Use it or lose it, baby!

That’s the way PTO works at some companies, so you better use that time off before it disappears forever.

That’s what this worker did, and they picked a time of the year that didn’t jive with what was going on at their company.

But hey, rules are rules!

Check out what happened!

Use all your PTO before December 31 or lose it? Alright, don’t mind if I do even if the project burns.

“This happened a couple of years ago at my old job.

A pretty demanding corporate gig where we were always juggling tight deadlines, constant emails, and way too many meetings that could’ve been Slack messages.

Around early November, HR sent out one of those all-staff emails with a bright red banner and urgent tone.

This sounds important…

It read something like:

REMINDER: All unused PTO must be taken before December 31st. We will not be allowing rollovers this year. Please schedule your remaining days immediately or risk losing them.

No exceptions. No flexibility. No consideration for project timelines.

Now, I wasn’t one to take a ton of time off during the year mostly because every time I tried, something urgent would come up and I’d get guilted into postponing.

So by November, I had 10 full days of paid time off just sitting there. And according to HR’s big red warning, I had about 6 weeks to use them.

If you say so!

Naturally, I did what any burnt-out, under-appreciated employee would do: I opened the calendar and booked myself off from December 18 to December 31. Two full weeks. Right before the New Year. Smack in the middle of the most chaotic time in our project cycle.

A week later, my manager (let’s call him Rob) came to me in a mild panic.

Rob: Hey, I saw your PTO request. I was hoping we could shift that a little. December’s going to be a critical time for [project name], and we really need all hands on deck.

Me: Yeah, I get that, but HR sent that PTO deadline. If I don’t use those days, I lose them. And I’ve already worked through enough vacations this year.

He looked uncomfortable but couldn’t argue with the logic. I even forwarded him the HR email with the subject line: Using My Days. As Required.

He escalated it to HR, of course. HR’s reply?

We understand it may be inconvenient, but our PTO policy is final. Managers are responsible for planning around employee availability.

That reply felt like Christmas came early.

Smell ya later!

So I prepped my team as best I could, left detailed notes, and on December 18, I logged out, stress-free.

While they were scrambling to hit deadlines, dealing with last-minute client requests, and working late… I was sipping hot chocolate, watching Netflix, and actually enjoying my holiday season for once.

When I came back in January, the project had been delivered, barely. The team was exhausted, mistakes had been made, and the post-mortem meeting was basically 45 minutes of finger-pointing. But no one dared say a word to me.

After all, I was just following HR’s rules.

Moral of the story:

If a company insists you follow policy to the letter, don’t feel bad when you do even if it means watching the ship catch fire from your cozy vacation cabin.”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person spoke up.

Another individual chimed in.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

Another individual had a lot to say.

Whatever you say, boss!

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.