'Your request cannot be granted': Employee denied PTO request because boss can't plan ahead

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

May 17, 2023 11:00 PM EDT

Your boss's inability to be organized is not your problem! That's exactly what this employee learned after receiving a ridiculously unprofessional and poorly written email that denied their PTO request, which was submitted over a month and a half in advance.

This thread, which was posted to Reddit's r/antiwork subreddit by u/carter221298, perfectly captures the signs of a toxic work environment and a poorly run company. If they cannot operate when an employee is gone for 5 days (especially when they had plenty of time to plan ahead and figure everything out beforehand), that's not only reflective of how irreplaceable the employee is but also how disorganized the company at large is. Ultimately, this means that the employee has lots of leverage, as they might have learned by reading suggestions from folks in the comments section. The response here is not to comply but to put your foot down. If you're as needed as they say you are, they can't afford to lose you.

For more, check out this story about another employee's PTO debacle.