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Manager demands employee returns to work midway through annual leave

Home> Community> Life

Published 12:48 19 Dec 2023 GMT

Manager demands employee returns to work midway through annual leave

Internet users have been left baffled by the boss' demand after their conversation was shared online

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

When you're on vacation, you want to be totally disconnected from work.

The last thing you want is to get a message from your boss - especially if that message is demanding that you come back to work midway through your break.

Thankfully, I don't think this is a scenario that happens too often. At least, I certainly hope it's not.

It's not completely unheard of, though, as TikToker Ben Askins (@ben.askins) proved when he read a conversation thread between an anonymous employee and their boss, who'd found themselves suddenly understaffed.

“Hey I am sorry to do this so late, but there has been a mistake with the annual leave and I am going to have to cancel the second half of your annual leave this week,” the boss said in the text to the employee.

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They went on to explain that the employee would 'need to be in the office Thursday and Friday'. There was just one small problem.

The employee was very far away from work at the time.
TikTok/@ben.askins

Since the worker had previously had their vacation time approved, they'd already hopped on a plane to another country.

Attempting to remind their boss of this, they responded: “Huh? But I am already in Mexico?”

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As it turned out, the boss knew they were in Mexico. They apparently just didn't care.

"Sorry, like I said, there is nothing I can do," they responded. "I am going to update the system now saying you will be in.”

Needless to say, this caused some confusion for the employee who was, as I mentioned, in an entirely different country.

“But I won’t be in?" they wrote. "I am literally in another country, there is no scenario where I can make it back in time.”

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The brazen boss wasn't going to back down though, and even took the liberty of checking flights for their worker as they insisted they would 'have to move [their] flights around'.

"I have just checked and there is one on Wednesday evening that you can get," they continued.

TikToker Ben was left absolutely baffled by the boss' request.
TikTok/@ben.askins

It's a baffling demand, and one that left even the worker asking if they were 'serious', but the boss made clear it was 'definitely not a joke'.

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"I am not asking, I am telling you the situation," they wrote.

“I appreciate it isn’t ideal but too many people are off Thursday and Friday so you are going to have to be back here by then. I have updated the system."

The employee decided to put their foot down at the end of the exchange, outright refusing to come back and adding: "If you push this I will be reporting this.”

You might be wondering if this is legal.

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Well, according to Winston Solicitors, employers can cancel your annual leave at pretty short notice if they have a legitimate business reason for doing so, but they must give at least some warning - and not pipe up when you're already overseas.

The law firm wrote: "Before cancelling an employee's pre-booked leave, employers must give notice, preferably in writing and with as much notice as possible.

"The notice period should be at least the same length as the period of leave booked, meaning if an employee has booked a week's leave, the employer must give notice of cancellation at least a week before the first day of that leave."

Featured Image Credit: TikTok/ben.askins

Topics: Viral, TikTok, Travel

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.

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