Boss Ignores Employee’s Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They’re Quitting

No one likes to change plans at the last moment – especially if it is related to something very pleasant, such as a long-awaited vacation. Imagine – you have already bought tickets, booked a hotel, you’re sitting and counting the days until the start of the holiday – and then everything changes!

And if it’s also connected with the suspicious forgetfulness of your boss, as happened with the Reddit user ImplyingVolatility, this is absolutely terrible. However, the Original Poster (OP) turned out to be brave and smart enough to outplay the boss.

More info: Reddit

A guy told Reddit how he asked for time off twice beforehand and his boss agreed twice

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: FTTUB (not the actual photo)

It worked so well that a story posted on the antiwork subreddit four days ago was upvoted more than 21k times and garnered 575 comments and counting.

So the OP has been planning his vacation for months. Of course, he told his boss in advance, and verbally got no objections. As time went on, the OP bought plane tickets, and decided, just in case, to check once again if everything was OK with the time off he wanted so much. The boss didn’t mind again. And so, when the desired vacation was already on the way, something unforeseen happened.

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

The tickets had been bought, but the boss suddenly canceled the time off

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

Suddenly, the boss claimed the application for time off dates did not go through the appropriate channels – which meant the employee formally did not have any right to leave. Like we said, tickets were already bought, the vacation was extremely important for family reasons – and everything was now threatened.

Reconcile and deal with that? No way! Actually, commentators immediately remembered another Reddit user who had to work even for his own honeymoon. But our hero was not like that. He had the heart to call the boss once more.

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

Since OP didn’t feel like he had much of a choice, he declared he would quit, which didn’t give much of a choice to the boss

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

So he called to face the boss with the fact that if there was no time off, the OP would have to just quit immediately. Oddly enough, in the boss’ words he could now hear not only anger, but also some notes of fear. Obviously the OP was a crucial part of the team and nobody wanted to lose him out of the blue.

The boss reminded him about two-week notice before leaving. It didn’t help – apparently the OP knew the two-week notice was not a federal law, but just a tradition, some kind of respect for the employer. But what kind of respect can we talk about if the boss did something like this?

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: David Grant (not the actual photo)

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

The boss gave up in ten minutes and finally approved the time off

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Image credits: u/ImplyingVolatility

In fact, the vacation was supposed to start in a week, so the OP just offered one week’s notice. The boss panicked even more and asked to clarify whether the OP would stay if he got his time off.

Having received a positive answer, the chief asked for some time to think about it, and after ten minutes, he called back. Now there were absolutely no problems with the time off.

We do think apparently some problems await the boss himself as, after all, the OP not only understood how incompetent his boss was, but also appreciated his own importance to the company. The OP also realized he wasn’t ready to work with a colleague who could frame him at any moment and it would be worth starting to look for another job.

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

Folks had a lot to say on the topic – everything from what to do next to comments of support

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

The original poster is not alone with his situation

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

It’s interesting there were a lot of similar examples in the comments – especially in family businesses, where even parents sometimes turned out to be this kind of a boss. People noted that family leave is a real thing and any employer denying this is going to get absolutely crushed in court.

Boss Ignores Employee's Time Off Request After Approving It Twice, Changes His Mind After The Employee Says They're Quitting

And, of course, almost everybody supported the OP in his desire to find another company with a less toxic environment. As the fairy tale says, evil is finally punished. Furthermore, we’ve got a few more stories on the staff successfully fighting against the injustice of employers. By the way, have you ever experienced something like this?

After many years of working as sports journalist and trivia game author and host in Ukraine I joined Bored Panda as a content creator. I do love writing stories and I sincerely believe - there's no dull plots at all. Like a great Italian composer Joaquino Rossini once told: "Give me a police protocol - and I'll make an opera out of it!"

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Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

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What do you think ?

POST

SW Dad 2 years ago

Almost this exact same thing happened to me. Except it was my wedding, and I was in the Air Force, so quitting wasn't an option 😑 They'd walk around the office asking if anyone had any upcoming vacation. I told them over a year in advance, and multiple times since "yes, I'm getting married in April of next year." They'd keep saying "we'll worry about that when it gets closer." Then comes February and they start outlining deployment schedules. I see my name's on the docket. When I point out that I'm getting married, my boss's boss tears into me for not telling them about this sooner. I point out that I did, repeatedly, for over a year. They looked over everything and tell me they can put me on standby, and I can TRY to keep my original wedding date, and I MIGHT be able to make it. We ended up cancelling and rescheduling for the fall. My best man and one of our bridesmaids ended up not being able to make it because they were deployed. Learned a hard lesson: document everything.

11points

GadgetGirl 2 years ago

Especially in the military. If it's not in writing, it doesn't exist.

3points

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Red 2 years ago

I've worked 3 jobs since HS. First fired me (for not working fast enough, apparently), then begged me to come back because they realized how much I did without them seeing. I declined as I already had the 1nd lined up. 2nd, I quit because they wouldn't give me a week off after my daughter was stillborn to ensure my wife wasn't suicidal. They begged me to come back, but I already had the 3rd. Which I quit amicably shortly after covid started because I didn't wanna deal with the b******t.

10points

GenericPanda09 2 years ago

Seems like you've got a lot of your priorities right early on in life that it takes some of us a lot longer to figure out correctly - work comes way down the list after family. Condolences for your loss btw

11points

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finisz 2 years ago

I really don't get this system, I suppose it's US. So, when you want to take your holidays, first you let it know to your boss, and at the moment he/she says "yes", hands you an official holiday-form with your already taken holiday-days, your actual holiday-request, and your remaining vacation days, signed by both of you, in two copies. Simple and efficient.

7points