A little background, I'm in management for a company that has been doing fine, but is worried about shareholders during the market slide (cough recession cough). This means positions we had asked for at the beginning of the year to account for customer growth have been out on hold. Backfill for people leaving have been put on hold. I had a new employee just walk away in January, I'm sure he was testing 2 jobs at once, but can't prove it. That position has been frozen though… Because ya know, gotta help the bottom line and screw the guys and gals on the ground doing all the work.
Another employee found a role elsewhere doing less work, same perks and better pay. I've personally congratulated this dude. He's worked hard and I'm glad he found something better. He's going to do great. Another guy has a parent in poor health in another country. He asked to extend his currently planned vacation to spend more time with family, since this will inevitably be the last visit with that parent. I had a discussion with my boss about borrowing someone from another team or maybe a temp contractor to help while this other guy is out. He's banked the PTO, so I have no issue with it. I truly want to be accommodating and it's not his fault upper management sucks ass. My boss asks “he knows the team is down and he still would rather take vacation than help the team”? I tried to explain the situation and it didn't change things. His answer was just “well, don't deny it if he wants it, but it's a shit thing to do”. I clapped back with “maybe upper management shouldn't have drug their feet on this backfill and maybe they should have given us that other backfill earlier this year. I've told my employee my boss isn't happy with it, but I'll approve whatever he wants to do.
Like seriously, WTF, man? Insane to blame a hard working employee for the shortsightedness of upper management. Been here 15 years and this dude has been my boss for 6months, but I think it's time for something new. Maybe once I have a new job, I'll comeback and post some names.