This was years and years ago. I was 18 or 19 at the time (36 currently) and was working at a call center as a telemarketer.
I was madly in love, living at home, and literally only working to get money to visit my beloved. Also, I was/am autistic and frequently struggle to comprehend social cues.
On getting hired, I informed them that I had a vacation planned for like… 6 months into the future, I think? Good distance away, anyway. Told them it was a requirement of my hiring, and if it would be an issue, I'd keep looking elsewhere. They decided to hire me, confirmed the vacation was not an issue, all good.
I didn't really pay attention to it for a while – new job, training, etc. Time passed and I let my manager know about my vacation.
They informed me that I wasn't allowed to have a vacation in the first year. Told them it was a condition of hiring, so it was happening, and they said they'd talk to… someone. HR, I think?
I went about my business. Around a month before my vacation, my manager got back to me and informed me that they'd discussed it and I was definitely not allowed to go.
Now, with the benefit of older age, I realize they were essentially abusing my old teenage self, by refusing to uphold their agreement, and trying to guilt / bully me into compliance.
My younger self, though, couldn't comprehend this. It was obviously a misunderstanding, a miscommunication somewhere.
I told them that they needed to handle whatever paperwork they had to. I was going on this vacation. If it was unacceptable, I shouldn't have been hired in the first place. I was going. Whether or not the paperwork was in place for me to come back was up to them.
They tried to pressure me: “Oh, you don't want to lose your job over this! It would be awful to quit over just a little vacation!”
I was confused, again, saying that I wasn't quitting. I was going on vacation, as agreed during my hiring, and if they fired me because my interviewer didn't write that down, that was their issue. I helpfully described my interviewer, so they could confirm it with him, like the naive little idiot I was.
They continued to pressure me, I continued to be utterly confused about what they could be having such a hard time understanding.
Eventually, they said that they'd officially have to fire and rehire me, because “their system” couldn't handle vacations for first years.
It's not like I got any benefits, pay raises, or anything else for staying, nor did I have any long term plans to remain, so I didn't care. Maybe they thought I was scared of paperwork? Maybe it let them hide the blasphemous first year vacation from a boss?
It was silly, but it amuses me that, in the end, I inadvertently stood up for myself and won.
Also, in hindsight, it must have been so frustrating to have an employee you're trying to abuse into compliance be naively unaware of said abuse.