Employee reveals how their favor to company was returned by being tricked into using paid time off

Employees oftentimes learn the hard way that being part of a team does not benefit them in a work setting. The stakes are always against them and they need to be very careful in doing favors. u/Terry_The_Tarrasque had an eye-opening experience in their workplace where despite taking one for the team, in the end, they were left with a monetary loss. In this instance, they were put into a situation where despite not wanting to, they were forced to give up their PTO, even though the leave they took was as a favor to the team and the company in general. They shared the entire story on Reddit.

The employee begins the post by sharing how his 'leave' came to be. They shared, "On Wednesday of last week we had a slow day and there wasn't enough work to go around." Since the company did not need all heads to be working at that time, they asked some of their employees to volunteer to be sent home. They made it clear that the employee would not be paid for the hours they would not work. Nobody wanted to lose on that pay and kept looking at each other. Knowing that there would be no conclusion to this, the employee decided to "take one for the team and offer to go home."

The employee was shocked when at the end of the week, they were informed that their worksheet does not have 40 hours. They thought this would be overlooked because the whole leaving fiasco happened at the company's behest. The manager informed them that they needed to use their PTO to equal the difference. So, not only did the employee lose the money for the missed hours but also their PTO just because they were a team player. They responded to the manager by saying, "I never agreed to use PTO for this." His simple answer was that they volunteered. Ultimately, the employee had to back down because the manager had their timesheet.

The employee still wants to do something about this and has saved the correspondence. They came to Reddit to ask people for suggestions on how to get back at the company. u/CollegeNW gave practical advice for the situation and wrote, "I’d send an email (while on the clock) noting that you would have never volunteered to go early had you known you would be forced to use PTO — you would rather go without pay for those hours. Then start working on quiet quitting. If they write you back and say, 'Sorry, ya. you have to use your PTO,' then reply, 'Good to know for future — will never volunteer again to avoid the risk of inadvertent negative effect to myself… obviously not cool.' The only good that possibly came from this is you might want to start looking for a new job and you have to 'use or lose' your PTO… so ironically may work out in your benefit to make sure you burn through that before leaving."

u/herpaderp43321 asked the employee to involve legal help, "I'd ask an employment lawyer on this one, but I don't see how he could force you to use your PTO if he also admits he sent you home. While yes, you did volunteer, he approved the request without any statement you would need to use your PTO, this feels like a bait and switch of sorts."

Such stories unfortunately are not uncommon. u/KoaPlyr615 in their post shared how their company in the name of improving the work culture, made employees apply for jobs they were already doing. This pattern of toxic and manipulative behavior has led to a consistent increase in negative emotions within employees.