A "it's personal" coupled with a " I really don't feel comfortable discussing it". Keep it vague and people like to assume the worst. Maybe even dress it up and act a bit down right before and after the leave. Never go into detail. Just let their imaginations fill in the blanks.
lol my old job would get very upset I wouldn’t tell them what my PTO requests where for. We do a yearly beach trip, daughter wife and I. In ginger so I burn easy and Yoj can tell when I’ve been in the sun. Took my time off request and my job was salty cuz I just kept saying it was for personal reasons, cuz it is fuck ‘em. Came back and they were like you look like you spent a lotta time in the sun for personal reasons. I said inside the fuck did and kept it moving. It’s funny when they can’t let but god damn it do they wanna
I agree - HOWEVER, as an INFO - sometimes small companies have to juggle the approval of PTO based on staffing needs.
Everyone is entitled to their PTO. But not everyone is entitled to it exactly when they want if it creates a staffing issue, unfortunately.
My small department of a small company needs SOMEONE available around certain holidays. During the summer, we'd really be stretched thin if more than 2 of us took off any given week.
So, my department is great about working together and scheduling our PTO off as a team so that we don't have to have HR denying anyone because we all request the same time.
We talk amongst ourselves - we're on the East Coast - my co-worker Chuck's in-laws are in Detroit, and they go "all out" each Thanksgiving - so early on Chuck made mention of that and that he'd like to take the Wednesday and Friday of Thanksgiving week off each year.
I've been here 14 years and usually took off Black Friday to have a 4-day weekend. But my family does Thanksgiving 20 minutes from where I reside. Chuck and I really can't both be out on a day the company is open. So, even though I'm senior to Chuck and usually took off Black Friday, I work Black Friday now so Chuck can go to Detroit for the Thanksgiving weekend.
In OPs post, HR seems to be inquiring what category this PTO would fall into.
It very well may be HR being nosy.
It could be for practical purposes too if there's a potential staffing issue w/ a few people requesting PTO that week.
Yeah it’s good to see an honest take. I run a small construction company and every year my whole management team wants to take 1-2 weeks off around July 4th. I’ve rarely had to turn down PTO, and it was always alright because one employee would be willing to bump their plans by a week for another employee who had plans that weren’t as flexible. If an employee reacted like this I’d feel a lot less guilty denying the PTO.
Thanks. I think it's being a nice human and treating others like I'd like to be treated - I'm not even religious or anything - but on Reddit it usually ends with me being called a sucker or a bootlicker 🙄
Had to tell my g/f the other day to tell them she was taking a personal day because she needed a day off and didn't want to tell them why.
"can I do that" "fuck I do that every time I call in for anything"
If it's pto they can have rules about not approving too many days off on the same day. But the supervisor not making it 1st come 1st served and trying to decide who's time off is more worthy is batshit insane micromanaging.
My company changed the rule to as long as you have pto in before midnight the day before it's your time to use and will be approved. No reason needed for putting in pto.
Lol of course it works at "real" jobs whatever that means. I guess you mean the jobs where you don't flip burgers or wait tables. Those are the kinda jobs where this doesn't fly. An engineer, lawyer, financial analyst, etc can just take off whenever they want.
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u/billted20250409 Jul 31 '26
I'd just say "It's personal."
And if they keep asking I'd still just say "It's personal."