Sometimes the fastest way to solve a workplace problem is to read what no one else bothers to read.

So what would you do if your company told everyone to use their vacation days before the end of the month, but your boss announced that no one could actually take time off? Would you accept losing your PTO? Or would you find a way to make sure you got to use it?

In the following story, one employee finds themselves in this situation and decides to do a little reading. Here’s what happened.

Boss said I must use my vacation before month end but also “no one can take time off”, so I read the policy

The company sends a shiny HR email, with a subject line in all caps that reads, “USE IT OR LOSE IT.”

Basically, we had to burn our remaining PTO by the 30th or it would evaporate into the sun.

The same day, my manager announced in standup that due to quarter-end, “No one can take time off until the 1st.”

After reading the handbook, she started submitting requests.

I asked how to reconcile that, and he shrugged and said Talk to HR. HR said talk to your manager. Cute loop.

So I opened the handbook, because I am a petty librarian when annoyed. Page 14 has this little sentence I never noticed. “PTO requests not explicitly denied in writing within 48 business hours are considered approved.” There is also a note that partial-day PTO is allowed in 1-hour blocks.

Thank you, legal team.

I submitted ten separate requests. Two hours every morning next week, two hours every afternoon the week after, a random Friday 3 to 5 to watch a plumber, and one full day to visit my mom.

Every request was approved.

I sent the requests through our HR portal, which auto-emails the manager and CCs a shared mailbox nobody watches. Then I went back to my tasks and set reminders.

Forty-eight business hours pass. No denial. The portal changes each request to approved, green checkmark, confetti gif.

Monday comes, and at 9.58, I put a cheerful note in the team chat, “Heading out, see you at noon.”

The manager pings me to hop on a client call; I reply with a screenshot of the policy and the portal approval. Silence. Then three dots typing, then nothing.

By Wednesday, our calendar looked like cheese.

The manager was concerned that his team was ineffective.

Half the team remembered they also had PTO sitting around and started filing it in little blocks.

Meetings kept colliding with green bars.

Finance realized that if we did not use the days now, they would be paid out at separation later, which they hate.

So, HR wrote a new post saying we should “Coordinate,” but that approvals already granted stand.

My manager called a huddle to ask why productivity dipped.

I said we are following HR’s instructions to use PTO.

Then, they got a new policy.

He said he meant in November.

I sent him the original email, timestamped this month. He sighed and said he never thought anyone would actually read the handbook.

I used every hour, took my mom to lunch, and my plumber fixed the cursed sink at 3.40 while I drank tea.

The very next week, a new policy appeared. It read that PTO must be requested in full-day increments during quarter-end, and managers must respond within 24 hours.

Thanks for clarifying, truly.

Wow! All that reading and planning really paid off.

Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit relate to this story.

This person would’ve taken full days.

Here’s a funny way of looking at it.

This reader is confused.

According to this person, they encouraged people to take the time to avoid burnout.

What a sneaky thing to do!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.