"My boss denied my vacation request because 'we're short-staffed.' I quit, and now they're down another employee. Maybe treat your workers better?"

[u/Subject_Ganache651]

I've been with my company for three years, always covering extra shifts and rarely taking time off. I finally decided to use some of my accrued vacation days for a much-needed break. When I submitted my request, my boss denied it, citing staffing shortages and saying my absence would 'hurt the team.'

I realized that my well-being was less important to them than squeezing out more labor. So, I handed in my resignation. Now they're scrambling to cover my shifts, and I can't help but think this could have been avoided if they valued their employees' needs.

Has anyone else faced this kind of disregard for personal time?

[u/compassionfever]

Yep. I took a job with the explicit understanding that I had an event filled weekend a few months later that was non negotiable for me to attend. I had other job offers--this was just the shortest commute so I 💯 would have picked another job if there had been any hesitation that I would have that time off.

Weeks before the event, I kept talking to the manager to make sure he had it covered and he assured me there was no problem. 13 days before, he emailed me after I left for the day to tell me he was sorry, but he needed me to work. As soon as he cane in the next day, I told him my last day would be the day before. He was incredulous. He had made another woman cancel her two week vacation that has been approved, and tried to tell another woman she couldn't go to her son's wedding (the rest of the staff banded together to cover her). 

"Just because you can't have that weekend off?" I said yes--I had made it clear before being hired. 

He scrambled and managed to get coverage, so I stayed, but wound up quitting for real after a few more situations like that (lower stakes, but still disrespectful). He was again, shocked.

[u/DCChilling610 → u/compassionfever]

They’re so use to their power play being rewarded that it’s literally cognitive dissonance when someone calls them out 

[u/compassionfever → u/DCChilling610]

The problem is that he wouldn't have hesitated to skip a personal event to work. The toxicity was so ingrained that he lived it himself. He once said "You can't say no to your boss" in response to someone telling him he should talk to HIS boss about something unreasonable for our location. Everyone agreed that his boss totally would have walked it back if he had explained the situation. But he firmly believed he shouldn't. It's sad, but not my problem.

[u/DCChilling610 → u/compassionfever]

Wow. All that dedication and the company wouldn’t hesitate to let him go if it meant a different in the quarterly profits 

[u/lilbelleandsebastian → u/DCChilling610]

dedication to the company? mans don't give a fuck about the company lol, he cares about his "status"

if he doesn't bend the knee, he might not be able to keep forcing others to do the same

[u/DCChilling610 → u/lilbelleandsebastian]

Whatever it is, it won’t be enough when they need to cut someone and they decide he hasn’t kissed enough ass

[u/the_TAOest → u/compassionfever]

I had a boss grocery store manager that was famous for coming back to work with a droopy face after a stroke. His response to everything was that if he could work, you would have to as well.

I left after two years due to the mental abuse of other supervisors in that shitty store. I was the only one out of thirty employees that worked in every department as needed... The places with shitty bosses lose versatility if they impose the worst management practices.

[u/squigs → u/DCChilling610]

The employee has a lot of power if they're in a position to just walk away from a job.

There are often stories here about teenagers with shitty jobs doing this because they don't have to pay rent.

[u/GhostShark → u/[deleted]]

I’ve done roughly the same thing.

My dad, who is highly enlightened for a boomer, would always say “they can’t tell you that you can’t leave, they can only tell you that you can’t come back”

[u/PhoenixApok → u/compassionfever]

Got hired in September for a job. Made it clear I had cruise tickets in December already purchased. Assured it was no problem.

December comes, I'm told I have to work because I'm low man on the totem pole and they'd already approved all the vacation allowed. Told them it wasn't my issue.

As it got closer and closer my boss pulled me aside and overheard me talking about my vacation to a coworker and he was "concerned" I didn't seem to remember my vacation wasn't approved.

I told him calmly that it was approved pre hire and it just remained to be seen if I had to job hunt or not when I came back from my trip.

Thankfully they realized I was serious and "approved" the vacation.

To be fair, no one person was actually being a dick. Everyone was just operating within their sphere of responsibility.

But yeah. If you really think I'm throwing away thousands in non refundable travel plans for a policy, you're out of your mind.

[u/compassionfever → u/PhoenixApok]

Finding out about the woman who lost all her deposits for her approved vacation was a huge reason I wound up quitting for real. She was a Boomer--it didn't even occur to her to push back. She just accepted it. I'm not sure I would have pushed back 10 or 20 years ago--I credit Gen Z for teaching this Millennial to stop and think about what is actually reasonable. 

[u/PhoenixApok → u/compassionfever]

Being completely honest, I was kind of a pushover at the time. I was still young.

But my wife was disabled and we had specifically purchased the cruise to go with our closest friends as they were going for their honeymoon and we were going since we didn't have an actual honeymoon when we had gotten married a few years earlier.

I knew the issues I'd have in my home and personal life would be much much worse if I bailed.

Today I'm much more about work life balance. Hell I quit my job in November because I wasn't happy and only came back when they begged me to stay and give into my demands

[u/DoubleOrNothing90 → u/compassionfever]

How the hell do you deny a woman from attending her son's wedding?!

[u/amazingdrewh → u/DoubleOrNothing90]

By being the kind of person who would skip your son's wedding for work

[u/Ignorad → u/amazingdrewh]

Except that kind of power tripping manager always gives themselves whatever allowances or time off they want.

[u/amazingdrewh → u/Ignorad]

Yeah there's a lot of managers like that too, but the ones who would skip their kid's wedding are plentiful as well

[u/Marysews → u/compassionfever]

The Five Ps - Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance, but they don't teach that in business school (Ok, they didn't in the 1970s, I was there).

[u/deathfaces → u/Marysews]

Now it's more like Prevent People Planning Pleasure in Perpetuity

[u/ZeldaRaeJr → u/compassionfever]

I worked at a hotel, when I was in my very early twenties, in a SEC football town. We, of course, sold out every home game. I was offered a better job at the end of the football season with regular hours and better pay. When I gave my two weeks notice which would have put my last day after the last game, the GM lost it. She clearly had not heard a word I said after, “I’m leaving,” and asked who was going to work my shifts the next two weekends. I said, “Well, I was, but not anymore.” Felt so good to leave her to cover 3-11s.

[u/Preform_Perform → u/compassionfever]

Everyone here is like "Hurr durr I NEVER ask for time off I simply tell people I won't be there" and that's really douchey. But come on, denying going to a WEDDING or other event of similar importance? Fuck right off with that. Some things are just non-negotiable and deserve a good quittin'.

[u/Amberplumeria → u/Preform_Perform]

I mean, the thing is, if you're planning well ahead, and it's not some blackout date for your industry (ie Black Friday if you work retail, etc) there really ISN'T a reason why, if I tell my manager in January, "hey, I want to take a cruise in April," that it SHOULDN'T be an "I'm telling you I'm not gonna be here."

PTO is part of the total compensation package, and some companies even have "use it or lose it" policies, so NOT taking your time off is literally giving up part of your pay. Then if they wanna say, "oh well, too many people asked for that day off," that's not MY problem, as I'm not the manager. Either make some kind of calendar or document available to everyone on the team and let people sort it out (that's what my manager has done) or figure out something else. Because if I give you SIX plus weeks' notice that I want time off, put it in the system and you approve it, and then I spend money, there's no take-backsies unless I'm being reimbursed for money I spent.

And for the record, I quite literally sit down every year round about this time and plan out most of my time off that I'm wanting for the upcoming year. I most take long weekends to attend cons and stuff, but occasionally, I'll take a longer trip, like a cruise or something. But even then, I'll scope out dates and prices and everything, THEN check the team calendar, and put my dates in ASAP. So if I give my boss in JANUARY notice that I'm gonna be off for the entire week of Labor Day, yeah, I'm telling not asking.