Boss told her to cancel her family holiday booked 5 months earlier — she responded firmly with one word

A front-office employee working in a multinational corporation was left dealing with blatant discord when her boss asked her to cancel her family vacation because the company was "short-staffed," even though she had gotten the leave approved as early as five months in advance. “I haven't experienced something like this in my entire working life,” wrote the employee u/educatedvegetable in a March 15 Reddit post.

Two vacations clash

The situation made the employee rethink whether she needed a “sanity check.” Even though she handled a lot due to the company being short-staffed, it wasn’t her responsibility to manage the vacation schedules of the company employees. Yet, when the employee's boss realized that her July vacation dates were lining up with hers, she called her out to cancel or reschedule her vacation. “I told her I can't, things are non-refundable, since I am a cog, I never considered my manager's schedule. That is not my job. She told me she could deny my PTO, and if I go, I would be released,” the employee wrote.

The author shared that it wasn’t just her, but also her partner and two kids who had planned their summer and were eagerly awaiting the family vacation. Besides, she had informed the management about the PTO months in advance, and there should have been no problem, if at all, for a corporation of that level to function without them for a week. So, she approached her boss’s boss to discuss a plan.

A cavalier threat

The employee crafted a schedule for task coverage, according to which both she and her boss’s boss would take a few hours each day to log in and review the work. After presenting the proposal to the higher-ups, her boss’ boss told her that he was “too important and highly paid” to sit at a front admin office, which meant she was being indirectly asked to cancel or reschedule her family vacation or else get fired from the job. The higher-ups even offered to pay a few thousand dollars to cover the scheduling fees, though the employee wasn’t satisfied. “They asked me to cancel it and go some other time. I said a firm no,” she described.

43% can't take a break due to 'workload'

As in the case of this employee, disapproval of vacation leaves by the employer can sometimes take a toll on the employee’s personal life, family life, or mental health. There is a big difference between a company offering these PTOs to the employee and one that actually encourages workers to use them. According to a survey by FlexJobs, nearly 18% report having no PTO at all in 2025, 34% don’t have enough time paid off, and 19% say their employer doesn’t support an employee taking off for a vacation. Moreover, 43% say "their workload is too heavy to justify time away, and 29% feel guilty about applying for leave.

Readers were unanimously on the author's side, and for good reason. “No. Not your job. Not your concern, not your responsibility,” asserted u/Obscillesk, jumping to their defense. u/kiwimuz echoed the thought, “If you were out sick for a week, they would cope, so they should not have any issue with you being on leave. They should be prepared for all staff to have leave without it disrupting business.” u/Mysterious_Cut_6416 said, “It sounds like you're underpaid.”

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