Boss refuses to approve employee's day off without a formal request, employee complies by ‘formally requesting’ time off for every weekend in the foreseeable future: ‘I'm so done’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jan 9, 2025 10:00 AM EST

As kids, there were many things about adult life that we never considered or imagined could be real. We all thought that once we finished school, and became official 'adults', we would never have to answer to anyone else. We would be able to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, with endless possibilities at our disposal.

Oh, how naive we were.

None of us thought that once we got a job, our life would not be so different from how it was when we were in school. Waking up every day to go to the same place, spend 8 hours there doing whatever it is we were hired to do, listen to our boss and answer their demands, and then go home.

We also never imagined that we would have to ask another person for the freedom to take a vacation and that we would be restricted to a schedule or a limited amount of 'time off'. If we had known all of this, we would have gladly stayed in school for at least a few more years.

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  • TIME OFF REQUEST Last Name: mail: First Name: Department:
    via Hailshadow

  • If the option to go back to school had been given to the employee in the story below, I'm pretty sure they would have jumped on it. Especially after their boss started complaining about not following a certain procedure to request their one day off. 

    However, despite being tired of the idea of having to ask someone else for the opportunity to not work, at least the employee found a clever way to get their way. Scroll down to read how they pulled it off.

  • "If I only get a day off when I formally schedule 'time off' on the company calendar, then I guess I'll mark 'time off' for every weekend for the foreseeable future."

    I work a service industry adjacent position that requires a flexible schedule. I've been fine with this, and take a day or two off when possible. I worked 18 days
    via leaveleaves
  • straight over Christmas, with my first "day off" being New Year's Eve. I didn't schedule time off, I just didn't get scheduled. The day before NYE, my boss asked for me to
    via leaveleaves
  • cover a shift. I told him I was going out of town. He allowed it, but when we talked next, he said "I was upset when you said you couldn't work, because
    via leaveleaves
  • you hadn't scheduled time off on the schedule. I thought I was going to get a day off finally, so I was disappointed when you told me you weren't able to help"
    via leaveleaves
  • I explained since it was both the holiday, and my first day off in over 2 week, I didn't think I had to officially schedule it as "time off", but I will in the future.
    via leaveleaves
  • Guess who suddenly has scheduled "time off" for every Saturday and Sunday for the foreseeable future? I'm so done.
    via leaveleaves
  • 10 11 23 24 25 18 4
    via Kunakorn Rassadornyindee
  • sydmanly So you were not scheduled, made other plans that were allowed but then it's your fault for not being available. What a pile of sl that boss is.
    via leaveleaves
  • leaveleaves OP Right??? He does this weekly. Ask me to help the day before, or even the day of. He knows I'm desperate for money, so it feels like he's taking advantage of that. I've asked him to give me more notice, but he never does.
    via leaveleaves
  • Sad Employer2216 Find a new job. That's total E being treated that way
    via Sad_Employer2216
  • leaveleaves OP Thank you! You have no idea. how validating that is. I feel like an insane person. I have an interview for a new job on Thursday that I hope goes well &
    via leaveleaves
  • ttlanhil How much authority does your boss have? If he's just setting schedules, but there's not enough workers and he isn't allowed to hire and has to cover shifts
    via ttlanhil
  • That said, marking yourself unavailable on the calendar when you aren't able to pick up a shift sounds like a good idea anyway!
    via ttlanhil
  • leaveleaves OP Unfortunately he has all the authority. It's a small business that he owns, and he doesn't have any managers. We've been short staffed, and he's been trying to hire more people for months. My theory is that he's dropping the ball with the candidates and they P see all the
    via leaveleaves
  • Superb_Raccoon If you have to schedule time off, he has to schedule time "on."
    via Superb_Raccoon
  • leaveleaves OP RIGHT! I love that. I may use that the next time we have another tough chat.
    via leaveleaves
  • RogueThneed Are you in the US? If so, OT rules give you extra pay over a set number of hours each week, and often also kick in when you work over a certain number of days in a row, regardless of total hours worked.
    via RogueThneed
  • leaveleaves OP I am in the US. I didn't know about overtime kicking in after a certain number of days... I'll definitely need to look into that! Some of the days were only half days, so I haven't considered that.
    via leaveleaves
  • National Watercress3 I think OP is quite young and has only joined the workforce at least fairly recently.
    via NationalWatercress3
  • leaveleaves OP Unfortunately I've been in the workforce for 10 years, the job market is just horrible in the city I live in, so I have to take what I can get. Long story short, I work for a small
    via leaveleaves
  • business with sketchy business practices. Some days I work 10 hours, some days I work 4 hours. Most days I work about 8. It is also hard to keep track of though because with one of my roles, I have to monitor for requests
    via leaveleaves
  • during a set amount of time, but I only get paid if requests come through. A friend told me I could probably sue my employer for lost wages, but I would rather just find a better position. I'm hoping I'll have more luck now that it's the first quarter of a new year.
    via leaveleaves
  • xenchik How is this legal? In my country you're not allowed to work more than ten days out of every 14 so maximum. - number of days you can work in a row is ten. If they
    via xenchik
  • schedule you for more than that they can pay hefty fines. It amazes me that there are countries with such terrible worker protections :(
    via xenchik
  • leaveleaves OP I'm in the US! I don't know enough about labor laws here, but I don't think there is a limit to the number of days in a row you can work now I'm very interested in looking into that! That's But amazing there are protections where you are!
    via leaveleaves
  • ZeldaLink2001 • 9h ago F your boss for doing that. They better not have issues with your scheduled time off
    via ZeldaLink2001
  • leaveleaves OP Thank you I'm looking forward to the next time he asks me to work last minute, and I get to remind him of our conversation about scheduling time off. He probably won't even realize until then...
    via leaveleaves

  • Kids, if you can, we highly recommend you find a job in which you don't have to ask for time off, you simply get it.

    Since most of us are not lucky enough to land a job like that, we might as well learn a lesson or two from the brave employee in this story.

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Tags

boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace time off reddit story ceo overworked-employees workplace Reddit company malicious compliance reddit
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