I had my boss grill me about some pto days requested well in advance. I sent him my diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, a picture of my nose and the surgery date. He was embarrassed, as he should have been.
What is it about our culture that makes managers feel entitled to shame us for taking earned time off? Is this a thing in other countries or just the crappy old usa?
Dunno if it’s just a USA thing but in my 20 years of working in the UK I have never been asked to justify annual leave. You might get asked “Are you doing anything nice?” but it’s more casual interest than an interrogation. If I am trying to book time at short notice or at the same time as other team members I might offer up a reason but I don’t think I have ever had a request denied.
Also wtf you have to book time off for surgery? Last surgery I had I got 2 weeks off with full pay. In fact if I book PTO and then come down with the flu I’m entitled to request the days back and take them as sick days instead so my holiday isn’t wasted.
Yeh I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts but we might not be far behind you. Reform (UK’s answer to MAGA) is rapidly growing in popularity and power. They seem to use Trump and everything wrong with the US as a template for how they want the UK to be and their supporters lap it up. I may well be getting off my high horse and justifying my PTO in 3-5 years time.
If it’s any consolation they rapidly grew but have stagnated recently especially with Farage’s master plan of standing down and re standing backfiring and hopefully Andy Burnham can swing some people round by having a bit more of a personality than Starmer (hate that that’s what matters but here we are)
I’m a lot less cynical about what our future government will look like now than I was a few months ago I’ll say that. Still not out of the woods by any means.
Oh yeh the whole 5mil gift has really shown him up but Brexit taught me never to underestimate our electorates desperation to shoot themselves in the foot. With Labour getting judged way more harshly than any right wing party it’s just going to take one fuck up for Farage to capitalise. But until then we can at least enjoy the embarrassment he must be feeling facing off against a bin.
Have you been watching the creator Zoe Bread? She is highlighting the issues with the approval of the warehouses at the Astley business park in Wigan. She has done research, and there was a permit granted in 2015 for smaller warehouses, but that permit expired. The current developer refiled and said in their paperwork the new plan followed the 2015 plan. Well, no one in the Wigan government checked, and it turns out the warehouses are like 3 times as big. In one of her videos, she showed Reform candidates claiming they would prevent such big warehouses. But spoiler, they are not. Meanwhile, the Wigan council is not answering correspondence or phone calls and is not addressing the residents formal written complaints. Also, she recently said that everyone who already filed a complaint, have to resubmit their complaints.
in Germany/ europe the good paying unionized jobs in the automotive sector, machine sector, tooling sector etc are are also endangered, esp because of cheap Chinese cars where workers rights are low.
Not trying to defend capitalism here (it has some problems) but isn’t the UK government spending more on social services than it’s bringing in? Recent reports say this. How is that sustainable? It seems like a small portion of the population is working so a large portion of it doesn’t have to. That doesn’t seem right.
Then the time to do something is NOW. Don't let your country devolve in to the shit hole the US is right now. Get involved with politics, punch nazis, do whatever you have to do my man.
I’ve watched some of this from the US and I cannot understand how anyone could look at what the extremists are doing here and say to themselves, “let’s do that too!” I know every country seems to be having a tantrum about immigrants right now but like, you do not want our work culture with like zero labor laws or our crazy healthcare system. Every time I read something about people wanting to get rid of the NHS I get a bit upset for you all.
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u/Southern-Pirate3555 Jul 31 '26
I had my boss grill me about some pto days requested well in advance. I sent him my diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, a picture of my nose and the surgery date. He was embarrassed, as he should have been.
What is it about our culture that makes managers feel entitled to shame us for taking earned time off? Is this a thing in other countries or just the crappy old usa?