School Denied Teacher's Leave on a Day Without Classes, Now Planning Vacations That Will Disrupt Actual Lessons

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Managers who deny fair requests for petty reasons should not be surprised when employees stop going out of their way to help.

What would you do if your boss refused to approve your leave on a day you had no classes to teach, just because it gave you an extra long weekend?

Would you let it go and move on?

Or would you start using your leave on days that caused more disruption?

In the following story , one teacher finds himself in this exact situation and opts for the latter.

Here’s what he did.

Denied leave on a day with no work, so I’ll take them on days I have work

I’m a teacher at a small, new school.

We currently have 2 year levels, so our teaching schedules are incredibly light.

This means every teacher has at least 1 day where they have no classes, and it’s common to take leave on that day.

Mine is Friday.

I realized we will move to a ‘full’ schedule next month, and figured I might as well use some of my excess leave, so I applied to take Fridays for the rest of the month off.

Later, I was told my leave was denied because, “It’s not nice that you get to have multiple long weekends when your colleagues don’t.”

Just to be sure he understood properly, he asked a few questions.

I responded with, “So you’re saying just because my lesson-free day is on a Friday I don’t get to take leave even though the science teachers can take every Tuesday off, language teachers take every Thursday, and so on?”

He kind of waffled around that it, “Doesn’t look good,” and that I still have to consider a homeroom ‘lesson’ I have Fridays (which is a student-led activity time.

I’m actually not supposed to do anything/intervene, just be present while students handle everything) that “someone else will have to cover.”

I’ve always asked/gotten my own covers before applying for leave, so HR has never even had to do anything.

Anyway, I told him straight up that I don’t mind if they want to deny my leave, but to remember that I’m there because I want to be, not because I need to be.

He quickly learned there was no use arguing with him.

I told him, “Okay, but just so you know, it was a courtesy on my end to use my leave on days with the least impact. So you’re essentially telling me you’d rather I take leave on days I miss actual classes, which I have no qualms doing.”

He kind of mumbled something, and then I thanked him and left.

So, that Friday, I came in, and then the following Monday, I called in ‘sick’ and missed my class.

I have about 20 leave days to use over the next ~7 months (not counting school holidays) that make up the final year of my contract here, and I plan to use all of them.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time he’s had this problem with them.

I’ve also told them on a separate occasion that there’s literally no downside to me whether or not they approve/deny my leave requests because 80% of the leave I’ve taken the past 2 years has been unpaid, because I don’t care about the money.

Once, they denied a 3-day unpaid leave request, and I told a colleague, “I can just not show up. What are they gonna do, not pay me? That’s literally what I asked for in the first place, so either way, I get what I want.”

They need me more than I need them, as the sole teacher of the most popular elective subject in the school.

It’s somewhat niche, so it’s not easy to just find a replacement.

Not to mention, I have both qualifications and experience in my subject’s industry, so any replacement they do find is probably going to be ‘not as good.’

Wow! That whole situation sounds pretty unfair.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit think about it.

Here’s someone else who just works because they want to.

Yet another person who doesn’t need their job.

This guy was probably an incentive to take the classes, too.

So true!

That was the best thing to do!

Selfishly, the boss left him no other choice but to do it this way.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision .

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The post School Denied A Teacher’s Leave On A Day With No Classes, So Now They Plan To Take Vacation On Days That Will Disrupt Actual Lessons first on The News Pulse .