I work for a tech company through a third party. I wanted to take a 3-week vacation and needed to take it as a leave without pay. I contacted my tech company manager and confirmed it’s possible and she approved the dates of my leave. Now I need to confirm it with my reporting manager, who was on a month long vacation. So I reached out to other 2 managers who are in charge. I submitted the request and then one of them said that he’ll take care of it and I can plan my trip.
I bought the flight tickets because otherwise the price would go up but I was still concerned so when my reporting manager got back from his vacation I reached out to him and asked to confirm he’s aware. He asked me to allow him couple days to plan on backfill for me.
Then even more interesting, my next paycheck comes very low, deducted leave without pay. I was surprised and texted the reporting manager again but took it as a sign of the company accepting my request.
Today, which is less than 2 weeks before my vacation, I received an email that my request was rejected. I reached out to the reporting manager again hoping it was a mistake and he said he’s trying to figure out but most likely I won’t be able to get leave without pay.
I’m very stressed and simply devastated, I spent a lot of money planning it, my family members adjusted their vacations because of me, I planned to take care of some important stuff during my trip and now it’s practically ruined. I’d be okay if they rejected it at the first place.
I’m torn between being sane and try to stay polite and wanting to burn everything down and quit my job because they treated me this way. What can I do?