Manager slammed for ‘ludicrous’ rule around annual leave

A boss has been blasted for cancelling an employees annual leave all because of one ‘ludicrous’ rule.

A boss has been torn to shreds over a “stupid” annual leave rule that resulted in them abruptly cancelling an employee’s family holiday.

The text exchange between the manager and an unnamed employee garnered major attention online after being shared on TikTok by popular creator, Ben Askins.

Mr Askins is an entrepreneur and managing director of a digital agency in the UK and is often sent details bizarre workplace interactions that he then shares with his followers.

In this exchange, the employee reaches out to her boss after noticing her leave for the start of May had been cancelled out of the blue.

The manager then informs her that another staff member, Louis, had just asked for that same week off and said that they couldn’t have them both off at the same time.

The text exchange left social media users stunned.

Creator Ben Askins shared the exchange on his TikTok. @ben.askins/TikTok

When the employee pointed out that Louis had requested the time off after her, the boss said: “Yeah I know but he is more senior and company policy is that the more senior person gets priority.”

The employee was clearly stunned by this policy, noting that she had booked in the leave months ago and that her whole family was going away together that week.

But the boss remained unmoved, telling her that he was sorry but there was “nothing” he can do and that she can go away the week after.

“You can’t do this, what if I spoke to Louis and asked him if he could move it?” she said

The boss replied: “Do what you want, as long as one of you is in, I don’t care.”

The employee then spoke to Louis, who informed her that he had no idea she was meant to be off that same week and he was happy to move his leave to another date as he had no solid plans.

After reading out the exchange, Mr Askins tore into the manager, branding the annual leave rule “ludicrous”.

“What a waste of time,” he said, adding the employee was having the stress about her family holiday all because of the “absolute incompetence by the manager”.

Mr Askins said that, while it is reasonable for a company to tell employees that they can’t all take their annual leave at the same time, leave should be booked on a first come first served basis, not by seniority.

The boss said he ‘didn’t care’ as long as one of the employees was working that week.

Mr Askins was stunned by the manager’s ‘breathtaking incompetence’. Picture: @ben.askins/TikTok

He also pointed out that this whole situation could have been avoided if the manager had informed Louis that the other staff member had booked off those dates when he first requested the leave.

“He would have saved her a huge amount of stress,” Mr Askins said.

He also slammed the suggestion from the boss that she could just go away the following week instead, noting that her accommodation and travel arrangements with her family were likely already booked.

“This little attitude of ‘do what you want, as long as one of you is in I don’t care’. I mean, look, with the greatest respect, it is your job to care,” Mr Askins said.

“If you did care even slightly you would have avoided all of this and she wouldn’t have presumably spent quite an unproductive afternoon stressing about holidays.

“Just breathtaking incompetence this one.”

The video has been viewed more than 340,000 times and has sparked hundreds of comments from stunned viewers.

Many commenters claimed that, while it wasn’t uncommon in some companies for seniority to be considered when booking leave, it should only be a factor before one of the requests is approved.

This means that once one person has their leave approved, a more senior person cannot take precedence in booking leave for those dates.

Others claimed that, if this happened to them, they would be looking for a new job as soon as they got back from their holiday.

“That is unacceptable. I would start looking at my options after the holiday,” one person said.

“I’d be out of there so fast. What a ridiculous rule!” another added.

One wrote: “My first priority when I come back from holiday would be finding a new job.”

Originally published as Manager slammed for ‘ludicrous’ rule around annual leave