December 10, 2025 at 1:35 am

Manager Wouldn’t Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That She’d Previously Approved

by Matthew Gilligan

man in an office

Shutterstock/Reddit

This is why you never, EVER mess with someone’s time off

And you can take that to the bank!

Check out what happened in this story from Reddit’s “Pro Revenge” page…we think you’ll be impressed.

Cancel my leave…. Say goodbye to your promotion.

“I used to work in a disability shared accommodation agency.

It’s a job where you support 4-6 people with disabilities who share the accommodation. It’s shift work, 2 clients per staff member during the day, and 1 staff member on a “sleepover” at night. The rosters are 4 week rotating rosters.

I was employed as a 0.75 meaning I work 75% of what is considered full time (equating to 57 hours a fortnight). Working shifts sucked, but the pay was good.

I was working in a house I’ll call Sunup.

Sunup had 4 residents and 7 workers. Each house had a house supervisor, they reported to the cluster manager (who managed 6 houses), cluster managers reports to the CEO.

They had rules about time off.

By company policy, leave requests are “first in, best dressed” meaning you need to put your leave in early to ensure you get it.

I was transferred to Sunup from a 6 client house due to my qualifications and situations I cannot legally disclose. I worked for the first year, got to know the staff, clients, house supervisor, etc.

There was an obvious “clique” between 4 staff members.

Each school holiday, 3 would apply for leave, and one would call in sick with a medical certificate covering the same amount of time.

These folks were being sneaky.

They would always rotate who is “sick” to hide what they were up to. They were friends outside of work who would party together.

After a year, the house supervisor fell sick. One of the Clique members “Karen” was appointed acting supervisor and it went to hell.

She tried reducing my hours and giving extra time to a friend. I pointed out that I’m contracted for 57 hours a fortnight so I’m getting paid for 57 hours a fortnight.

Her friends got extra shifts, were given the best shifts and we’re all around favored by Karen.

This was very frustrating.

In January, I put in leave for March school holidays, Karen reject it on the grounds that others had already submitted leave (her clique all applied for this time). I left this alone.

In March I checked the leave calendar for the June school holidays (each house had a leave calendar so management and staff can check who scheduled leave is) because it was empty.

I submitted leave again and it was rejected, Karen said “sorry, You were too slow, Karen said that A,B &C (clique) already submitted leave”.

The next day the leave calendar showed this.

In May I checked xmas leave calendar, put in my leave and sure enough, got the same result. This annoyed me as I have a family that I wanted to take on holiday.

I spoke to the cluster manager (also a part of the clique) who said there nothing I can do. Note, I had no leave taken in 2 years.

January the following year, the clique was on holiday, we had a gastro outbreak across our facilities so we were short staffed. All available staff (including CEO) were covering shifts.

I was rostered on with the CEO one shift, during the shift he said to me “You have a bit of leave accumulated. You should probably take some.”

Well…

Me ” I put in 3 requests last year, all were rejected as others apparently already applied for those dates.”

CEO, “let’s lock in your leave now”

Me “ok, how about 4 weeks over Xmas”

I filled out the form, CEO signed it off. He filled out the leave calendar and put my application in Karen’s pigeon hole.

I was on sleep over that night so I took my application, photo copied it for my self and replaced under the mountain of paperwork in her pigeon hole knowing she wouldn’t see it for a few months.

Well, what do ya know…

In March I checked the leave calendar, I noticed my Xmas leave disappeared replaced with Karen, A,B & C.

I didn’t say anything as I had a leave form with CEO’s signature.

Fast forward to October, the

The original house supervisor passed away, acting supervisor was appointed permeant supervisor by the cluster manager with a mandatory 3 month probation.

December comes around, first week of my leave, I get a call from Karen. “Where are you?”

Here it comes…

Me: “on leave”

Karen “I didn’t approve any leave, get your *** to work now”

I come in, Karen chews me out stating she didn’t get an application form, Karen went on to say “even if you submitted it I would reject it as you should know by now that we always take two weeks in December/January”.

She wrote me up for insubordination. I worked that shift, when Karen left I emailed the CEO filling him in on what happened. He called a meeting me and Karen.

CEO “what happened”

Karen cutting me off “He took it upon himself to approve leave, I wrote him up for skipping work”

ME: “actually I submitted leave in January, while you were away”

Karen “no you didn’t”

Boom!

CEO ” yes he did! I approved it and added it to the leave calendar” Karen “oh, um we already had 4 staff booked on leave” CEO “show me the leave forms” Karen ” Um I destroyed them”

Me handing Karen my copy of my form signed by the CEO.

CEO, “OP is on leave I’m going to Sunup and I’m investigating this situation. OP, my apologies go home, I’m extending your leave by an extra week”

I go home. I come in 4.5 weeks later to be told that Karen has lost her promotion, she is on thin ice.

She finally got caught!

CEO found out that Karen has been rejecting leave requests. She shredded my request without looking past the date. She deleted my leave from the calendar. The CEO told Karen that this borders on fraud.

The CEO also separated the “Clique” to different houses. He change the leave policy to state that he must sign off leave requests (in addition to house supervisor and cluster managers) He insured that all staff had access to prime leave dates.

Karen was fired 2 weeks later for failing audit requirements.”

Let’s see what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person didn’t hold back.

Screenshot 2025 12 04 at 1.20.02 PM Manager Wouldnt Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That Shed Previously Approved

Another individual chimed in.

Screenshot 2025 12 04 at 1.20.11 PM Manager Wouldnt Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That Shed Previously Approved

This Reddit user was impressed.

Screenshot 2025 12 04 at 1.20.32 PM Manager Wouldnt Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That Shed Previously Approved

Another reader had a lot to say.

Screenshot 2025 12 04 at 1.20.40 PM Manager Wouldnt Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That Shed Previously Approved

And this individual spoke up.

Screenshot 2025 12 04 at 1.20.57 PM Manager Wouldnt Give Employee The Vacation Time Off That He Requested, So He Got Her In Trouble When She Tried To Reject More Time Off That Shed Previously Approved

A word to the wise…

Never mess around with a worker’s vacation time!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.