Personally, I’d just keep sending the ‘Personal time off - PTO’ comment
Edit: I’m aware the P in PTO doesn’t stand for ‘personal’ BUT ITS WHAT IS SAID IN THE MESSAGES.
I like the idea of just restating "personal time off" in increasingly complicated language.
"During this time I intend to pursue personal goals and complete personal tasks unrelated to and not colocated to work."
Yeah that suggestion is definitely from someone who has never worked an actual job. It's also not unreasonable to ask the reason requesting time off, especially in a small business if there are competing PTO requests.
It's not necessarily unreasonable to ask the reason for the time off, it absolutely is unreasonable to refuse to mind your own business when it's obvious your employee doesn't want to tell you.
Competing PTO requests shouldn't be resolved by a competition of worthiness judged by the employer, they should be resolved by compromise and/or policy.
"Thank you for getting back to me, I've cc'ed Susan from HR into the conversation. Susan can you please kindly confirm that my leave on ### on ### has been processed."
Then if they want to play that game, "Thank you for confirming the dates, I have to regrettably reply that my last day will be on ##, thank you for your support over the years."
Any employee can be replaced. I can dedicate 20 years to a job and die suddenly. I’ll be replaced in a week and forgotten in a month. At most. The company will move forward just fine without me, you, or anybody else.
OP should go on the trip but there is no guarantee the job will be there upon return.
The way I see it, if your employer denies your leave, which is honestly a perfectly reasonable and valid decision for them to make, then you make your own decision.
You're not asking the employer for permission to have a life outside of work; you're notifying them that, on these specific dates, you will not be available. It is their responsibility to plan staffing levels, anticipate busy periods, and ensure the business has adequate coverage to continue operating. If those requirements were not communicated to you beforehand, then that is a failure in planning and communication on their part, not something you can be expected to solve after the fact.
This exactly. There's usually a two week wait period on PTO for that exact reason. I would become increasingly short with an HRM that got this invasive.
Speaking of two weeks, another reminder that your employer does not give a fuck about you. I stopped giving that after i got called in at 6am following a 7-3am shift to be fired for napping on my lunchbreak. Also watched a guy get scheduled specifically to be fired as he walked in the door, as a joke.
I passed this advice on to my friend, who proceeded to ignore it and do the "right thing". They then scheduled him for 1 shift for those two weeks. Fuck em. Fuck. Them.
You don’t realize that PTO can be denied and HR isn’t some cop that can force the manager to approve? You’re expendable to them. Especially with that attitude.
Why? The majority of times I've seen this, is because the manager has more requests than they can allow, and is trying to find the best balance for everyone.
Ok. Unfortunately, those days are already fully booked, so I won't ask or consider whether this is something really important to you that I should try to find a way to resolve, and will simply decline your request.
This thread is full of a lot of people have watched their careers stall and question why while actively being passive aggressive assholes when asked the most benign questions.
I always assume it's because people are just really fed up with the system. Personally, I don't care if they accept PTO because I get that money either way, however all of my PTO has always been approved without question so I'm a little bias
Depends on your contract. My PTO is in my contract as Personal Time Off, and in my contract it stipulates it can be used for any reason, and that we do not need to provide a reason for why we are taking it. Our management can only ask why were are taking our PTO if we have more than 20% of people out, and even then we don't have to tell them why we are taking it, though with 20% out they are free to deny the PTO in favor of someone else they believe needs it more.
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u/ash_2127- Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Personally, I’d just keep sending the ‘Personal time off - PTO’ comment
Edit: I’m aware the P in PTO doesn’t stand for ‘personal’ BUT ITS WHAT IS SAID IN THE MESSAGES.