Whether I’m on vacation or using a sick day, I like to think of my PTO as time when I’m being explicitly paid to NOT work. Like, on those days, relaxing is my job.
But unfortunately, too many bosses out there treat employees’ vacation time like any other work day. Even worse, some bosses take it as a personal offense if workers aren’t available at their beck and call — no matter how many months in advance their PTO was requested.
Recently, u/dogmom200 shared a story in r/Antiwork about their boss’s reaction after work texts during vacation time went unanswered, and their experience stirred up a lot of conversation.
They wrote, “Over the holidays, I was on vacation time for two weeks. I ignored the calls, texts, and emails from my boss. Now, I’m back and have a meeting with HR. I don’t even know what to say!”
After meeting with HR, they added an update to answer some questions and share what happened next. They wrote, “*UPDATE: I’m a junior employee with no company phone. HR says my boss feels ignored and was ‘worried about me’ since I didn’t respond while on vacation. He claims a third party had a question for me on December 22 (something that could have waited).”
Finally, they said, “They gave me a ‘verbal warning’ because my egomaniac boss feels this is not the first time I’ve been ‘insubordinate’ to him ?♀️. I’m already applying to new places as we speak.”
In the comments, people are sharing similar stories of bosses who simply can’t be bothered to respect peoples’ private time. One person wrote, “I once worked for a Fortune 100 company. SIX MONTHS before my vacation, I began notifying everyone of my upcoming two-week honeymoon and that I would be out and unavailable for those two weeks. I made sure that these notices were sent weekly along with my end-of-week reports to every division that I supported.”
Another person shared, “Had a district manager call me one time while I was on vacation about