It is annoying how some offices make you beg for vacations and holidays.

What would you do if your vacation requests were denied because you didn’t give enough notice, but when you gave more notice, the vacation was also denied because the vacation was too far in the future?

This user shares how his boss wouldn’t approve his vacation and how he got around it.

Check out the full story.

Give well in advance notice for vacation? You got it.

I had graduated with a Masters in Engineering degree in the USA. As an international student, I had 90 days to find a job or leave the country.

So when I received my first job offer (the only in 2 months) I was very excited and took it, to stop the 90day countdown.

He was settling with whatever was working…

This job was paid minimum wage and was several levels below my qualifications as a masters degree holder.

During this job which I had for about 9 months, a few of my vacation requests were denied with the reason given “not enough notice”

As this company relied on having inspectors available for emergency projects, the company relied on keeping inspectors employed without pay till a project was called in by a client.

They would have an inspectors at home without pay rather then them being on vacation.

Things got worse!

I needed vacation, it was month of October, to celebrate my girlfriend’s birthday. This time I had wised up and asked for vacation 1.5 weeks earlier.

The week I needed vacation, I followed up with my supervisor, he checked with the project manager, who proceeded to tell me the request was denied as I didn’t give enough notice and also didn’t follow up earlier so they could make arrangements for my replacement.

I didn’t get the day off to spend with my girlfriend she was sad but was mostly ok. But to make up for the birthday, we decided to take a long vacation in December, 2 weeks long to fly to the west coast.

Cue malicious compliance,

He was being extra cautious this time!

I filled and sent my December vacation request in October to my supervisor and project manager. I copied the scheduler and couple other supervisors in the area who I was assigned to from time to time.

I made sure to follow up every week or two till my December vacation. I hardly got any responses, while some responses said its still far out and they will check when my vacation comes closer.

Being sure my plan would work this time, we booked the flight, car and hotels/airbnb for our vacation by end of November.

December rolls around, I make sure to check verbally and by text message with my supervisors about my vacation request, and to remind them I show them the vacation request and the emails I had sent.

They were being extremely ignorant of his requests…

All say they will check but no one came back to me about the same.

By this time I had been promoted to team leader and would have a direct line of communication with the project manager when I was acting supervisor.

I would casually slip inquiries about my vacation in phone conversations and in emails when it related to my vacation timeframe.

December 20, 2 days before vacation. The company was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on retraining its entire workforce.

They scheduled my training during my vacation. (Yes, everyone knew trainings were going on but you didn’t get put on the list till and weren’t notified till a few days earlier)

That’s INSANE!

I reached out to my project manager and informed him about the vacation I was going to take and couldn’t attend the training.

He was furious, yelling on the phone that he never received my vacation request and I have no option but to attend the training.

To which I say I put the request 2 months in advance and that I even emailed him about the same.

He mentions I never followed up and that I cannot take the vacation.

I mentioned the follow up emails, the texts the over the phone conversations and my follow-ups with other supervisors and the scheduler.

UH OH…

He says he will get back with me and hangs up the phone.

I immediately open the work laptop and (which I now had as I was promoted) and forward the email conversations.

I get a call from the scheduler he was angry as well and says that never assume a vacation request to be approved only because you submitted it earlier.

To which I mention the email from project manager I received in October which stated, the vacation request needs to be submitted well in advance and needs to be followed up to be granted.

He says my chances of getting the vacation are very slim and I should better attend the training as only trained staff will be kept employed. Then he hangs up.

He was so mad at them for all of that!

I get a call from my project manager about 15 minutes later who is calm by now, asking my to cancel my vacation.

(my girlfriend by this point was furious and heartbroken at the same time, I assure her we will be going on this vacation even if it means I have to quit my job. She wasn’t thrilled with that either, as this would mean the 90 day counter to get a job would resume and we wont be able to enjoy the vacation)

To my project manager, I say cancelling my vacation means cancelling all the flight bookings and all reservations.

He goes back in rage mode saying how unprofessional I was and that I should have never made reservations till the vacation got approved.

He knew he had to do something about it…

In my mind: Whatever dude, last minute reservations cost too much to afford and are never convenient.

He says he will call me back.

30 minutes later, he had made arrangements for my training to be in the next class which was tomorrow.(2 days till vacation) It was a accommodation, food, travel, everything paid training.

I agree, go to the training, get paid for 8 hrs for both days of training free food and everything. Training venue is 150 miles away, they pay us 0.45 cents per mile.

Come back and go on vacation.

He found his way around the situation.

During the vacation, I get calls from other schedulers and supervisors to show up at some client, which didn’t need to but I answered, just to get their reactions.

Some of them were salty and said they will check with the project manager, that I might have to cut my vacation short.

I let them know I am across the country and if they are willing to pay for my losses and flight I would do that. (Knowing the company didn’t need my that much, I knew they wont go for it)

Some of my supervisors told me to enjoy and they would take care of stuff there.

I quit in January.

YIKES! That sounds so exhausting!

Who would have thought it would take months for a vacation to get approved!

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user shares how this boss sounds like their brother.

This user shares how their company wants everyone to take some time off.

This user says they;re lucky to have a decent job with allowances.

This user shares how something similar happened with them in the UK.

This user also claims to be lucky to have a nice contract!

These bosses sound really frustrating!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.