I work for a good manufacturing company as an operations supervisor. Our busy season is around the holidays so the company lays out dates at the beginning of the year that require high level approval for PTO or ban PTO without a doctor’s excuse.
I requested a week off in the high level approval time frame 4 months in advance to travel with my wife’s family. They’re planning the trip and those are the only dates that work for them so I was SOL on rescheduling to get the dates out of the high level approval time frame.
It took 7 weeks for my request to get denied. Just shy of half of the time I gave as notice. I gave leadership multiple reminders about the request so in the event it was denied I could maybe find a backup plan where we could still go, but maybe for less days or find another compromise, but after waiting a month my wife and I bought plane tickets and booked hotels for the dates I requested as prices were going up.
AITAH if I still go the dates I wanted to? If I do, what’s the best approach to ensure I still have a job when I get back?