‘Regardless, I will not be at work’: Woman’s request for time off is denied by snail-pace employers when she’s already on her flight

When it’s summertime, work is the furthest thing from your mind. The air is warm, the sun is shining, and it seems like everyone you know is at the beach.

Sometimes, it’s hard to resist planning your own trip, but one thing always gets in the way of your next European adventure. Work.

Having the idea to go on a fabulous trip, and then planning and prepping for it, is just so much fun. But it all comes to a grinding halt when you must wait for your boss to approve your time off. For DD on TikTok, the wait simply wasn’t worth it. Instead, she went ahead and booked her tickets and boarded her plane, only to find out her PTO was not, in fact, approved.

She boarded her plane and logged on to her laptop to see that her boss had denied her time off that day, despite it being within hours of the time she’d requested off. So short notice that had she neglected to plan the trip until it was approved, she wouldn’t have been able to go on a trip at all. But there was no way she was letting a nine-to-five get in the way of her vacation.

Commenters are definitely on DD’s side. One person noted that the request was more of a formality, what DD was doing was giving her boss a heads-up that she would not be there, approved or not. She wasn’t asking. She was telling. Other people advised her to send the boss a photo out her plane window or on a sandy beach and say “denial denied.”

DD isn’t the only one who’s accidentally made her way out of state before her boss gave her the go-ahead. One commenter said that their dad once worked at a company for several years, never taking a vacation, and when he finally had to he just quit. Another called out of work when they were already six countries away.

According to Travel + Leisure, this is a very American problem. Many Americans aren’t guaranteed time off, and those that do still receive much less than other countries around the world. European Union workers are legally required to receive at least 20 paid vacation days every year, and some countries mandate much more. French employees get 30 paid days off every year.

So, next time your boss, like DD’s files a last-minute denial to a trip you’re already on, you may want to consider packing it up to France.

Sounds like a good place for your next non-approved vacation. Or your forever.