Banfield DVMs Against the PTO Expiration Policy

I have worked for banfield since 2011. I have seen so many steps forward in regards to work life balance and have referred 4 vets to banfield over the last 9 years based on the amazing benefits and work culture. The PTO expiration is a huge step backwards. At a time when banfield is recruiting vets and trying to retain its existing vets I would highly urge them to reconsider.

This just affected me this past year. I just had my first child this past October. I was saving up PTO during the year to have available to me, so I could spend more time with my son. I was never informed of the change when it first happened and my renewal date was in August. I used what I was going to lose prior to my renewal date to lose them, but I didn’t get to use it for additional time with my son. As a first time mom, I would have loved to stay home with him for longer because I typically do not get out on time and I only get to see him for 1-2 hours before he goes to bed. I would have also liked that time to be up to get better at a pumping routine before going back to work.

This policy has been very disruptive to normal hospital schedules as our doctors scramble to use PTO prior to their anniversary dates. The inability to appropriately save PTO for planned/needed absences for medical or family obligations that are not fully covered by other means is shameful.

I would have been upset if this was in affect when I was havjng my children. I was one who save my PTO for my maternity leave.

Agreed. Bad policy

I was so lucky to get pregnant before this went into effect! I was able to budget and plan to have 199 hrs at the time I went into leave. I think the best part of our generous PTO package is being able to plan vacations with my family. This new policy severely restricts me. I am praying for us to go back to just the general 200hr cap that can be used at any time!

I am working for Banfield from 9 years, I saw so many nice changes over years but this is really bad. I just went to India to see my family (Mid January is thanksgiving over there) my start date being January 1st week I lost all my PTO. Now I don’t have any PTO even for emergencies

My banked PTO was a life saver when I had my son to make sure I could spend quality time with him in those first sensitive months and allow me to re-integrate into my hospital at a pace that was not overwhelming to myself it my family. This was particularly important being a first time working mom and learning how to juggle my new and exciting responsibilities. If I had him now, with the current policy in place, it would have been extremely disengaging and not supportive of work-life balance.

I saved up PTO thinking I could use for maternity leave, however my short term disability leave took me to my anniversary date. Paid time off is supposed to be a benefit that we earn and should be able to use as we want when it benefits US most. Not the company. In the spirit of mutuality it is not very mutual when associates in some states get to keep their PTO and use when they want due to state laws. They dont have to worry about trying to plan pregnancy and birth around work anniversary dates.

Like to take PTO when I need to me and family rather than expiration date

When I was hired in 2011, the amount of PTO that Banfield offered is part of what set the company apart from others. After I had my daughter, I became a promoter as this was literally the only clinic job in the country that could fund my entire maternity leave. (With days that I had earned and was entitled to, not gifted). I became a fierce promoter of Banfield to working moms or students who were going to be moms someday. Apart from the struggles that I will have personally to schedule unaccumulated pto appropriately to not lose any time, or if there are future pregnancies, this company doesn’t have to PTO policy as a leg up over other practices. This was not a smart move to “aligned with industry standards” since Banfield has been trying to be the “employer of choice.” Banfield has taken multiple steps forward in promoting wellness and to being a desired place of employment which has been awesome. I’ve been proud to have that kind of employer. I’m not sure losing PTO is enough to set us apart any longer. I also echo sentiments of mutuality—California employees can continue to utilize their PTO as they please and don’t have to worry about loss.

I'm lucky my son is due 3 months before my anniversary date this year as I would have lost a lot of paid time off that I had been accruing in order to pay for my leave. I like the cap in hours at 200 hours because it does force us to take a break and take time for ourselves, but the sudden loss of 120 hours if you dont use it by your anniversary date is not what I agreed to when I started. I will never have the bank of hours I need during the time of year I would appreciate it given I was hired at the start of summer. My other associates also have to use the rest of their hours if they didnt plan right before the holidays putting a strain on my team when I have fewer hours to give them if I have a doctor out for weeks on end so they use their benefit. With recent weather issues in our market, we've had really low census days and one of those doctors who just lost 40 hours of PTO on her anniversary then had a family emergency while on her scheduled vacation so had to extend her leave and use the rest of her pto. That meant she didnt have any remaining hours to cover the time our hospital closed due to weather or didnt have the pets for her to see. She will always be at risk of this issue every year because of her anniversary date.

When looking at mutuality, there is no mutuality when some doctors get paid for lost PTO and others do not. It is not mutual to have some doctors with 5 weeks of before major holidays while others have 2 weeks. The policy needs to uniform across the practice for the mutuality and freedom principles to be met.

While I applaud the company’s efforts to improve the health and well being of their doctors and teams, I’ve seen the new pto policy negatively affect more doctors than benefit. Especially the moms.

I support this. Although it doesn’t effect me so much now, when I needed maternity leave, I needed the hours I had built up over two years to spend bonding with me child. I would be so angry if that was the policy when I needed that time. It’s our time, we earned it. It shouldn’t be randomly taken from us on a random time frame.

This affects family planning significantly!!!

This new PTO policy has been personally detrimental, and it seems completely inappropriate to take away PTO hours that have been accrued through labor performed.

My due date is june 1st and my anniversary date is june 14th. This means most of my maternity leave is going to be unpaid. This puts extra stress on this time off that I am supposed to be bonding with my baby. Also in the future it means having limited hours going into the summer months. This is when we would want to take family vacations when the kids are off school. I work hard and im greatful for the amount of time off we get, but I would much prefer to use it when its beneficial for me.

It’s difficult to plan as to not lose any earned PTO & in a state where I don’t get compensated for the lost PTO like other states with other labor laws (ie California) I don’t feel this is very mutual. All the Drs in my hospital have start dates very close to each other it makes it hard to cover the hospital need in the busy summer and get in our PTO.

I am going on maternity leave in 1 month and will have a whole month out of work with no pay due to this new PTO policy. In addition, many of us were hired right after graduation in the month of May and June, meaning a lot of people need time off at the same time, inconveniently right before summer when parents like to take time off with their children. I do not think this policy is mutual nor does it truley benefit Banfield employees.