HR requires a 500-word "reason" alongside each PTO request, so a witty employee writes an entire essay to go to their cousin's wedding: 'I began [by] explaining the historical significance of marriage'

HR doesn't need to know why employees take PTO; it's theirs, and they can use it for whatever they want.

An employee writes a 500-word essay so that HR will approve his PTO request, not just because he wanted to waste their time, but because they demanded to waste his. After making each PTO request impossible to submit without a 500-word answer in the section labeled "Reason for Request," this employee saw an opportunity for time-wasting malicious compliance that couldn't be passed up.

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Woman thinking of ways to get back at the HR department at her job.
(Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)
Asking for PTO always feels like groveling at the foot of a stern statue. Unyielding and questioning everything, managers make employees feel as if their PTO isn't already theirs to use and like each day off is a day spent burying the company in tattered pages, quarterly failures, and extra unanswered phone calls. It's not like employees want to leave their coworkers out to dry, but sometimes, life outside of the office beckons.
Overworked employees can't squander their 10 days of annual PTO, can they?
With more hours in the office under their belt than they have in their own home, oftentimes, employees are itching for any reason to get out of the workplace, but the meager vacation offerings on the employee calendar leave everyone wanting. Alas, with the power of free will and overtime accruals, employees can enjoy the fruits of their labor.
But not without HR breathing down their neck about it first.
After rejoicing at the weekday wedding invitation from his cousin, this employee was overjoyed to take a long weekend. However, before he could enjoy cocktails and coconut shrimp at a family wedding gathering, he had to jump through the hoops and hurdles of his company's HR department, which was nosier than you'd think.
As if the boss had just read a new book about leadership and taking control of the office, they implemented a new policy forcing employees to submit PTO requests online, including a detailed, 500-word reason for their request. So what does it matter what your employees do with their free time? Nothing. The bosses just wanted another way to deny requests and weigh them, but this worker refused to let them get away so easily with their blatant power grab.
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