For many exhausted employees out there, a well-deserved break from their jobs sounds like a dream. Nearly everyone knows there’s nothing like taking some time off to travel, unwind, and spend time with loved ones to reflect on what life is all about. Sadly, things take a different turn when unreasonable employers decide to shatter our hopes and deny our requests.

A couple of days ago, a deeply confused manager going by the name of Artistic-Comment20 took his story to the AITA subreddit to ask fellow members for advice about an issue he had with his new hire’s vacation request.

Last week, the user welcomed a new employee to the team who was clear about a non-refundable vacation she planned to take even before getting hired. “I told her that I did the schedule and would try to accommodate her,” the manager wrote. “I couldn’t accommodate her at all.” When he wondered whether he was wrong to go back on his words, people online quickly weighed in with their opinions, and they did not hold back. Read on for the whole story!

Before taking on a new job, a worker wanted to make sure her non-refundable $2500 trip would be accommodated for

Image credits: LinkedIn Sales Solutions

But apparently, the manager believes new hires are last in line for vacation time, so he decided to go back on his word and deny her request

Image credits: Kate Hliznitsova

As of today, Artistic-Comment20’s story has amassed more than 24K upvotes and nearly 5K comments. Members of the AITA community found it hard to believe the manager really had to turn to the internet to find out they were completely wrong in this situation. Redditors were quick to criticize the user’s behavior and applaud Lacey for standing up for herself instead of staying at a company where promises mean nothing.

Surprisingly, this post gained a lot of attention on other platforms as well. It was picked up by a member of the Anti Work subreddit, Shea, who shared Artistic-Comment20’s story with the community. This online group is dedicated to people who “want to end work, are curious about ending work, [and] want to get the most out of a work-free life,” and often serves as the perfect outlet to air out their grievances.

We managed to get in touch with Shea to hear her take on this whole incident. The user told Bored Panda she found the story appalling, “Such a blatant disregard for a previous agreement, and then he honestly didn’t understand why his promise mattered. It was shocking, in a bad way.”

Shea guessed that one reason behind his behavior was that we have been taught that work equals life. “The manager was probably raised to sacrifice it all for that promotion or office. He’s probably never considered … what is the point of all this work if there is no life behind it.”

Although we hear plenty of troubling stories about irrational bosses and their unreasonable demands, there’s a growing number of employees who decide to take a stance on what’s meaningful in their life. “I think it’s important to remember our collective bargaining power, when we share stories like these, I feel it emboldens others,” Shea said.

“There’s a political cartoon I saw where a group of people is standing on a board so that a politician can stand over a cliff,” she continued. “They are using their collective weight to hold him up. That’s us. We are those people, and all it takes is one person to step off the board. Just one can shift the power so drastically that the politician falls. That’s what we need.”

By packing up her desk and handing in her resignation letter, Lacey is an example of that. However, employers are starting a running trend of shaming people like her by declaring that “no one wants to work”. The truth is that millions of employees actually want to work, they just have had enough of being overworked, underpaid, and undervalued by their companies.

According to recent research, almost half of American workers are considering walking away from their jobs, so we might hear a lot more stories like this one. The 2022 Workplace Belonging Survey, commissioned by Ipsos on behalf of researcher Dr. Rumeet Billan, found that employees who are thinking about making the switch lack a sense of belonging in their current workplace. Usually, these feelings come from encountering disrespect from management and coworkers.

“More than 19 million American workers have quit their jobs since April 2021, disrupting businesses everywhere. Companies cannot afford to continue going through this type of employee turnover,” Dr. Billan explained. “Now, more than ever, companies and employers must take a more human-centered approach to how they support, communicate, and engage with their employees.”

Well, we often hear accusatory whispers floating around that companies have exploited their workers for decades with poor wages, heavy workloads, and absurd expectations. But these whispers are getting louder, proving that employees are at a breaking point. Shea shared that in her eyes, the anti-work movement is not about loving or hating your job. “It’s about how your job isn’t and shouldn’t be your life,” she said.

People were quick to criticize the manager’s actions, here’s what they had to say

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