Micromanaging boss cancels his 2-week vacation, devastates employee who was excited to get a break from him: 'He seems relieved he isn’t going on vacation.'

Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor

Jun 12, 2026 8:30 PM EDT

Why couldn't he let his employees have a couple of weeks of peace?

Nobody likes a micromanager. I don't know if it's worse to have a micromanager or a manager who doesn't manage at all, but at least you can do whatever you want when your managers don't care about what you're doing. Micromanagers won't even let you go to the bathroom for more than 2 minutes if they think that there's a better use of your time. They want constant updates because they have nothing better to do than think about you and how much or how little you're working. They inherently don't trust their employees, and are always trying to find them slipping up. They're exhausting people to be around constantly, and my heart goes out to everyone who has a micromanager in their life.

The employee in this story was thrilled that he would have a couple of weeks where his manager and the rest of the C-Suite cronies would be out of town. Unfortunately, the manager canceled his vacation at the last minute, so now he has plenty of time to schedule last-minute meetings with his employees to "check in" on how they're doing, even though he really doesn't care about them or their well-being.

via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

_{An actor pretending to be an employee at his desk, who is stressed out that his micromanager is going to be in the office during the weeks he said he'd be out of town on a vacation.}
My boss canceled his vacation at the last minute. I am absolutely gutted.

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via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

_{A model representing an employee watching the World Cup on TV when his annoying boss is out of town on vacation with his wife.}
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via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

_{A representation of the boss in this story, who is relieved he gets to go to work and bother his employees instead of spending his precious time on earth with his family}
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What kind of person is excited about going to work and sad about going on vacation? He has clearly got a screw loose.
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I'm sure that 99% of those calls could've been handled via Slack or email.
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