Employee of 25+ years takes 10 weeks of PTO, then resigns: 'You need my help? It'll cost 1 mil'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 22, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Should you save up vacation time, or should you use it to take a few vacations each year? Depending on your job, you may have the PTO to take a weekend trip upstate, or if you're making good money, maybe you travel the country or spend a week in Europe. 

When you work an hourly job, you don't often get PTO. You still want to travel, but you're taking away from your paycheck when you do so. That's why having paid time off at a salaried job is nice: it's kind of like a reminder to take time for yourself after giving your all for 40 hours per week. There's a life outside of work, and now you can go enjoy it while still getting paid your regular salary. Many people look forward to spending time with the kiddos, catching up with friends, sleeping a lot, and seeing new sights beyond their own neighborhood. 

There are some people who just save up their PTO for forever, though. Some older folks seem to like to save their paid time off until they have like, 3 months worth of time off. I've never totally understood this approach. Taking off a week every now and then is so refreshing! Taking off 3 full months would be… a little much. I think you'd run out of stuff to do by the third week or so, and then you'd probably be a bit bored. Why not spread it out to avoid burning yourself out? Or, you could do what Jimmy here did, as you can read all about in the great story below. 

Next, read about the secrets that people are keeping from their coworkers, like one person who is boldly hiding that "I don't have a degree." 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10496669440
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    Get rid of my vacation? Have fun replacing me.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 03
    I originally posted this as a comment on another thread, but realized it needed its own limelight. I worked at a company that gave out exorbitant amounts of vacation. Anyone who worked there for 25+ years. received 8 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of personal time.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 04
    This was a family owned company, but rather large. We ran 3 shifts totaling 250+ people. Enter Jimmy. Jimmy was a grissled old man, he started at the company when he was just 20, now he was 63 and gave absolutely zero • Jimmy also knew how to make a specific part for our product, him and one other higher up in the office.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 05
    One day the plant owner comes out and announces he's selling to a corporation. He's older and ready to retire, he promises that there will be very little change and wishes us all well.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 06
    The new company comes in and immediately goes after many of the great benefits we had. The first thing they do is cut everyone's max vacation down to 4 weeks, and do completely away with personal time. Anyone who's maxed out had until December 31st of that year to use it up, and they wouldn't pay it out. They then go into the office and clean house, firing anyone who's close to
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 07
    retirement. Including Jimmy's back up. But they also do away with one very important rule. You no longer have to get vacation approved, you can just call in and take it.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 08
    Jimmy is p ed, and they know it. They realize he's the only one in the building that can do his job now. So they hire a new kid for him to train, most likely to permanently replace Jimmy. So Jimmy does what anyone would do. He calls in the first training day for the new hire, and lets us know he's going to use all of his PTO at once, and promptly takes 10 weeks off.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 09
    We had a back stock of parts he had made, so it wasn't too unnerving. But for 10 weeks, Jimmy went and applied to other jobs, found one, and started.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 10
    Fast forward 10 weeks, Its the day Jimmy is supposed to return. He doesn't. For two days they try calling him, and even go to his house. He's nowhere to be found. Finally on day three he calls and resigns, and they lose their sh. The parts he makes are specialized and patented by the original founder, you can't just hire someone off the street to make them. What eventually happened was they
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 11
    had to contract the original owner to come in a teach some new hires how to make them, and when he found out what all they had done it ped him off. The last I heard he charged them a 7 figure contract to teach them how to produce the parts, and they had to pony up, or close down.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 12
    Moral of the story, don't f with people's vacation time. Edit: Jimmy made and electronic control module that was sealed and stayed fixed in a poured unit made of a two part epoxy.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 13
    Edit #2: Jimmy didn't exactly "Miss out" on a seven figure contract and had zero chance to take one. He left, said f em and moved on. When they contacted the previous owner and explained the situation it was basically a "you need my help? It'll cost 1mil." Type of conversation.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 14
    Final update: Thank you everyone for all of the attention this received! I had no idea this would blow up like this. I have immediate family working with the company still, so if I hear of anymore rumblings I'll fill you all in. Also, I worked here for four years. I have a few other Jimmy stories I may post at other times on the appropriate reddits. Thank you all again!
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 15

    He knows his worth and he's standing his ground!

    Pixel_Nerd92 Jimmy don't take sho. Good for Jimmy.
    via u/Pixel_Nerd92
  • 16
    masterredmage Jimmy is a beast! Good for him
    via u/masterredmage
  • 17
    Kozeyekan_. Company is sold. New owners say nothing will change. Lots of stuff changes for the worse. A tale as old as time.
    via u/Kozeyekan_
  • 18
    Cheezburger Image 10496679168
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 19
    Zoreb1 So they never tried to contact the backup and rehire him?
    via u/Zoreb1
  • 20
    Rusticwhiskey OP Honestly I never asked nor was I informed. He was like 65 and had also been there for 40+ years so I'm sure they did. Why he didn't come
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 21
    back, I'm not sure. My guess is he was bitter and doing just fine in early retirement.
    via u/Rusticwh*skey
  • 22
    INTO_NIGHT · Save a dime to pay 7 figures great model by most companies
    via u/INTO_NIGHT

    Some companies just don't think through the long-term implications of their decisions! It was never going to be easy to replace someone with decades of know-how with a novice new hire. 

  • 23
    morgan423. Another moral of the story: if only two people in the company know how to do critical function X, don't go below two people ever who know how to do that. Get a third
    via u/morgan423
  • 24
    person trained on doing it before releasing either of the original two.
    via u/morgan423

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