This happened to me about 5 years ago. I moved this from malicious compliance as it didn't quite fit there.
I am a therapist that does treatment in an outpatient setting. When I first graduated college I was hired at my internship. The push wasn't great and it wasn't what I wanted to do in life (I wanted to work with kids and teens in a school based setting but this was dual diagnosis with mostly adults in an inner city setting) but the experience was growing on me and I was new to the area and didn't know what was out there.
I had a decent supervisor for internship who became my supervisor for my job, let's call her Carol. Carol was always supportive and quirky. For 2 years she got to know me and my struggles. She saw in me supervisor potential and had me over see future interns. She had me build a relationship with the homeless shelter in the area to provide services there as well.
I was given challenge clients from the start like hard males, sex offenders, recently on parole and severe mental health (might have been because I was male and male therapist in my area are rare. I was know as the cheer leader of the team. I stayed through 3 groups of turn over going from noob to veteran in 2 years time and mentored staff.
One of the therapist who left joined another agency with another therapist. They both frequently told me I should come. I declined many times, until .. let's call her Karen. Karen came from a recently closed office after it was shut down by the state for fraud or waste or abuse (one of them). she was the director there and had been the only staff member to not be let go (I'm not sure how.. since it was 60k in Medicaid dollars that was paid back).
At the time we had one school based program and I was not in it. We obtained a new district and I finally had the chance to do my dream job. I was offered the chance to pioneer the 4 schools in that district. It was a clunky start but was going well and the schools liked me. Then Karen came and was given the job of school based director which meant my supervisor had to be changed.
Now I didn't know any better but I heard rumors. I was polite and worked on building a working relationship with her. One day I was invited to a training hosted by the agency that my friend worked at. I bumped into them naturally and they convinced me to do a side job with them since I was recently licensed. They stressed how much better it was in every way.
For those who don't know, burn out and commission fatigue can significantly affect a person's performance. I was starting to feel this way about my main job and wanted to explore this option. The new job required training on a Thursday. At the time I worked s mom Georgia l flexible 4 day schedule and needed to take PTO.
I put in the request like normal (mind you I rarely took off) and my supervisor, Karen, asked me why I needed off. Historically I had told my previous supervisor many reasons and it was never an issue. I didn't think anything of it and shared about my second employment having a training they only happens on Thursdays once a month. Karen, who frequently left an hour early because of her side job, declined my time stating it was against company policy to take PTO for another job. I was shocked. I put in a single day one month early and she declined on policy.
Now remember I said that I was the cheer leader for the team. The team expanded beyond just my fellow therapist. It included supervisors in multiple departments,. IT (I was super close with them because I was volunteering time to help improve our records system), billing, payroll, medical, and my closest non therapist friend… THE HEAD OF HR.
So upon seeing the email I sent straight over to review the policy. She saw how angry I was and cleared her schedule to review. Wouldn't you know that policy stated that an employee is entitled to PTO at long as the conditions are met which were. Advanced notice of 3 days or more for 1 day, having time accrued, and not being in their probationary period. In addition supervisors can't ask why I'm taking PTO and if they do I do not need to answer. I'm sure none of you will be surprised when I say I met these easily. She told me she couldn't deny it.. she had no grounds and there was in fact no policy that stated what she said in the email. I replied “can you reply to the email I send you with this information in 2 minutes”.
After getting what I needed in writing I sent straight away with the policy and evidence in hand. I told her that she cannot be l reject my PTO and that I will be taking my time off in a month. If there is a coverage need I will have it sorted before then and that nothing will be left unfinished as I have always been efficient. She attempted to argue that I cannot take PTO for another job. I showed her the policy in writing where it said she wasn't allowed to ask what told her ” I could be going to the doctor, the dentist, a birthday, a wedding.. hell I could go take off to kill myself and you still can't ask or deny me. Please sign or I will have HR sign for you”
Karen angrily said”you will get your day, you will get your day. It's just the executive director doesn't like that people take off for other jobs.”. I reminded her that she only knew because I was kind enough to share which I will not need to ever again so she should not ask and they I could also inform the executive director of your early leave times for your other job too if it would be helpful. She stayed quiet and gave me my signed paper.
I quit a couple of months after because the new job was in fact significantly better.
As a small side note, they almost lost the new district when I left. She didn't do any communication that they would be replacing me and I got called in by the principal and school counselor who literally said ” what the fuck do you mean your done in a week? Who's replacing you?” I had been told that she would communicate as it was the chain of command and she never told them during my one month notice. I saved them that district too.