Everyone is entitled to a bit of vacation time every year. Whether you plan to spend those days sipping margaritas and relaxing on the beach or backpacking through European cities, that’s up to you. But the actual days you’re allowed to be gone might be up to your employer.

Below, you’ll find a story that was recently shared on Reddit, detailing how one woman found a way to get petty revenge on her least favorite colleague just in time for the woman’s upcoming vacation.

After dealing with a frustrating colleague for months, this woman is excited to move on to another job

Image credits: LightFieldStudios (not the actual photo)

But before leaving, she decided to throw a wrench in her co-worker’s travel plans

Image credits: Ketut Subiyanto (not the actual photos)

Image source: 1_art_please

All employees are entitled to some vacation time during the year

Image credits: Chen Mizrach (not the actual photo)

No matter where you live or what company you work for, you deserve to be able to take a break. In this particular case, the OP shared that she lives and works in Canada. According to Canadian law, employees are entitled to a minimum of 2 weeks with pay after each of the first 4 years of their employment and 3 weeks with pay after 5 consecutive years of employment.   

The woman who planned her holiday to Hong Kong should have at least 2 weeks paid vacation time that she’s entitled to, possibly even more if she has been able to accumulate more days from the past 12 months that she hasn’t yet used. However, it’s not entirely up to her when she gets to take these days off.

Employers are allowed to deny requests for “operational reasons,” such as having no one else to do her job during those days. In this case, the employer is allowed to decide when the worker’s holiday will be taken. But they must provide at least 2 weeks’ notice before the vacation will begin.

Many workers decide to leave companies due to unfriendly colleagues

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

While coordinating vacation days with colleagues can be frustrating, it can be a lot easier when you’re actually friends with the people you work with and aren’t out to get them. You may not feel emotionally attached to your job at all and simply show up to receive a paycheck (as I’m sure most of us do!), but there can still be benefits to being kind and considerate to colleagues.

According to Christine Porath, a management professor at the University of Southern California, 1 in 8 workers will leave a company due to rude or impolite behavior from colleagues. Porath also found through an experiment that 80% of workers will lose time at work worrying about uncomfortable incidents, and nearly half of employees start putting less effort into their jobs due to incivility in the workplace.

Kindness and creating friendships can go a long way anywhere in life, including in the office. Having friends at work can even increase employee productivity, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Minnesota found. They noted that friends are more committed, have better communication and encourage one another while working, which can even lead to increased job satisfaction.

Kindness can go a long way anywhere, especially in the workplace

Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)

And of course, your work day will be much more enjoyable if you have someone to chat with at the water cooler, someone to exchange funny stories with during lunch time and colleagues who you’re actually excited to see in the morning. On the other hand, however, it can be detrimental for employees to dread going into the office or to hate the person sitting across from them. 

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Being a considerate colleague will always be worth it, RotaCloud notes on their site. Perhaps your co-workers have obligations outside of work that are causing them stress, a colleague is struggling with mental health issues, or the person sitting next to you has recently undergone a massive life change. Treating them with kindness and empathy might be exactly what they need. And it might make them less likely to get revenge on you when they finally decide to leave the company.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, pandas. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring petty revenge in the workplace, look no further than right here!   

Some readers applauded the woman for her petty revenge, and she chimed in to share more details about the situation

However, other readers thought she was being petty

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