I'm in a difficult position because I was denied vacation time (only 1.5 days off requested). Well, my manager did not explicitly say no but replied to me with "It will be difficult for me to approve this time of year [because company is busy atm]".
Normally, I would probably just suck it up and move on but I am planning on proposing to my girlfriend during this vacation.
Should I try to explain to my manager why this specific vacation request is important to me or should I just take sick days? I rather keep the proposal private right now, because to be honest I just don't feel like sharing it with everyone and I don't see them as friends.
For background:
I have worked at this company for a few years and I am consistently one of their top performers if not the top performer. I haven't taken many vacations, but when I have I still went out of my way to complete all my work. I haven't worked many weekends, or late nights because I usually get all my work done quickly and even take extra work that teammates need help with.
I'm having a hard time seeing my manager's point of view on this. On principle, I believe work should be performance based. SO from my perspective, I am accomplishing everything that comes my way and more. I am feeling undervalued because I accomplish so much, but yet still am held down by seemingly arbitrary rules.