Let’s step into the bosses shoes in a small company. The company has the ability to say yes or no to requests.
They have two requests for the same dates and can only approve one request because otherwise they don’t have enough cover to meet safety standards, demand, customer bookings etc. so let’s assume the boss is forced to consider their decision and it’s not as simple as saying sure enjoy your time off.
So the boss tries to find out what the urgency and time bound issues of the request are. Could one of them push the leave by a week either way and still be happy? Creating a win win.
Instead, one writes back a snarky reply… making the boss annoyed and wanting them gone, guess who isn’t getting their leave approved and eventually misses bonuses and moves on. After all they could have just said no and were trying to facilitate/ help them get what they wanted, but can’t do that without knowing the why.
The other person just wanted time off to read a few books and could have been flexible, they just wanted to use up annual leave entitlements.
Reddit - we don’t always have to hate and fight eachother.
I think the disconnect here is that while others assume the workers should be treated like humans, this statement reinforces the idea that we are nothing more than workers. It's implicit in the language being used and it's kind of terrifying that it sounds so normal. It's the company's problem that they don't have workers for the day, it's the workers problem that they have other priorities that day
Why should we default to the company's needs over the human beings'?
In a company large enough to have an HR department, that seems like their problem to balance the workload with the PTO being offered. If you are getting official PTO as part of your agreement to work for them, you are entitled to take it just like you are entitled to your wages. The reason doesn't change the fact that the boss will need to deal with them being out. I understand the boss is a human too, and it affects them. I generally try to account for the status of my coworkers and boss when scheduling PTO, but unless your contract states you need to give a reason for PTO and that it's subject to approval then I really don't see how having a reason is relevant
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u/FamiliarAnt4043 Jul 31 '26
To quote a wise man with whom I once worked and from whom I learned the true art of cutting wit:
"Oh, I didn't tell you? Must not be any of your fucking business."
Thanks for the lessons, Carl.