Little background. You can skip ahead to the next paragraph for the titular stuff. I work for a local, rapidly-growing chain of high end home improvement stores. I have for about 5 years. Generally speaking, the job itself is actually okay. I like my coworkers, my manager is pretty cool, I think my job is somewhat interesting. I’ll just say I’ve had worse. I don’t always agree with some of the things the owner of the company does though. He loves to hire 18-year-olds at exactly minimum wage around one of the most expensive cities in the country, knowing that ultimately, you only need a couple people here and there who actually know what they’re talking about. Turnover keeps costs low for him. So he’s got this whole company of severely underpaid employees that he invites to an annual company Christmas party. This past Christmas, he went around with a bunch of his corporate dick-suckers throwing dollar bills around. Flaunting the wealth he earned off of the literal back abuse of his employees. Ugh. He also frequently visits stores in his Porsche. He’ll park next to three 20-year old beaters his employees and managers are driving, (and the other half can’t afford any car at all) come in, and whine to us about his “POS Porsche.” Most recently, he came in and started trash-talking his newly-ex-wife (his decision) and how he’s glad she only got a few million. He’s very glad she’s no longer part owner of his precious company.
Onto my own situation. Summer is usually our busiest season, so there is a “blackout period” implemented. Employees cannot request vacations between June 1 and October 31. Yes, that’s gross, AND that’s incredibly inconvenient for me, as my sister is expecting a baby in August. I honestly didn’t even think it would have fallen under the same category as “road trip to the beach” when I brought it up to my manager. I figured this would be one of those big excusable life events like when other coworkers have been in siblings’ weddings or graduations. Instead, my manager told me not to request time off, as then the main office would see and it would be denied. He assured me (and I believe him. He’s a pretty cool guy who’s had a tough life and has a lot of compassion for others) that he’d cover for me about “a vague family emergency”, but it pisses me off that I have to lie and I can’t let it slip about my trip or even my new niece or nephew. It’s not a fucking vacation. It’s a brand new human who is coming out of a human who came out of the same human as me.
Go shove your paint up your ass.