Hi, everybody. I’m Mike Staver. This is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you. Here’s this week’s question.
“I get six weeks of vacation a year. When I put in for vacation though my boss seems to resent it. They make sarcastic comments in the form of jokes. I’m starting to feel bad taking time off, what is the best way to handle it?”
You have to tell your boss you’re taking a vacation.
Well, first of all, well done on six weeks. More companies should have that, I’m assuming it’s paid too. I don’t know if that includes PTO for illness but six weeks is strong.
So here’s what happens sometimes. Sometimes companies give benefits and then the boss who’s in charge of administering the benefits gets resentful. “What, you’re taking off again, you’re going on another vacation..” and that is a buzz kill, so I’m sensitive to the frustration that creates. What I would suggest you do is ask your boss a question, say “Hey, I notice every time I’m about to take time off, you make a comment or you make a joke about it. And I don’t want to feel bad about taking the vacation, are you good with me taking what I’ve earned?” I’ve never heard of an organization where you didn’t earn vacation based on working there and based on part of your benefits package. So, be excited to do that.
Maybe it’s just a joke but the joke’s not landing well on you. So if it’s not landing well and you have a conversation with your boss, that seems reasonable, right? I don’t know what else you could do but if somebody makes the same joke over again and it feels a bit passive aggressive then I always, always mention that they’ve made that comment multiple times and ask them if everything is cool.
Hope that’s helpful. Take care.
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