A worker has been left fuming after his boss tried to cancel his annual leave that had been booked in for months. The wild message exchange was posted by Ben Askins, an entrepreneur who shares people’s “worst boss” experiences online.
The message exchange began with the worker, Paul, reminding his boss, Tim, that he would be off for two weeks and copying in his handover notes for another colleague while he was away and checking whether anything else needed to be done. But the response wasn’t what he expected.
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this,” Tim wrote. “I really don’t think we can afford to have you take your time off with everything that’s going on. I think we’re going to push your holiday back a couple of weeks if that’s cool.”
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Taken aback by the response, Paul sent a message back saying: “I can’t tell if you’re joking right now?”
His boss then confirmed it wasn’t a joke and explained the team was “flat out as it is” and “can’t afford to be a man down when we’re this busy”.
“Things should be a bit quieter next month and you can take time off then. You know I hate to do this, but sometimes I don’t have another option,” he wrote.
The worker replied saying he had already booked a trip away, including flights, and his time off had been on the books for months and couldn’t be moved last minute.
His boss replied saying he didn’t realise he was heading abroad but “regardless” the company was “still too busy” for him to take the time off.
Annoyed, Paul pushed back and suggested the company could have brought in some extra support given they had known about the leave for months.
After having “a think”, the boss then suggested a “compromise”, writing: “How about if you work remotely for the next two weeks, just don’t go telling everyone about it as I don’t want this to become a regular thing.”
The message exchange ends with a disgruntled Paul calling the request “ridiculous” and saying they should have a phone call to discuss.
Boss lashed over move
Askins slammed the boss over the move and said he had “no idea” what the boss was “playing at”. He also criticised the so-called “compromise” for the worker to work remotely while on holiday.
“They’re still doing two weeks’ work, that’s not a compromise,” he said.
Askins said he caught up with the worker following his holiday, who shared that he ended up doing some work while away but not the full two weeks.
“When they got back they immediately started looking for a new job and they left as soon as they got a new offer,” he said.
Askins’ video has received hundreds of comments, with many siding with the worker and saying they would not have changed their holiday plans if they were in his situation.
“If my boss did this to me, my only reply would be a resignation letter,” one said.
“My work tried this, told them to cover the 4k cost of holiday and I’d do it, they said no, so obviously the work wasn’t that important…” another added.
One boss weighed in, writing: “I always tell my employees their leave needs to be flexible as business needs may change. it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”
But this also didn’t go down well with some, with one person responding: “Need to manage your workload better if you end up with situations like this. Good way to lose staff.”
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