Everyone needs days off from time to time. And this is true regardless of your industry or job title.

It’s your time to recharge and come back feeling refreshed enough to tackle tasks.

But what happens when your job is so busy that your boss can’t let you have days off? Do you throw a fit and demand to take them anyway? Or do you make the situation work to your advantage?

In today’s story, a man found himself unable to take leave and ended up with a big payoff.

Boss has no time for my time off.

The company that I worked for had its work year for leave allocation between January 1st and December 31st.

The industry I work in (UK Construction) shuts down over the Christmas break, so mandatory leave is taken out of your allowance; that’s not a problem.

I have 25 days of leave to take, and the year in question was busy. I never had a chance to take any leave and managed to recharge on the national holidays throughout the year, with the odd day off here and there to pad it out.

We get to August, and I have put a week in for September, which has been approved, but then I am allocated to a job starting at the beginning of September. They need me to work that holiday.

In the long run, persistence usually pays off.

I am reluctant, and I warn the GM that if I don’t get a chance to take some leave, I will be finishing that year at the start of December. The GM says that’s fine.

So, I start the project, which is programmed to go into the following year.

The project is going well, but every 2 weeks I feel the management out for cover, so I can take some time off.

No dice, everyone is hammered.

So at the start of November I put my holiday request in to use up my leave…  And it gets approved! Bingo.

After that, each week, I email the Project manager and GM that I will be finishing on the 4th of December, and they need to line someone up for a handover to cover the month.

I ignored them, but I don’t care; we will look at it later…

Even the most organized companies can fail to plan.

3rd of December rolls up, I call the GM to wish him a good holiday, and say I will see him in the New Year.

GM starts panicking.

There is no one lined up for cover, and no one available to drop in. There has been no handover, so no one is up to speed on the project’s nuances.

Long story short, he agreed to pay overtime.

Now, this firm hates the idea of paying overtime unless it is for weekend work or overnight.

The Manager actually wanted me to defer my leave until the next year, but the company also had a use-it-or-lose-it approach to leave.

Adamant about getting his way, he stands his ground.

I wasn’t going for that, so for that month, I was being paid for my normal day as paid leave and flat rate overtime for the hours worked.

That’s double the time for a day shift for a month.

It gets better because on the day before the project shuts down for the Christmas break the GM calls me.

He needs someone to do a night shift with confined space qualification (at the time in the department that was only me) to supervise a contractor carrying out a survey for 6 hours.

Convo as follows.

Me- “What is the overtime?”

GM- “What do you want?”

Me- “Double time and a half”

GM- “That’s fine.”

Me- “Bugger, you agreed too quick.”

All of his sacrifices pay off… BIG TIME!

So the day after I work the last day that year on the initial project at double time (I left home at 0600), I get home at 1800 for a quick meal and a shower (1/2 hr), and I’m back out the door (1830) arriving at this other location at 1930 (worth noting that travel hours are on the clock, this isn’t commuting).

Contractor sets up to do this survey… They finished at 0500 the following day. I got home at 0630 and collapsed onto my bed.

To summarise that day alone, i got my 8hrs paid leave plus 12hours OT plus 12 hours at 2.5 times (30 hours).

In 24.5 hours I took pay for 50 hours. It was a good month. At the time I took about 2 grand a month home, for that month I think i took 7.5 grand.

They actually had a problem with paying the overtime so that it did not show up as a massive breach in hours worked regulation.

While working for the better part of a year with no time off is not ideal, obviously, it’s worth it sometimes.

Let’s take a look at how the folks over at Reddit responded to this story.

This person has a good point – is this even malicious compliance?

Employers have to be careful what they wish for sometimes.

Here’s someone who wouldn’t have taken the deal.

This person offers great advice!

Considering how much extra money he made that month, his hard work definitely paid off.

Still, some don’t think it was worth it.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.