‘I got offered my old job back with another $1.50/hr thrown in’: Bartender quits on the spot when his approved vacation time gets revoked, management begs him to come back

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 12, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Money is the only reason that people are grinding everyday at work– and what's the best thing to spend that money on? Traveling. When you get that paycheck every two weeks, it's hard to stop yourself from imagining a beach somewhere with your name on it– or in this case, it's tough not to imagine two tickets to see your favorite sports team with your long-distance girlfriend. 

This debaucherous tale of bosses doing what they do best (messing things up), starts with a barman and loyal employee putting in notice for an upcoming vacation. After months of enduring a long-distance relationship with his college girlfriend, OP saw an game coming up for her university's team and decided to book travel and buy expensive game-day tickets to enjoy a nice romantic weekend together. That, of course, was after he got his time off approved at work. 

Scroll for the full story of how this barman got the rug pulled out from under him when his boss decided to revoke his vacation leave, giving him an ultimatum that ended up becoming an incredibly profitable win/win situation. For more real life accounts of bosses who weren't treating their employees right, here's a story about a traveling salesman who got forced to fly coach, then watched the company burn.

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  • 01
    Font - r/r/MaliciousCompliance Posted by u/LateMathematician810 12 hours ago "As long as you work here you have to work that weekend..." S OC
    via LateMathematician810
  • 02
    Font - Many years ago I worked hospitality, friendly local bar, good staff, locals and management. All in all a pretty good gig. My girlfriend at the time was studying about 5 hours
    via LateMathematician810
  • 03
    Font - drive away and was an ex- workmate at the same bar. We'd worked together over the summer and then got together once university started. Our local sports
    via LateMathematician810
  • 04
    Font - team had a game coming up in a couple of months playing in her city, it was always a big party night in a student town, so I
    via LateMathematician810
  • 05
    Font - decided to get tickets and take the weekend off to spend time together. Duly put my leave request in and with 6 weeks to go this
    via LateMathematician810
  • 06
    Font - was accepted by management. Everything was looking good for a great long weekend away with her. Nearly a month later on a Thursday 15 days.
    via LateMathematician810
  • 07
    Font - out from the big event. my boss came to me and said as he had decided to attend the game he was cancelling my leave and I would have to do closing shifts over that weekend. I
    via LateMathematician810
  • 08
    Font - argued he had accepted my leave, I already had tickets and has also booked accommodation for some sweet after- match interaction so this wouldn't work. This was
    via LateMathematician810
  • 09
    Font - when he uttered the statement in the title. Cue Malicious Compliance: I instantly saw the solution, literally grabbed a napkin off the bar and wrote my resignation out under his
    via LateMathematician810
  • 10
    Font - nose and handed it to him. He refused to accept it. I informed him that it would be foolish to not have cover for me starting in 14 days as that was my notice
    via LateMathematician810
  • 11
    Font - period and I was going regardless of whether he accepted or not. Outcome: I had a marvellous weekend away, he had to
    via LateMathematician810
  • 12
    Font - work that weekend as he was unable to replace me and when I bumped into his wife a week after returning home she told me he had been slammed
    via LateMathematician810
  • 13
    Font - on game night, and they still hadn't replaced me and eventually asked could I come back. We agreed to a meeting time and had a good chat about things
    via LateMathematician810
  • 14
    Font - and I got offered my old job back with another $1.50/hr thrown in. I ended up working for him another 4 years with no drama after that.
    via LateMathematician810
  • 15
    Font - TreeBeautiful2728. 4 hr. ago Did the boss contact you directly to schedule the meeting? Is there a chance he sent his wife to talk to you? What did HE say in the meeting?
    via TreeBeautiful2728
  • 16
    Font - Late Mathematician810 OP 4 hr. ago We bumped into each other in the supermarket so no planning involved. During the meeting he voiced his disappointment that I had let him down by leaving him in the lurch
    via LateMathematician810
  • 17
    Font - but once I explained the $$$$ I had already spent for the weekend he seemed to better understand my side and mellow a bit. After I pointed out he asked we give 4 weeks notice for
    via LateMathematician810
  • 18
    Font - leave and had accepted. my request I thought it totally unfair he decided to try cancelling it 15 days out. His wife chimed in here and agreed with me that it could have been handled better. From then
    via LateMathematician810
  • 19
    Font - on it was just a matter of agreeing terms as I was unhappy with a couple of the shifts I kept ending up on. Then finally some extra money as his wife had let slip I was the most
    via LateMathematician810
  • 20
    Font - productive barman they had. Then he looked me in the eye and said "I hope I don't regret this and if you ever pull a stunt like this again you won't come back" and stuck out his
    via LateMathematician810
  • 21
    Font - hand saying "welcome back" I shook his hand and responded "I don't expect you to try a stunt like that again either" Wel both had a laugh and I was back behind the bar the next night.
    via LateMathematician810
  • 22
    Rectangle - Bergenia1 2 hr. ago Sounds like his wife was the one who made her husband do the right thing and behave decently.
    via Bergenia1
  • 23
    Font - DynkoFromTheNorth 12 hr. ago No drama? No grudges?! Vote Reply Share Late Mathematician810 OP 11 hr. ago None. I had already worked there a couple of years when this happened so we had quite a friendly relationship. 20+ years later we still catch up for a drink occasionally
    via DynkoFromTheNorth
  • 24
    Font - DA juneofkino 11 hr. ago • do you ever remind him of his foolishness of what he did lol Vote Reply Share LateMathematician810 OP - 11 hr. ago It has come up a couple of times and we both laugh about it now
    via juneofkino
  • 25
    Font - omnichronos +1 11 hr. ago I've read many stories in /MaliciousCompliance but yours is the first where the boss swallowed their pride and actually got the worker to return. Congratulations.
    via Omnichronos
  • 26
    Sleeve - la klo 1 PAPE F 00:00 00:00 50 00 44:00 ww-www по TALAOJOLNJA Пьп 10Є воипа + HOA38 CUMJA ИАЛИАТ
    via Alex Kubsch - Unsplash

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bar schedule boss employee manager job malicious compliance work quit time off raise bartender leave reddit thread Reddit quitting vacation
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