We all love paid time off, but in the States, at least, it can be hard to find time to take it.

Which is obviously an oxymoron and also not a good thing, but it is what it is.

When this person’s boss got petty over a single day of vacation, though, they regretted it.

Because they went ahead and took every last drop of time they’d accumulated.

Check out the details!

Can’t carry over one PTO day? See you in February.

“I worked for a 24 hour news organization. So someone needs to be in the studio at all times.

As a staff monkey I had things like PTO and vacation time which I usually didn’t use too often but we were allowed to carryover 5 unused day each year, as long as we used those days in the first quarter of the following year.

However, the end of the year is in high demand for off time because most people needed to burn unused vacation time the couldn’t carry over.

It seemed to be all planned out.

Management, wisely, makes sure everyone knows the policies and schedules December well in advance so there aren’t any last minute converge issues around the holidays.

Since I didn’t use a lot of my PTO during the year, due to built up comp time and OT I generally used it the week between Christmas and new years and took about 10 days off around then.

One particular year I had 6 days left – one extra day. But since I already took off the time between Christmas an new years already there literally wasn’t a day left for me to use as a day off as no one was left to cover a shift if I were to take off.

Come on!

I went to the scheduler and management and asked for either a one-time exception to carry over the extra day and I’d take it on January 2nd, extending off time by one day (no go – I didn’t do it with the required notice) or pay me one day’s wages for the unused time (also a hard no go).

Here’s the malicious compliance.

Since I had so much built up PTO due to working holidays or comp time for OT work I had a ton of other days banked.

Combining my already booked holiday break with my 5 carryover days and the 10 new ones I got for the new year, plus some holidays that come in the early part of the year, I figured I was able to take enough time off that I would leave for my Christmas break on 12/24 and not return until the last week of February – nearly March.

Sounds great!

And since I did it with enough notice, they couldn’t deny me.

They now have to cover about 2 months of my shifts.

The next day I put my time off in the system and emailed the scheduler a note saying have a great holiday I will see you in March!

The day following I received a call from the VP of the department asking me what they need to do.

I said simple, let me carry over my extra day, I will use it on Jan second you have almost a month to cover one shift and we’re all good.

I got the carryover day and used it.”

Take a look at how Reddit users reacted.

This person had a lot to say.

Another Reddit user chimed in.

This individual shared a story.

This person weighed in.

And this individual talked about how it works in Australia.

This is the thanks they get for following the rules?!?!

Sadly, this happens all too often.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.