This is lacking info. I can think of a lot of scenarios where the boss is justified.
What if the boss had granted some PTO for someone else and this person said FU I’m not coming in either. In that scenario I’d definitely fire them too. If I can’t count on you so I can give other people time off then I don’t need you.
Normalize businesses having enough employees that they can take their time whenever they want as long as notice is far enough out. Or people can call in sick without a replacement being required because you were already operating with a couple “extra” people.
And definitely normalize closing on holidays. The sheer number of American employers that require holiday work means it’s not actually a holiday unless you’re wealthy enough. If you absolutely, holy shit, must be open for a holiday, hire people who don’t celebrate it. Maintaining a diverse staff means you can give holidays to the requisite groups without worry. Just put it on the application, “check the box for each holiday you must have off”.
Im not saying to not give people off. All I’m saying is there is no context here. From personal experience most people are selfish and there needs to be some kind of structure when giving PTO. Everyone should have an opportunity to be off but many places can’t shut down their business for 2 weeks because the home sports team made the playoffs. Again I’m speaking from experience. Some people need to be told no so that someone else that earned it or asked earlier can be off.
And just to add this but hiring so anyone can be off at anytime is not possible. You are essentially saying it’s ok to discriminate. For example if my business is in a predominantly Christian community many employees will want to be off on Sunday but that is a peak day because after church many people want to eat at my restaurant. Should I then reject any applications from Christian’s so I ensure I am staffed?
You don’t earn PTO. It comes in your contract and you can request it whenever you want it. Get out of your American bubble.
Hiring for availability is 100 percent a thing. I’ve filled out an availability chart at every retail job I ever worked. They don’t ask why you aren’t available and it’s about making sure they can cover all of their positions. Discrimination is when you refuse to hire someone because of their religion, and having a bunch of people that are that religion already on staff is generally a pretty good indicator it’s not because of their religion.
It’s absolutely possible to hire so that someone can call off without causing a chain reaction that kills the schedule and triggers over time. Employers just don’t want to do it.
Small businesses cannot afford a few extra people on staff.
It will be worth it if big corporations start taking care of people properly, but one side effect will be that all the small businesses who already struggle to compete with the big corporations will get completely crushed.
Fair enough that if your business model cannot afford to properly compensate the workers then you deserve to go out of business, but due to capitalism, all small businesses fall in to this category.
Only large corporations can survive the transition into properly compensating workers. Sad all around.
If your business cannot afford employees then your business model is not competitive.
If small business, as a whole, is not competitive then we need to get the trust busting stick out again and break these retail giants down to size. I for one look forward to all of the baby Amazons.
I think there’s enough info. Employee put in request. Request denied for biz needs but employee is fired anyways. Boss is a hypocritical asshole.
How are they hypocritical? They said no and gave what they thought was an appropriate consequence.
There is zero context here and if you were running a business and gave anyone off who asked there would be days you would have to close because you are short staffed. It’s very easy to say from your couch what you would do but when you need your business to provide for your family you think a little differently.
There is zero context here
So naturally you assume that the guy bragging about firing someone is in the right.
Honestly I said that from my toilet. But the point is that businesses that tend to say no to their employees about PTO normally aren’t operating in a way that gives employees the freedom to have a life outside of work. Sure, there’s the odd chance that it’s not the case, but more often than not this is what happens.
The hypocrisy IMO comes from the act of “oh well I couldn’t give you the time off, you took it anyways, so you’re fired.” Which I get from a business perspective bc the employee went against the schedule, but why not find ways to not let your team get to that point. Most small businesses don’t even offer PTO to begin with.
Creating an unhealthy work environment, then punishing your people for it is being a hypocrite.
Hey, what if there was a request off. Your other employee gets in a car wreck. You going to make them come in from the hospital since it wasn’t requested off? This situation actually happened to a co-worker. The GM didn’t ask if they were ok, they asked if they could still make it to cover their own lunch.
Shit happens. You deal with it, not retaliate.
PTO != LOA
PTO is like if you got a cold and needed a day or two, LOA is like if a major fucking event/sickness took over and could potentially ruin your life and you have to be out of work for weeks/months/years. With LOA you still get paid, though you may get slightly less than your normal paycheck. Still a paycheck though, and after saving gas from driving in, or saving money from the train/bus/subway, or savings costs of electricity from powering on your PC/heater/AC or whatever else in order to work from home, it almost balances out.
Also, in at least where I’m from, retaliation is illegal and businesses get sued out the ass for it.
Source: Work in the US, have used LOA and PTO, and have seen businesses go down for violating these laws.
No, if you have a cold that should be sick leave, what stupid system do you have in the US?
Imo it’s a given that if someone is in the hospital and asked for some PTO I would grant it without question.
All I’m saying is based on the initial scenario there isn’t enough information to say the boss is wrong to fire the person.
Oh they didn’t ask for pto, they were covering for the person who asked for pto.
I’m just saying EVERY business needs to plan for an employee being out. If that’s hiring a part timer so be it, if that’s a manager covering a shift so be it, if it’s the owner of the company working a register, so be it. Owning/running a business means planning for the unexpected.