It can be hard to feel that you’re worthy of excellent treatment by an employer when you’re doing a “grunt” job like serving or bartending, but it’s important to remember that they almost always need you more than you need them.

OP was working at a busy, fun place where he had met his girlfriend over the summer.

Many years ago I worked hospitality, friendly local bar, good staff, locals and management.

All in all a pretty good gig.

My girlfriend at the time was studying about 5 hours drive away and was an ex-workmate at the same bar. We’d worked together over the summer and then got together once university started.

Now she lived several hours away going to University, and as there was a big game coming up, he decided to take the opportunity to go and spend some time with her.

Our local sports team had a game coming up in a couple of months playing in her city, it was always a big party night in a student town, so I decided to get tickets and take the weekend off to spend time together.

He put in for his leave and it was approved.

Duly put my leave request in and with 6 weeks to go this was accepted by management.

Everything was looking good for a great long weekend away with her.

Then a few weeks before the event, his boss told him he wanted to go to the game and so OP would need to stay and work.

Nearly a month later on a Thursday 15 days out from the big event. my boss came to me and said as he had decided to attend the game he was cancelling my leave and I would have to do closing shifts over that weekend.

He said no, it was already approved and he had made his own plans.

I argued he had accepted my leave, I already had tickets and had also booked accommodation for some sweet after-match interaction so this wouldn’t work.

This was when he uttered the statement in the title.

When his boss told him to work or don’t bother coming back, OP called his bluff and resigned, effective the day his vacation was set to begin.

I instantly saw the solution, literally grabbed a napkin off the bar and wrote my resignation out under his nose and handed it to him.

He refused to accept it.

I informed him that it would be foolish to not have cover for me starting in 14 days as that was my notice period and I was going regardless of whether he accepted or not.

He had a great time out of town and ended up getting his job back, too.

Outcome: I had a marvellous weekend away, he had to work that weekend as he was unable to replace me and when I bumped into his wife a week after returning home she told me he had been slammed on game night, and they still hadn’t replaced me and eventually asked could I come back.

We agreed to a meeting time and had a good chat about things and I got offered my old job back with another $1.50/hr thrown in.

I ended up working for him another 4 years with no drama after that.

Alls well that ends well, right?

In this case, at least, that’s true.

The top comment actually patted the boss on the back…eventually.

Sometimes you just have to let them miss you.

You have to put yourself first, because most employers won’t.

And it can be a very simple choice.

Other times, it might be time to move on.

This is the happiest of all possible endings.

Good for OP and his boss!