'Now she won't be able to go [on vacation]': Pediatrician gets revenge on her trash-talking coworker by requesting competitive days off that she knew her coworker wanted

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 9, 2024 9:00 PM EDT

Your coworkers are switching from 'summer mode' into 'soup mode'. 

This means that the entire workforce is captivated by our next round of PTO–so that means we're starting to think about our vacation time for Christmas instead of days off for a tropical cruise. But the vacation dreams for a trash-talking coworker in our next story are already foiled before they could blossom, all because she got caught talking behind a fellow employee's back. 

Wafer-thin coworker relationships struggle to survive the holidays because of competitive PTO dynamics. When you work on a small team, you're forced to reckon with the reality that everyone's going to try and get the same days off to celebrate the same holidays. Every year, the workplace is flooded with PTO requests for the days leading up to Christmas or the Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving–so pretty much anything short of a company-wide shutdown will leave the workforce short-staffed. Managers are faced with these competitive PTO days and usually keep things on a first-come-first-serve basis. So when this pediatrician found out that her coworker was trash-talking her behind her back, she decided to get some petty revenge of her own by stealing the days she knew her coworker wanted to take off. 

With her vacation pre-booked, and no way to get those days off of work, now this bad-mouthing Betty might think twice before disrespecting anyone in the workplace. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10401586688
    via CDC

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    No you can't have new years eve off. So I started a new job this year and up until recently I've genuinely been enjoying it. There's some colleagues I've bonded with really well with and I'm actually really good at
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 03
    what I do. I work in primary care for the NHS (UK) and patients are always telling me how helpful and how kind I am. Since I joined in January, 6 patients have bought me chocolates/flowers by way of a thank you for fixing certain
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 04
    problems for them. For the first time in a really long time I feel like I've found some sort of calling. As lame as that sounds. But recently my days have become increasingly difficult.
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 05
    4 months into my employment my colleague (let's call her Trish) who trained me up had to take some time out for a health issue so I spent 3 months basically doing the job without her, and at times it was incredibly stressful being the only person able to
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 06
    perform the job. Admittedly there was maybe one or two days it was too much and I had to run off for a small cry before getting back out there. However, eventually ended up taking it in my stride and thus
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 07
    gained praise and respect from colleagues and patients alike. But when it was said Trish was coming back I was relieved because I thought it would give me a bit more breathing room. I was wrong.
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 08
    Now I'll preface all of this by saying that Trish isn't particularly well liked. She's known for being blunt to the point of cruelty both to patients and coworkers, she's snappy, and to pretty much everyone. There's
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 09
    negative comments regarding her on Google fir crying out loud. She's had umpteen complaints against her but they keep her around as she's worked there for around 20+ years. When she went on leave, granted I didn't know
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 10
    her that well, but we got on well and in spite of everyone bad mouthing her behind her back or making snarky comments when she went into a different room, I stood up for her. No one was particularly overjoyed she was coning back from leave other than me.
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 11
    For the first few days she was back she went straight back to trying to "train" me in spite of the fact I'd been doing everything solo since her absence. Which rubbed me up the wrong way a little but I ignored it. The last time I saw
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 12
    her I was still regularly asking questions. So that's fair enough. But even though she could see I was quite capable and competent she kept talking to me like a moron so I had to be quite blunt with her
    via oywiththep0odles
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    and tell her I'd been doing the job by myself perfectly well with O help from her or anyone so I didn't need to be "refreshed" with training. Since then (July) the relationship has soured somewhat. We're civil when it
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 14
    comes to work stuff but outside of that we don't really talk. Until a couple of weeks ago. I had a particularly difficult patient call up 3 days in a row and I just needed to vent. In my head it came under the headline of "work related" so I vented to Trish
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 15
    about the patient, she agreed the patient was difficult and I did the correct thing for them etc. I thanked her for letting me blow off some steam about it and went to do something else. I forgot something though so went back and caught Trish about me to 2 other
    via oywiththep0odles
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    colleagues, calling me soft, a whingy cow, i just need to grow up and get on with it etc.. She was like a deer in headlights. Nothing was said between us but the whole next day she may as well have been kissing my
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 17
    Now my supervisor messaged me the other day re an extra holiday day around Christmas, Trish is on annual leave currently so the supervisor hadn't yet asked which extra day she wanted. From previous conversations with
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 18
    Trish I know she wanted to take the last few days of the year off so she could go over to Europe to spend NYE with her adult child. After the way she's treated me the last 2 months I felt like being incredibly petty so I asked for
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 19
    the day I knew she wanted and asked to use a couple of my annual leave days as I have "family commitments" meaning I had 3 days off, total, following the weekend (this was also going to be Trish's plan). My supervisor
    via oywiththep0odles
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    gave them to me. So that now means Trish won't be able to take the days off as there won't be any cover. I also know she's already booked her hotel and flights and she was just waiting for the supervisors to bring up the extra holidays. So you Trish.
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 21
    TLDR; Caught a colleague slagging me off so knowingly booked annual leave for dates I knew colleague wanted. Colleague had booked hotel and flights to visit family for NYE. So now she won't be able to go as there won't be cover due to me having booked the time off.
    via oywiththep0odles
  • 22
    PillyBox Brilliant! Hope her tickets and reservations were non-refundable.
    via PillyBox
  • 23
    rebekahster Please give us an update when she is back at work and finds out about this.
    via rebekahster
  • 24
    Karcossa Please tell me your plans are to sit at home with a cup of tea and do nothing, then make sure she finds out about it after the fact. Just to really twist the knife.
    via Karcossa
  • 25
    Obse55ive I applaud your pettiness; this was pretty great. I'm still learning at my job not to be too chatty/friendly with people because they can go right behind your back and badmouth you. Some people like to stir the pot. So you threw the pot on top of Trish's head. Well done!
    via Obse55ive

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