What would you do if you worked for a company with a very generous vacation policy and then the policy changed so much that your vacation time was cut in half? Would you accept your fate or would you find a way to get back at the company for the policy change?

In today’s story, one long-time employee is furious when the vacation policy changes, and he’s not about to accept it.

Let’s see what he does.

Get rid of my vacation? Have fun replacing me.

I worked at a company that gave out exorbitant amounts of vacation.

Anyone who worked there for 25+ years received 8 weeks of vacation and 2 weeks of personal time.

This was a family owned company, but rather large. We ran 3 shifts totaling 250+ people.

Jimmy has been at this company a long time.

Enter Jimmy.

Jimmy was a grissled old man, he started at the company when he was just 20, now he was 63 and gave absolutely zero cares.

Jimmy also knew how to make a specific part for our product, him and one other higher up in the office.

There’s about to be a very big change.

One day the plant owner comes out and announces he’s selling to a corporation.

He’s older and ready to retire, he promises that there will be very little change and wishes us all well.

The new company comes in and immediately goes after many of the great benefits we had.

The vacation time rules have drastically changed.

The first thing they do is cut everyone’s max vacation down to 4 weeks, and do completely away with personal time.

Anyone who’s maxed out had until December 31st of that year to use it up, and they wouldn’t pay it out.

They then go into the office and clean house, firing anyone who’s close to retirement. Including Jimmy’s back up.

But they also do away with one very important rule. You no longer have to get vacation approved, you can just call in and take it.

Jimmy did what he had to do.

Jimmy is mad, and they know it.

They realize he’s the only one in the building that can do his job now. So they hire a new kid for him to train, most likely to permanently replace Jimmy.

So Jimmy does what anyone would do.

He calls in the first training day for the new hire, and lets us know he’s going to use all of his PTO at once, and promptly takes 10 weeks off.

Jimmy used his time off wisely.

We had a back stock of parts he had made, so it wasn’t too unnerving.

But for 10 weeks, Jimmy went and applied to other jobs, found one, and started.

Fast forward 10 weeks.

Its the day Jimmy is supposed to return.

He doesn’t.

They can’t find Jimmy.

For two days they try calling him, and even go to his house.

He’s nowhere to be found.

Finally on day three he calls and resigns, and they lose their minds.

The owner found out what happened.

The parts he makes are specialized and patented by the original founder, you can’t just hire someone off the street to make them.

What eventually happened was they had to contract the original owner to come in a teach some new hires how to make them, and when he found out what all they had done it made him mad.

The last I heard he charged them a 7 figure contract to teach them how to produce the parts, and they had to pony up, or close down.

Moral of the story, don’t mess with people’s vacation time.

Wow! Vacation time is really important. They would’ve saved so much money if they had at least let those who had accrued the vacation time keep the time as a grandfathered in exception to the new rules. But, good for Jimmy!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Yes, it happens almost every time.

This is a good take away for any company owner.

This massage therapist shares a similar story.

This person thinks vacation time in America is “sad.”

The former owner could’ve fought harder for the employees.

Vacation time is essential for work life balance.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.