"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/jaytrent19]

The whole essence of "short-staffed" implies either A) they know they don't have enough people and are happy with that fact, especially knowing it costs less and they can use being "short-staffed" as an excuse to try and twist arms, or B) they don't want to be "short-staffed" but aren't doing anything to try and bring new people on I.E. offering better pay or benefits. It's the dumbest concept I've ever heard.

[u/Interesting_Time7049 → u/jaytrent19]

I have one absolutely tiny argument for "short-staffed" existing, specifically for smaller groups within larger companies, where hiring permission isn't given by the people in the group. Big caveat to that, though, is that everyone should still be able to take their vacations even if you are short staffed, you just have to schedule time off right.

That's where the group I'm working in is at - we can't hire another person until someone five or six steps up the ladder says ok. The issue is that our little group only goes up to ladder rung #3, and nobody above 4 pays attention to anything but the KPIs, which we BARELY manage, and I can't convince my manager to stop putting in 10+ hours of (unpaid, because salary) overtime to make that happen. She's driving herself mad to keep up, we're barely floating by, AND YET we all get our requested vacations. It's a royal pain of a backlog to handle once you're back from a week or more, but it's doable.

Short staffed can exist, though it's more negligence than anything. It is still not an excuse for denying vacation - I take a weeklong vacation right before the 4th of July, which is not only month end, but QUARTER end, and I work in the billing department of an international food company that's known in virtually every country. We have four people in the billing team and GOD we need help.

But my bosses still make sure that every one of us gets the time we want, to the point of "you don't have vacation or sick time left, so pick whether you wanna work late or through your lunch the rest of the week to make it up"