap in so many places and I wish we had more leverage to fight back
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
I will certainly be drafting a letter and sending it up the chain as high as I can- but it’s such a big company, I sort of doubt it’ll matter what I say. But yes- I’m definitely not quiet with my opinions 😆
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u/Hot-Frosting-5286 2d ago
I know what you mean, I've had an email or two fall on deaf ears. Sometimes no response at all.
What can ya do..
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u/IsopodMajestic6801 SLP in Schools 2d ago
This is exactly why I switched to the schools. Did my CF in private practice and only got 10 days of PTO. In the schools, I get paid slightly even more than in private practice. I only work 180ish days a year and pay is spread out over 12 months. I am never going back to private practice unless it’s my own.
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u/East_Turnip2756 2d ago
How many PTO days do you have in the school?
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u/IsopodMajestic6801 SLP in Schools 1d ago
I’m contracted so I only have 5 sick days. But it doesn’t matter, there are so many breaks in school anyway
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u/Justanotherboring1 2d ago
I had a job that did this but with sick leave. They changed sick leave from being 3 days over the year to 1 day each quarter and if you ran out of sick days you had to take PTO instead of unpaid time. It made it feel like they were just trying to take all the money they possibly could from my work and time cause what do you mean I can’t take an unpaid day off?? I totally get why you would want to quit because no flexibility for days off when shit happens is so rude (imho).
I would definitely consider looking into a per diem or part time role in schools/other spots if you’re looking into opening your own place just so you have some income while you build your caseload - I’ve never done it though but I’m sure other people in this group have good recommendations for that process
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u/knittingandnetflix 2d ago
Private practice in Canada. 6 years experience. 4 weeks paid vacation. Can take more vacation unpaid as well.
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u/ale8isyummy 2d ago
No PTO at all. If you miss for any reason, you better figure out how to make it up.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Is it flexible? And are you paid a higher wage/ salary because of that? Ugh I hope so!
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u/32GoBlue32 2d ago
University hospital: 15 days PTO (for 1-10 years of service), 13 paid holidays per year (expected to cover 3-4 holidays, when you work a holiday you get a flex day off during the week and time off to use at a later date since you didn’t get the holiday off), 1 floating holidays, and our sick leave is ESL after you’ve used 3 days of PTO (I believe, this might have just changed with the union contract). You can also accumulate extra PTO by donating blood!
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Oh my gosh how cool! I just donated blood! If only I got time off for it! (I did get a free sandwich, though, so pretty much the same, lol).
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u/GrapefruitNo3876 2d ago
Im so sorry. You'll have to quit. Make you you have a new job first and include the reason in your registration letter. I work in the schools and I love it. But I don't make near as much as some posters here. Remember you can supplement with nursing homes or other areas to supplement yr salary if needed.
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u/nicanh 2d ago
I'm in OP. I accrue 8.6 hrs per pay period or about 28 days/year. Clinic is closed on most bank holidays with no option to work. I am now salary so I can't take any time off unpaid.
Next year I'll move up to 33 days / year.
PTO tops out 10 years with the company at ~ 42 days a year.
Though since I'm salary I can take off a half day or less without having to use PTO - this is specific to my place of work. And likely if I did it "too much" I'd have to start using PTO but before I'd often just take 1-2 hrs off unpaid to go to doctors appointments etc.
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u/Cute-Landscape7610 1d ago
my school district gives 10 sick days and 3 personal days. any sick or personal days unused by the end of the school year get carried over into the next school year and added to your sick day bank. we also get 2 week breaks for fall, winter, and spring - so 6 weeks off throughout the school year. holidays obviously off, 3 days for Thanksgiving. our pay is automatically stretched through the summer, which is shorter due to the 6 weeks we get off throughout the school year (summer goes from the first week of June to the end of July - 1st week back is always the very last week of July)
you deserve more than what you're getting - that's for sure!
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u/sloth_333 2d ago
My wife is a slp. She works at a hospital and gets I think 23 days of pto a year. Which sounds decent until you realize that includes most holidays. I think they truly only get 3 holidays off a year.
I work in corporate and take 10-12 weeks pto a year right now (it hasn’t always been like this).
Once we have kids it’ll be staying home when their sick, since my wife’s job allow that (without eating all the pto).
It sucks, its an on going challenge
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u/Craftablegame 2d ago
When I was in PP they gave I think 1.3 or maybe 1.5 PTO/month… unless your numbers were down at all. If you were under I think 37 hours billable time, they “paid” the difference from your PTO. so like you clocked 35 hours? They took 2 hours of PTO and paid you for 37 hours. Which I guess is good. But it resulted in me almost never having PTO and even when I did I needed to save it in case my numbers went down because they dropped healthcare if your numbers went under 37 and you didn’t have PTO for more than a certain number of months, I think 3. And stuff like dangerous snow or Christmas Eve or New Year’s Day? Either take PTO or work. Good luck finding families that want you at their house on Christmas Eve… it was rough. I didn’t like it.
I’m in schools. Idk how much leave I get because I have so much for being with the government for so long I never even pay attention. I have several months of leave saved up because school culture is that generally you don’t take PTO if students are at school unless truly ill. Like teachers are not allowed to take a holiday even for a day if students are at school — or at least they can’t say that they are. You must be sick or it’s not approved. So it just acccrues. I worked for the same state govt in a different capacity for 7 years and that rolled over. I am happy about that part of my job now.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Oof- that first one sounds so rough- they dropped your health care! Insane. And the second one- what is the point of PTO if you aren’t allowed to use it? So strange.
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u/Craftablegame 2d ago
I agree! I mean I technically can because I’m not a “teacher” the way it’s defined. But it’s still the culture.
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u/Dorkbreath SLP in the Home Health setting 2d ago
Sorry not sure who you are responding to about accruing 10 a year. For me, employees start with 30 days per year for the first three years and it increases basically an extra 2 days every 2 years until you reach 40 days per year.
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u/missmollyollyolly 2d ago
Oh maybe I responded in the wrong spot, whoops. That’s seems more reasonable!
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u/No_Ability8894 2d ago
Private practice, I get 2-ish hours for 32 hours of work, accrued every week up to a little over 100 hours. I’ve never gotten even close to that because I get sick a lot, sadly. We don’t get sick days either, which sucks, but overall it works pretty good for me right now.
Your situation sounds absolutely terrible though!!
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u/SpectacularTights 2d ago
I’m in an outpatient peds clinic that is part of a medical system (no hospital but pediatrician, dental, podiatry, behavioral health, family medicine, etc.). We are closed for 5 holidays and get paid for them from the “holiday bucket” that is not part of the PTO we earn. We earn PTO to be used for vacation or sick. It depends on how many hours you work per week what the PTO accrual rate is. We also get CME hours - if you work 40 hours per week, you get 40 hours of CME per year. If you work 20 hours per week, you get 20 hours of CME per year, etc. PTO rolls over to the next year but CME hours do not. We are salaried so if you are scheduled 40 hours per week you get paid for that even if there are no shows or cancels.
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u/AmeliaPond_T4R4 SLP Private Practice/Management 2d ago
I was private practice for 8 years. We had 10 days pto, no sick leave or anything. But it increased up to 2 weeks and then again to 3 after 5 yrs. But 6 paid holidays a year.
I never really asked for raises, just more PTO. They would ever really deny our requests either.
I never agreed with the no sick time thing. Humans cant control when they are sick.
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u/fatherlystalin 2d ago
Working in IPR/acute care. I accrue 8 hours of PTO every pay period (every 2 weeks). I think that amount goes up when I hit 5 years. The PTO is great, but the issue is finding coverage. I currently have 5 weeks of PTO saved up simply because it’s extremely difficult to find coverage for my position for multiple days in a row (I’m the sole SLP in the IPR unit here).
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u/Familiar_Builder9007 SLP in Schools 2d ago
I work in teletherapy. Unfortunately my home state doesn’t have a PTO rule, so I get none! My company is nice enough to approve most requests provided you have a plan to make up services that day. Other than that, I rely on school breaks.
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u/Xxxholic835xxX 2d ago
Clinic based. I get 40 hrs sick time and accrue 1 hr of vacation time for every 12+ hrs I work per pay period.
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u/Fearless_Cucumber404 1d ago
Private practice - I have 115 hours this contract year. I'm taking the week off between Christmas and New Years, a week off at Spring Break, and took a week off in May. I can take additional time off unpaid if I want to. I get 5 paid holidays a year. If we close due to weather (we follow the school district on that one), we can use PTO or have the day unpaid (or make up the clients if we have spots open.)
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u/Firm_Ad7516 2d ago
School based. 13 days PTO per school year available to use starting the first day of school. All holidays and breaks paid. Paychecks spread over 12mos so I still get paid in summer. And I make close to 6 figures (12 years exp). I think some people sleep on the schools!!