HR pressures employee returning from 3 years of medical leave to input all of their time-off requests once they return to work, then gets mad when they use all 75 accrued days: ‘Still makes me smile like a maniac’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Dec 14, 2025 12:00 PM EST

Medical leave is an essential benefit when you're working a full-time job. Not everyone has a generous savings account and a village to fall back on when the going gets tough, so having paid medical leave keeps their lives afloat while they focus on resting, healing, and making their new normal work.

Some places in the world have more employee protections than others, but we're not here to give you a rundown of that; this is a mere fact. The employee in the next story explains that they're from Germany, where their PTO continues to accrue even if they are on medical leave for a certain period of time. Whether you agree or disagree with this policy, that's up to you. But the proof is in the pudding, and this employee has the court rulings to back up their decision to cash in all 75 of their PTO days when their HR forces them to do so upon returning to work.

So, who's to blame here? Well, there's not one single person to blame, but rather, policy (if you think it's crooked). Us? We think the employee is exercising what's allowed in their country. Scroll to get the details.

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  • 01
    a boss and his employee in a meeting in an office
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02

    "HR wants to play, okay"

    I was absent at work for almost 3 years because of a very serious health situation.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 03
    I planned a reintegration into the workplace which took around 9 weeks until I was at 100% of my contractual hours.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 04
    I made a lot of research before agreeing to terms HR provided and they left some very serious details out.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 05
    For example that im able to reclaim some of the days off I would have had, had I worked there.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 06
    So they asked me to fully plan all my days off of work as soon as possible and really pushed me into it.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 07
    They were really demanding and even rude at times. So I did. Where im from I have 35 paid days off work per year.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 08
    Since I wasn't able to use all of my days off from these years before I had a total 75 paid days off work for 2025.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 09
    I planned them all and put them into the systems and the system approved. The next day I was called into a Teams meeting with the HR lead who pushed me into taking all my days off so that I "can't complain" anymore.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 10
    male employee on video chat meeting with colleagues
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 11
    He was furious at me because he didn't know I had the right to all of the 75 days.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 12
    I showed him a court ruling and he suddenly went quiet. "You told me to plan all of my days off so that I cant complain anymore" Still makes me smile like a maniac remembering his face edit: sorry for any spelling issues.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 13
    I have epilepsy and my brain is not able to function Imao edit 2: Yes I am from Germany.
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 14
    The whole story obviously is way more complicated but for the sake of the general theme of this subreddit I shortened it
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 15
    WoodenWhaleNectarine Cool, have a nice long holiday
    via WoodenWhaleNectarine
  • 16
    Leading-Display6656 thank you
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 17
    totalimmoral Where are you from where an employer would let you take a 3 year medical leave and still gives you the vacation you would have accrued even if you didnt work????
    via totalimmoral
  • 18
    LodanMax Thats Europe; Germany probably. We are huge on employee protection laws.
    via LodanMax
  • 19
    RuthTheWidow Good for you :) Enjoy your time, and I hope your health is well.
    via RuthTheWidow
  • 20
    Leading-Display6656 thank you, thats really sweet of you finally. Im definitely doing better,
    via Leading-Display6656
  • 21
    Owlthirtynow Wonderful. I hate HR with a passion. They are literally the flying monkeys for the CEO.
    via Owlthirtynow

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Tags

hr toxic-workplace manager work time off PTO Horrible Bosses
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