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"This whole situation is absurd and I need a sanity check.
I work in admin in a niche but important, multi-national industry. I am a knowledgeable, reliable cog, and I pick up alot of slack as we are incredibly short-staffed with plans to add more because "its working out fine for right now" blah blah.
My boss is going on vacation, and she and I were comparing dates and realized they line up. She immediately told me I had to cancel. I told her I can't, things are non-refundable, since I am a cog, I never considered my manager's schedule. That is not my job. She told me she could deny my PTO, and if I go, I would be released.
Great.
I go to her boss, and say "lets make a plan". They say "ok great" and I build a schedule for task coverage, including him taking a few hours each day to sit at my desk and doing my in person job of fielding industry questions (or taking their info and I'd follow up later), and I offer to log in (paid) for a couple hours every day to help support. He says “Cool, I'll present this to the higher ups.”
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Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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My bosses boss told me that the higher ups think that he's "too important and high paid" to sit at a front admin office for any amount of time. Then the board comes up with a great idea, we'll just offer to reschedule MY VACATION. They offered a few hundred bucks to cover scheduling fees. I calculated the fees, they are way more than a few hundred dollars. Talking thousands as hotels, travel, transport, everything for 4 I book in advance so I can just relax. We do this because it's not just my life, but my partners summer schedule and his two kids, and their crazy schedules with sports, split custody, their bio mom's vacation plans, a whole thing.
They asked me to cancel it and go some other time. I said a firm no. The kids are finally old enough to comfortably travel internationally, they are excited, and I'm not telling them we can't go because "work won't let me". HUH???
My thing is, I'm a cog. Should I have double checked everyones calander before scheduling? Sure, but I'm not a managing party. I haven't experienced something like this in my entire working life. I've previously notified upper management of my vacation time at the beginning of the year just like this and they just say "ok great thanks for letting us know".
Why is my leaving for 7 working days leaving the office in SUCH A PANIC? There are options to resolve this, like having someone come from another department for a couple days here, another a couple days there, and I offered to support remotely. Also, my vacation is scheduled for JULY?? I tell you in February???
Also, shouldn't this be a reasonable indicator of how short-staffed a department is if TWO people being out for any extended period of time throws a wrench into everything?
Did I do something wrong? Is there something I'm not seeing?
Any insight or advice would be amazing." - u/educatedvegetable
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Commenters gave their two cents on the situation.
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Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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The employee in this story did everything right. She made sure that her work would be covered and went out of her way to ensure that there would be no lapse in tasks. But her pesky boss didn't have it together enough to let her go, and she was starting to feel like she wasn't going to hear the end of it. We're told that we have to make life easier for our bosses, and in turn, they will make our lives easier. But while this employee tried to hold up her end of the bargain, she didn't get much in return, and it caused her to rethink her career.
Commenters had a lot to say about this workplace interaction and came in with their own stories to compare and contrast. Almost everyone has faced a situation where they were trying to take time off and couldn't. It's unfortunately part of being a working person and facing unfair institutional structures. But even when she tried to do things right, it just wouldn't land. So she began to grow incredibly frustrated with her workplace and wondered what she could do to fix it. Keep reading to get the full scope of the story, and tell us in the comments what you thought about it.
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