Employee’s brilliant response to boss after ‘appalling’ act to cancel annual leave

The text exchange between an employer and employee was shared to TikTok by Michael Sanz, a business owner and outsourcing expert.

An Australian worker has sensationally quit his job after receiving an “appalling” text message from his boss trying to cancel his already approved annual leave at the last minute.

A wild raft of text messages was sent to Michael Sanz, a business owner who shares employees’ bad boss experiences online.

Posting to social media, Sanz shared the conversation between employee Noel and his boss Nick, who attempted to cancel Noel’s annual leave days before he was due on an overseas holiday to attend a family wedding.

“You’re not going to believe this message I just got sent,” Sanz tells his viewers.

The first message shared is from the boss to Noel, informing him that another staff member has resigned, meaning he has since cancelled Noel’s annual leave that he booked for the following week, saying it’s “all hands on deck” while they find a replacement.

“We can push back a few months,” the boss messaged regarding Noel’s already approved leave request.

“I’ve advised HR it’s now changed for you. Appreciate your understanding.”

An employer sent an outrageous message to an employee telling them their leave request was cancelled.

Sanz jumps in, saying “This guy sounds like a tool” for cancelling already approved leave without any conversation.

He then shared Noel’s reply with his boss, who explained he could not cancel his leave.

“Hi Nick, sorry to hear. I totally appreciate how frustrating this would be to manage. But what do you mean you have already told HR my leave has changed?

“Unfortunately I cannot cancel my leave as it’s my brother’s wedding in Bali, all flights are paid for and my kids are in the wedding party.

“I did book this in seven months ago, so cancelling isn’t an option. I can help out more until I leave if that helps, but I can’t change my leave dates.”

However, this answer wasn’t good enough for the boss who then bit back telling Noel he’ll have to cut his leave from three weeks to three days.

“I’m going to have to ask that you reduce your leave then to fly in fly out and take three days over the weekend then instead of the three weeks. Not sure what you can do for three weeks in Bali haha.”

The employer then tried to force the employer to cut his holiday short from three weeks to three days.

Sanz then weighs in on the text exchange baffled that the boss signed the text off with “haha”, saying this is a really serious situation for the employee and that “I would be furious at this point”.

Noel then responded by saying “I feel terrible” the company is in a tough situation but that he cannot cancel or amend. He explained they haven’t had a family trip for years and that he hasn’t taken any lengthy annual leave in three years.

“It’s also no one’s business how I spend my leave,” Noel wrote.

He suggested to his boss they hire a temp and questioned who was to look after his own portfolio while he was away in Bali, saying he hopes it wasn’t Jenny. He then confirmed he would be happy to help out as much as possible until his holiday.

That’s when his boss drops a clanger, telling Noel: “Mate, can’t stress enough, your leave is cancelled, we just can’t do it. I’m sorry.”

Sanz described the boss’ stance as “appalling”.

The worker eventually told the boss he would be moving his leave forward and sending the exchange to HR.

It was the last straw for Noel who then responded to his boss telling him he no longer wants to work at the company anymore and was left shocked by the incident.

He then informed his boss he was moving his leave to start “from today”, would consider his future at the company, and would be informing HR of the boss’s “totally unreasonable” exchange.

“I actually don’t want to come back to work now. I’m quite shocked at this email. I’m going to take my leave earlier and will start from today. While away I will think about if working with a company that doesn’t promote boundaries is a place I really want to work at. I’m also considering this as an email to Aaron and HR as it’s totally unreasonable.”

@theoutsourcingexpert

As a boss, you can’t just cancel your teams leave, especially when it’s booked so far out. #badboss #staffburnout #toxicculture #poormanagement #greatboss #bebetter #tbd #teamsbydesign #outsourcing #virtualassistants #adminsupport #varecruitment #adminassistant #remotesupport #propertymanagementsupport #lettingsupport #salesprogression #virtualassistantphilippines #howtooutsource #besttaskstooutsource #eliminaterepetativetasks #delegateadmintasks #outsourcingtothephilippines #unbusy #tasksyoucanoutsource #realestatevirtualassistant #businessowner #realestateagencyboss #propertymanager #realestateagent #pmbusinessowner #propertymanagerbusinessowner #propertymanageraustralia #propertymanageruk #propertymanagernewzealand #uk

♬ original sound - Michael Sanz -Outsourcing Tips

To make matters worse, Sanz revealed the messages were sent to him not by Noel, but by the boss himself who as “like a badge of honour” because he believed he was in the right.

The exchange went viral and has close to a million views and thousands of respondents.

One said they’d have “quit after the first text”, while another wrote: “Oh hell no! He handled that well, not his problem.”

A business owner weighed in, writing: “Unacceptable by the boss. Not the employee’s problem. Enjoy Bali!”

Sanz explained that he sought Noel’s permission to share the messages, and that Noel had since provided an update on the situation.

Noel told Sanz he went to the wedding and turned off his phone for three weeks, having a great holiday.

However, his wife received numerous missed calls from the office as they couldn’t get in touch with him.

According to news.com.au, Noel returned to the office as he didn’t want to let his clients down but has since handed in his notice and found another job with higher pay.