This happened in 2017, the before times!
I was working for a large bank in Scotland, it was a terrible call centre job, but it paid decent. It was soul destroying so i went part time. When i was part time it got really bad – i would man a line by myself for hours every day with 100+ calls waiting until my colleagues arrived.
But the the holiday bookings were the worst. I went on a big trip one year which i got approved two month in advance. Next year i decided to do the same and was told no, you can book two weeks out only. They would routinely get a request for a week and let you take the first day and the last but not the whole thing. I was understandably annoyed at this as the big trip i booked was several thousand dollars in flight fares and i couldn't risk being denied.
So i handed in my notice and decided to do some woofing in the highlands of Scotland instead. I also planned a trip on my last weekend shift and as i didn't get the holiday i swapped my shift with a colleague. This was to visit my boyfriend who was leaving the country soon after as his visa ran out.
Now it's my last week, all is arranged, my colleague is happy to cover. My manager approaches me suddenly and says the last shift is actually at our contingency office and arrangements to get there were made for me not the colleague so i can't swap with them. I said the colleague Iives two doors down from me so the arrangements will be the same and that person is 100% aware and fine with it. They said no anyway without a lot of explanation.
So i said ok fine. Next week i called in sick and decided never to come back.
During that week i got a thick envelope with the company's sick leave policy , about 100 pages. Then i got a call with the person threatening me to not pay my termination pay. I said to then I'm sick and not coming in. It was true – i was on antidepressants and the thought of work just made me physically ill. They sent me another letter with the same printed sickness policy. I was LIVID, called then and let it rip over the phone how they are not going to intimidate me and i am not coming back especially after I've been threatened. I never looked back.
It was a great weekend away, and i never regretted it. Living life is more important than any horseshit job every time. No one can stop you from leaving a job.
Now that i think back i should have contacted a union or something about the holiday booking practices, but as an immigrant, young person, and a mentally depleted person i did not think of that. The end 🙂
Btw. I married the boyfriend too 🙂
Edit: spelling and grammar