Seriously? RANT

[Ava]

So yesterday I went by my boss's office to say goodbye because I'm going on vacation.
He has known I'll be going away for the last three months. I put in a request for two weeks vacation. He knows also that I'm an immigrant and I have to travel around 15 hours to reach my destination. Add to that I have to be at the airport three hours in advance, and the three hours it takes me to get to the airport, and you are looking at a 24 hours trip each way. The plane tickets hover around $800-1K. So, going there for less than a fortnight is really not possible for me.
Well, yesterday he tells me nobody here is supposed to take more than a week off at a time.
I looked at him and thought; seriously? I put in my request months ago and you didn't say anything. I asked him to clarify, and he said he understood my situation, but the higher-ups don't.
So, basically, he asked me to put in the system one week instead of two, and he'll come up with an excuse later why I stayed there one extra week.
First of all, something like that may fly once, but what about next time I go on vacation? 
Second, I don't feel like lying, or like "disappearing" from my job for a week. That, to me, is job abandonment.
So I told him to say that I had asked for only one week, but a few days ago something happened with my family and I had to take an extra week. Out of the blue, unexpected, etc.
To be honest, my boss is an excellent person, so I am willing to take the heat for him in front of higher management, specially because he looked so scared about how his own boss would react to him giving me two weeks off.
I mean, he's been there for a decade, has a family to support, and that is his career. 
I feel I am just a passerby there. If management is not happy with me, they'll probably won't consider me for promotions, but I don't want to stay there that long.
I am extremely grateful they hired me right out of school, giving me the chance to get much needed experience. I've learned a lot there, my boss being patient and a really good mentor. The work atmosphere is good, they are very lenient with time schedules.
On the other side, they gave me a whooping 1.42% percent raise, which translates into $5 on every biweekly paycheck. Also, the main area where you can grow there is into commercial lending, and I don't want to do that. I am going to do a Master's Degree, and then sit for the CPA exam. That's my career goal. I don't want to be a credit analyst or a loan officer.
I don't understand how they are not willing to bend their one week vacation at a time for a special case, like employees who have to travel so far. I also cannot get my head around my boss's attitude of keeping quiet, then dropping that bomb on me just hours before I'm going on vacation. Basically, he said we'll both be in big trouble for this. So, I told him to blame me, and I am leaving in a few hours. I'm going to have an excellent time.
But really; seriously?

[happyscooter]

Emails to back up his OK?

[Shooby]

A lot of employers are idiotic.  They do everything they can to try to withhold people's vacation time.  It is ridiculous.  When you hire someone they get X time off, so let them take their X time off whenever they want.  Like the world can't go on for a week or two without someone. It is absurd.  Unfortunately, it really depends on your need for the job.  If you can afford to lose this job, then just go and let the chips fall where they fall. 

[happyscooter]

Do you have anything with documentation that he approved this?  He is saying 'you will both be in trouble'??

[raeoflyte]

Have a good time on your trip!

When you get back gather your documentation that you were approved for 2 weeks off and just hang on to it if the higher ups come looking.

Your boss shouldn't be laying this on you right before you leave. It sounds like he messed up and is trying to spread the blame around.

[Peace77]

It sounds like your boss didn't plan well to cover your absence and is trying to lay a huge guilt trip on you to get you to change your mind.  

If there is a policy of only taking one week at a time, it should have been mentioned long time ago.

[Ava]

He messed up. He let this slide for months, and just tells me hours before leaving that there's a problem.
The sad part about it is that it so slow in our department, that we are all looking for something to do in the afternoon. We have about three or four empty hours every day.
Unfortunately, I don't have any documentation as of him agreeing to give me two weeks vacation. He has a calendar printed out where everybody writes down their requests for time off.
Mine's been there for the last three months. At the time I asked, he agreed verbally.
But I'm not too worried about it. He's a decent guy and I know he won't throw me under the bus.
He's been there forever, so I guess the worst for him would be a warning. Same for me, I guess.
Financially, I think I'll be ok if I lose this job, but I don't see it going to that extreme. 
Besides that, I am not going to start looking right away, but my mind is already on greener pastures.
CPA license and moving to another state. So, the inconvenience won't be that bad, if it comes to being dismissed from there. I have enough money to support myself for around 3 months, and I'm not afraid of working retail, fast food, cashier, waitress, teller jobs to increase my income.
It's just a stupid policy, I think, and totally unfair for some of us, who have a horrible trip to visit family. They didn't mention this at any point in the interview process, my boss didn't mention it until yesterday. I'm just in disbelief.

[Shooby]

  Just go and let him fuss.  They will make do.

[milee]

For now, enjoy your vacation.

This sounds like a fairly large company with a set corporate structure - the kind of place that has an employee policies manual.  When you return from vacation, time to pull out (or access online) the manual and see what it says about vacation.

If the policy is for one week vacation increments, that won't fit your future needs.  In that case, start looking for a new job when you get back.

[Sharon]

It could be that the boss has also gotten some flack from some other employees who are wondering why Ava gets to take two weeks when they don't.

Ava enjoy your visit home.

[Shooby]

  Well, that is reasonable.  If someone else can take 2 weeks, i would want to be able to as well.  Companies just need to stop the nonsense and let people take their few weeks whenever they want too.

[zibazinski]

We have a lot of immigrants here. When they take vacations, they are usually gone a month or even more. It takes hours to get where they are going and it's spendy. Life goes on.

[Deleted]

I agree with Milee. If there's a one week policy then it should be written.

Enjoy your vacation and return with a goal to start looking for another job.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Tell him you want to see the one week only policy in writing, and you want his advice to go for two weeks but say it was one week and something came up in writing.  I'm betting the one week only policy is more of an unspoken rule, and he can't actually produce a policy, and no manager with half a brain would hand an employee a document where they admit to telling them to lie to upper management.  If you ask for those things, just in case of course not trying to get anyone in trouble, the next words out of his mouth are probably going to be some variation of, "Enjoy your two weeks and we'll see you when you get back."

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...I agree with the "seriously?" thought...


...enjoy your vacation... worry about standing your ground upon your return to the office...

[Opti]

I hope Dark is right, but it also may be a policy that came down from upper management recently. I wonder what the boss would have done though if the OP hadn't stopped by?

I'd ask for a forward of the email or documentation if possible before you left.
If not, at least document when you talked to him and what he said somewhere so you can produce it if necessary. Sounds fishy to me, but hopefully he's just a wuss.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"We have a lot of immigrants here. When they take vacations, they are usually gone a month or even more. It takes hours to get where they are going and it's spendy. Life goes on.":::...

Same here; a lot of folks from India, some from China, and so on.  Most of them save up their time and take a full month.  It can be tough, as when one person is most familiar with a particular issue, and is gone for a long time.  The world keeps spinning, though.

[milee]

My guess is that anybody at a job which they can leave for a month had better prepare themselves for the possibility of tiny raises, salary caps and flat out being replaced over time.  If you can be gone for a month and you're not valuable enough that this absence impacts the company, either you're just not that valuable to them or there's a large pool of qualified, available, alternate potential employees.

 

The exception to that rule are Union type workplaces and jobs for which the work is transactional but a difficult or expensive certification are required (pharmacists are a good example of that.)

[raeoflyte]

My dad was a CPA and he negotiated a very reduced work schedule in the summer during the slow season. He didn't earn 6 figures, but he made good money and had a lot of time off which was more important to him.

Ava may be able to do something similar.

I now get 6 weeks of vacation a year, but I'm not sure how I will ever get to use it.

[wvugurl26]

We have a lot of people out at year end. Basically everyone knows you better get it done by the first week of December or it's not happening. Any annual leave over 240 hours has to be used by year end so you have lots of people out then. Either they planned it that way or they never use their vacation time. We arrange coverage for higher up positions and go on with life. It's across all agencies so they aren't going to be replacing everybody. I think some agencies have policies that use or lose leave must be scheduled by late November/early December.

[Shooby]

Only  2 weeks vacation is uncivilized!

[Shooby]

My business partner takes off 4 months.  He owns a condo in Costa Rica and he is gone from Jan to April!