New American boss tries to cut British-based employee's "excessive" PTO, HR sides with employee: 'I have referred this to HR because I think this isn't right'

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

May 15, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

It's always difficult when a new boss swoops into a pre-existing work environment to make changes. Some employees like the way that things are done, and restructuring everyone's workflow might not lead to the kind of efficient results one would necessarily hope to achieve. In fact, most of the time, these employers are projecting onto their new work environment what they think they have learned from prior workspaces. The more mature approach would be to meet employees where they are, ask questions, and see what they think needs to be adjusted so that everyone can be happier and more productive at the office.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of employers seem to have too much pride to embrace listening as the most important tool for a boss. For this new boss, her own warped ideas about how much an employee should or shouldn't work got in the way of an employee's well-deserved and earned time off. When HR got involved, the new boss was surprised to see that in this UK-based office, the employee was in the right.

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One of the funniest recurring themes to the comments made by members of this online community was the assumption that the new boss was American, an assumption that was later confirmed by the author. It just goes to show that American employers, especially those of a certain generation, have a different understanding and expectation of hard work than other folks do. That is not to say that other workers do not believe in hard work, but it looks different for them. It's not about optics. It's about results.
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