The topic of taking leave / vacations came up in a meeting and my supervisor let us know that they won't deny vacation time. Well good, because I'm not asking permission. They were talking with other staff about PTO and absolutely did not hide that they believe it's up to them whether we take it or not. Well, I can hardly wait until I need to take another day off, because I'll be interested to see how they respond.
The last supervisor made a comment about my courtesy notification of vacation time being taken – I didn't ask, and he definitely picked up on that. He responded something like it's approved, even though it wasn't phrased as a request, haha.
I realized that I'm very much done acting subservient to anyone, especially with regard to my earned time off. This subreddit has helped with that, for sure.
We are professionals, and without me selling my labor to you, you're fucked. So no, I'm not asking permission to take time when I need it. We're at critical staffing levels due to a lot of things, and they need me more than I need them. I like my job but I'm not kissing anyone's ass to take what's mine.