I requested time off for Christmas way back in October, and some of it was approved October 18, so I bought plane tickets (which are now non-refundable) for a trip during those days and expected to work the rest of the week on the days that were rejected. When I got my schedule today, I saw I’m supposed to work the days that had already been approved to be off not the one’s that had been rejected and now my boss is trying to make me work Christmas Eve as well because one of my coworkers requested time off during the days that had already been approved for me but I’m now supposed to work.
I know they’re legally allowed to revoke time off, but when I was hired on almost exactly a year ago, I was told that time off is first come first served and to request time off months in advance to guarantee that another coworker can’t “steal” previously approved time off. My boss also asked that we put on the calendar what days we ask off when we ask them off, and my coworker hadn’t put anything on the calendar when I did back in October so what’s the point of requesting time off in advance if your coworker can still “steal” the days you already got approved?
I’m a technician at a pharmacy (a large corporation) where it’s common to borrow employees from another store if necessary and my boss was supposed to hire another technician a month ago but decided against it even though we’ve been understaffed for months now. So, we shouldn’t have had this issue in the first place because we’re supposed to have another person who could cover the other shift.
I already spoke to my boss about the situation and what I was told when hired on, he didn’t consider finding a compromise and told me to talk to my coworker about trading shifts even though we both wanted the entire week off and got less than half of what we requested. My coworker was hired on a few years before me and it seems that seniority is taking precedence here, so if I was told from the beginning that time off was based on seniority I wouldn’t fight this at all.