Not specifically aimed at me but sure as heck feels like it.
So I work on the federal side of things and got an interesting tidbit from a higher up. Essentially the way it works in my building is Employee / 1st line / 2nd line / Chief / Assistant Director/ Director. Hes the Chief in this scenario. As anyone who knows federal work you earn leave time off and sick leave every paycheck which are every 2 weeks. Depending on your time there you could potentially earn 4/4, 6/4, or 8/4 Comp/sick leave, and to cap out it takes roughly 2 years to hit 240 hours depending on what level you are at. (Hint: it takes nearly 15 years of service to hit the 8/4).
Context over. So I was at a meeting on Friday discussing safety measures within the building and the meeting ended and we were doing small chat with some of the other leadership in the room. The discussion of “vacation leave” came up somewhere in the room and these leaders + chief decided to talk about it. I ended overhearing the boss state that “Mechanics who don't have at least 100 hours saved up are unreliable and will never leave being a mechanic in my mind.” In my brain, I was like “who the crap are you to tell me what I can and can't do with my leave whenever I please and why does that factor into my promotional status?”
This comes from a chief who by the way was only a mechanic for a mere 2 years of his career, not ex military in any way shape or form, and has one of those dead style degrees you get from most sports scholarships. He also has essentially dragged down the entire morale of the building with his stupid unfiltered commentary that isn't needed. Mind you, for the work we do I would get paid 40% more going private sector for the work we do yet leadership makes around 50k more than I do a year while going to meetings and talking about deadlines the entire time. Long story short, I am very close to finishing my degree while working at this facility and once done am looking for other employment. The toxicity in the air is so bad I know at least 10 of the 15 people on my crew are willing to literally stop work because of the statements this chief has made and our crew is kind of necessary for this building to keep operating.
TLDR: Ignorant boss claims that because workers don't have enough leave saved up that means they are unreliable and don't deserve raises or promotions or even lateral moves to other crews. Meantime he gets put into a leadership position making 100k+ a year.