Being a manager sometimes means being the person who has to say no, even when everyone involved is going to be unhappy about it.
That is exactly where one retail store manager found herself after two employees requested the same weekend off for a concert. The problem was that the manager already had that weekend approved for a vacation she had planned more than a year in advance. Another employee had also requested the weekend off months earlier, leaving the store dangerously short-staffed.
The two employees had already bought their concert tickets before getting approval. When their requests were denied, they reportedly told their manager they would simply call in sick instead.
For the manager, the issue wasn’t just the concert. It was fairness, staffing, and whether employees should be able to create a scheduling crisis by buying tickets before getting their time off approved.
Here’s how the situation unfolded.
The Weekend Was Already Spoken For
The manager explained that her store operates on a first-come, first-served basis when it comes to time-off requests.
She already had the weekend approved for a vacation through her district manager. That approval had been in place for more than a year. Another employee had also requested the same weekend off several months earlier and had been approved.
If the two newer requests were also granted, only three employees would remain to cover the entire weekend, with just one person in a leadership position.
The manager didn’t think that was fair to the employees who would be left behind.
She also wasn’t willing to cancel her own vacation or tell the employee who had requested the weekend months earlier that their approved plans were suddenly no longer valid.
So she told the two employees their requests could not be approved under the current circumstances.
However, she offered them another option. If they could contact nearby stores and find someone in a leadership position who could help cover the weekend, she would reconsider.
Instead, they told her they had already purchased concert tickets and would simply call in if they couldn’t get the weekend off.
That changed the conversation.
The manager told them that intentionally calling out after being denied time off could be treated as a resignation.
One of the employees also hadn’t been with the company long enough to have earned PTO in the first place.
Then the Manager Tried to Find a Compromise
After hearing criticism from commenters, the manager reconsidered one part of the situation.
She contacted managers at nearby stores to see whether anyone might be willing to provide coverage. Those managers still needed to ask their own employees whether they wanted to work at another location.
Meanwhile, she came up with another solution.
The concert was about 90 minutes away. She offered to schedule the employees for opening shifts on the day of the concert, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Since the concert doors didn’t open until 7 p.m., they would have several hours to drive there and get inside.
For the following day, she offered them closing shifts from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., giving them time to get home and rest before working again.
In other words, she tried to find a way for them to attend the concert without leaving the store short-staffed.
They turned that option down too.
At that point, the manager was left wondering whether she was being unreasonable or simply enforcing the same rules everyone else was expected to follow.
The Real Problem Wasn’t the Concert
There is an important distinction here between requesting time off and assuming that time off is guaranteed.
Employees can absolutely have plans outside work. But buying nonrefundable tickets before receiving approval creates a problem when the request is ultimately denied.
Workplace consultant and author Alison Green, who writes the Ask a Manager column, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of following an employer’s established time-off policies rather than treating a personal commitment as automatic approval. Her advice generally centers on clear expectations and consistent application of workplace rules. Ask a Manager
That distinction matters in this situation. The manager wasn’t saying the employees weren’t allowed to have lives outside work. She was saying their personal plans didn’t automatically override previously approved absences and the store’s staffing requirements.
The manager’s later attempt to rearrange shifts also showed that she wasn’t simply trying to punish them. She was looking for a workable solution.
Still, the situation highlights why PTO policies need to be clear. If employees are expected to secure their own coverage, that should be explicitly stated. If managers are responsible for coverage, employees shouldn’t be pushed into doing management’s job.
Many commenters agreed that the employees shouldn’t have purchased concert tickets before receiving approval.
Others pointed out that the manager should be prepared for the possibility that the employees will call out anyway and should document their statements carefully.
The manager may not have handled every detail perfectly, particularly the question of who should arrange coverage. But denying the requests themselves seems reasonable given the circumstances described.
More importantly, she eventually tried to find a compromise that would let the employees attend their concert without abandoning the store.
The bigger lesson is probably one both managers and employees know too well: don’t make expensive plans around time off until you actually have the time off approved.
Otherwise, the concert might be the least stressful part of the weekend.
