Manager cancels company's social benefit to boost sales, employees foil plan and outmaneuver the managerial team

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Jul 24, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

The business world is calculated and vicious. Whether on purpose or not, there are always some who want to take advantage of your hardship and struggle. The story below is an account of a frustrated employee.

For a significant duration, the original poster (OP) was employed by the same company. The social perks that the company provided, such as the number of vacation days that could be carried over to the following year, were among its most notable benefits. Every worker received a total of thirty vacation days, which they could potentially carry over into the next year depending on how many days they utilized. This worked wonderfully at first until the workers began taking advantage of the generous vacation time, using it as a kind of getaway when they were unhappy and needed to start a new position as quickly as possible.

HR immediately realized what was going on and made the decision to find a quick fix, cutting the number of vacation days in half and eliminating the ability to carry over days to the following year. The whole company was thrown off balance by this, and the workers were furious with the managerial team. So, make sure to read the story below if you're interested in learning the specifics of what happened following the shocking declaration! Additionally, after you're done, don't forget to read the story about the business that says an employee spent too much on his business travel expenditures and won't pay him back!

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  • 01
    TIME E REQUE mber: Last "Bye-bye!" mail: First Name: Department:
    via canva
  • 02
    Can't carry over time to the next year? Ok, that works.
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 03
    To add to the vacation day theme of the week: I worked at a company that had a lot of people that had worked a long time there. It was pretty common for new chemistry or chemical engineering grads to come in as their first job after college. At 20 years they got 6 weeks (30 days of vacation). Some people liked to work and simply rolled vacation days into the next year. The max you could ever carry over was 45 days.
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 04
    At some point some bean counter figured out that the 45 days were a liability to the company. (If you are selling a chunk of a company off and those people have 6 weeks of vacation and another 9 weeks in the bank, that's 15 weeks of time that the new owner could be on the hook for.) So they decided and put out a proclamation that there would be no carryover from one year to the next. Much unhappiness swept the company. Lots of people tried to plan how they were going to use it.
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 05
    One of the key people I worked with came up in October and said they are going on vacation, and how much they liked working with me. Which was kind of odd, so I pressed a little on why this sounded like a "forever good-bye" and not a "see you in a week". So I got told (under strict confidence) that they had found a new job. New job started in 2 weeks. They had enough vacation days to cover them to Jan 1, and the next years vacation and
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 06
    holidays covered the first two months of the following year. So they were done. I wished them well and they were gone. But they were not as good as I am in keeping secrets. There were suddenly a number of key people, also with 6 weeks vacation and large vacation bank that were gone. Lots of unhappy people in HR. HR could not say no to the close out vacations since they had decreed the rollover freeze.
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 07
    But HR decreed "You must return to work to be able to collect the vacation in the next year." Turns out most of the people got jobs in very cool companies, they all scheduled a vacation day so they could "come back to work for a day". They came back en masse. Co-workers scheduled them all into meetings, so they had things to do on the day. (It was mostly a party day with an all day food fest).
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 08
    As an added bonus, senior management had indeed planned to split off a division, and the sale fell through because of all the people that had bailed out.
    via u/kiltedturtle
  • 09
    pukui7. 14 hr. ago that's 15 weeks of time that the new owner could be on the hook for This kind of thing shouldn't be an unfunded liability. Many places I've worked, PTO is expensed each pay period as it accrues. So the money needed to pay for it when the employee uses it is already sitting there waiting to be spent. So there is nothing extra there for any owner, new or old, that isn't already good to go.
    via u/pukui7
  • 10
    JustSomeGuy_56. 15 hr. ago I worked for an IT staffing company. Clients would hire our people on a daily basis to supplement their own staff. Since our people were paid salary, when they didn't work, they still cost us money, but generated 0 revenue. Therefore we were delighted when people deferred their vacation and we allowed them to cash it in at any time.
    via u/JustSomeGuy_56
  • 11
    Then we got bought buy a huge conglomerate. Their policy was "use it or lose it" with no opportunity for payout. So in October we had to tell all our people that unless they used all their accrued vacation before the end of the year, it would be gone. As expected everyone immediately put in for vacation. The result was 15% hit to our revenue and lots of unhappy
    via u/JustSomeGuy_56
  • 12
    clients who saw empty desks. One even canceled a contract because we couldn't complete the work by year end. But the manager who implemented the policy got a nice bonus for clearing all that accrued vacation off the books.
    via u/JustSomeGuy_56
  • 13
    SheiB123 14 hr. ago I worked for a company that cancelled a retirement policy that really sc d over about 45 long term employees. The thought from management was these people were too young to retire yet and too old to find another job. They were wrong. 30+ people left and took ALL their vacation time (most of them had 6 weeks accrued), at their highest salary. The financial hit was BIG.
    via u/SheiB123
  • 14
    So, the company changed annual leave policy to reduce the amount of time people with a long tenure could accrue after the beginning of the next year. So, more people left. The result was LOTS of openings, loss of a great deal of institutional knowledge, and they still had to pay out those people at the original 6 weeks. Manglement at it finest.
    via u/SheiB123
  • 15
    dbear848 15 hr. ago Most of my colleagues have a lot of PTO every year. Our old manager let us carry a week or so over as long as we used it in the first couple of months of the new year. Because of our business it made a lot of sense since November and December were our busiest months of the year. New manager, new policy, use it or lose it. A lot more of us decided to enjoy time with our friends and family during the holidays so we wouldn't lose it.
    via u/dbear848
  • 16
    Another_Random_Chap 13 hr. ago Many years ago I worked for an employer who wouldn't let us carry leave over. It was approaching the end of the year, and for various reasons I still had 19 days due, so I planned to use them on a big trip. I was about to put in my request, only for it to be announced that all leave was cancelled due to an overwhelming workload. I asked about carrying them over, to be told
    via u/Another_Random_Chap
  • 17
    I could only carry 5. Shortly afterwards I was offered a freelance contract with another company. I handed in my 4 week notice the next Friday, started the contract on the Monday, worked 19 days and then went back on the final day to do the exit interview. And I told them exactly why I left.
    via u/Another_Random_Chap
  • 18
    achambers64.15 hr. ago My father had over 3000 hours of sick leave on the books approaching retirement. Policy was that you could only cash out 1000 hours. He took a year of sick leave. A doctor friend wrote a return to work excuse. He worked one day and retired.
    via u/achambers64
  • 19
    maydayvoter11 · 14 hr. ago As an added bonus, senior management had indeed planned to split off a division, and the sale fell through because of all the people that had bailed out. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive...
    via u/maydayvoter11
  • 20
    joppedi_72 · 15 hr. ago Play stupid games win stupid prices, that applies to management especially.
    via u/joppedi_72
  • 21
    • stiggley 11 hr. ago I worked at a Uni, and the old management allowed us to roll PTO over as long as we used it before Easter. Then new management implemented a "no rolling PTO over", but also kept the bans on us from taking time off at critical periods (like during student exams and enrollment periods - so a good chunk of summer).
    via u/stiggley
  • 22
    So the IT dept sat down and went through all the days we were owed and worked out a rota which allowed some coverage whilst still allowing everyone to use up their accrued time. Some worked 3 day weeks taking everyone Monday and Friday off, some only worked afternoons as they loved to lay in bed. One guy ended up not working Nov & Dec. As it was booked time off, if anyone was called it - it counted as double time. That new manager didn't last long.
    via u/stiggley
  • 23
    NorCalHrrs 12 hr. ago I was Assistant Manager at a Blockbuster Video. Had so many PTO hours, my District manager warned me I needed to take a vacation. I couldn't afford to go anywhere, so took a LOT of 3 & 4 day weekends. Told my part-time managers that if they wanted an extra shift here & there to let me know, as I had all the hours to use, and no f ks to give.
    via u/NorCalHrrs
  • 24
    Coolbeanschilly · 14 hr. ago • Funny how people can tell when they're getting SC ed over, and will instead turn the tables on the greedy ones.
    via u/Coolbeanschilly
  • 25
    soulmatesmate · 14 hr. ago My current company has a "use it or we buy it" policy. Mid November my supervisor reminds us to check our days off, request days off or send him a "add 8 hours to my pay this week, next week and the week after." We get the money for the PTO or holiday and the day we still work (basically a 6 day week). We try hard to keep 8 or 16 hours for the last week, just in case we need it.
    via u/soulmatesmate
  • 26
    No-Friendship-1498 14 hr. ago So many management fails here. Allowing a crazy amount of carry over to begin with. Getting rid of what many employees obviously saw as a perk instead of reducing it to an acceptable level. Eliminating carryover days suddenly instead of gradually reducing it over a few years. Giving all vacation days for the year on the first day of the year instead of prorating it. Also, it
    via u/No-Friendship-1498
  • 27
    wasn't explicitly mentioned, but im sure it happened, running shorthanded from the sudden excessive amounts of vacation time being used. Who could have ever seen a disaster come from this?
    via u/No-Friendship-1498

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