Tired of Managing Millenials

[Anonymous]

This thread has turned into ‘nobody is legally entitled to pto’ and that’s hilariously on par with DCUM. Y’all 🤡 never cease to amaze me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP and have been back several times. The bigger point is we have a process in this office. We have a leave planning calendar where everyone puts their anticipated out of office time. This is for coordination purposes only. If you want approved leave until it is formally requested in the T&A system and approved by your supervisor. By the regs I posted earlier, yes, employees have the right to schedule earned PTO, but the managers have the right to determine when that leave can be taken due the needs of the office.

The last week week of May is very busy. We have a trade delegation scheduled that week and it is also EER season. I cannot commit to giving both people time off until I have a bigger picture of the trade delegation demands. I will also be caught up in writing EERs for all the staff, not just these two.

I had asked the young woman with the plan to attend her friends wedding to take charge of the trade mission. She told me she had plans to travel that week. I said I would look into assigning it to another manager. However, she jumped ahead of me, worked her own deal without telling me, and then went ahead and announced she’d bought her tickets and planned to go. My senior managers were aghast at the disregard for procedure and authority. It’s really not our problem she bought tickets without have firm leave approval first.

Frankly, as a Dad who took time off for both my daughters’ HS and college graduations, I’m more likely to approve that employee’s request (she followed procedure) than the wedding one. It’s just wedding of a college friend.

We are just a flat organization that runs all loosey goosey. We do not have telework and in office work is required. That is something we cannot negotiate with the CEO. It is what it is. We are also on 24/7 365. It is the nature of the work. You can be on call for anything that arises.

Here’s the thing; you have no authority. You aren’t a military officer, or a cop, or a judge. You are in a voluntary relationship with these employees. Sure, you can fire them. But they can also quit. Probably not the ideal outcome for either of you. So you need to seek an agreement. So long as you approach management as a power trip where the employees need to respect mah authoritah, you are going to continue to have problems.

+1. The best managers know that to get respect you have to give it. If otherwise responsible and hardworking employees are causing this issue for you you may want to revisit how you are communicating and planning with them. What you are doing now is clearly not working and I don’t think it’s solely because your employees are middle aged.

[Anonymous]

And now Ms. High School Graduation lied to me this afternoon. She was OOO and apparently was getting fit for a wedding t dress. When asked where she was and why I couldn’t reach her she claimed to be with a potential client. Her assistant told me otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And now Ms. High School Graduation lied to me this afternoon. She was OOO and apparently was getting fit for a wedding t dress. When asked where she was and why I couldn’t reach her she claimed to be with a potential client. Her assistant told me otherwise.

Obviously she should have spent the afternoon posting on DCUM like you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And now Ms. High School Graduation lied to me this afternoon. She was OOO and apparently was getting fit for a wedding t dress. When asked where she was and why I couldn’t reach her she claimed to be with a potential client. Her assistant told me otherwise.

Ummm did she take leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP and have been back several times. The bigger point is we have a process in this office. We have a leave planning calendar where everyone puts their anticipated out of office time. This is for coordination purposes only. If you want approved leave until it is formally requested in the T&A system and approved by your supervisor. By the regs I posted earlier, yes, employees have the right to schedule earned PTO, but the managers have the right to determine when that leave can be taken due the needs of the office.

The last week week of May is very busy. We have a trade delegation scheduled that week and it is also EER season. I cannot commit to giving both people time off until I have a bigger picture of the trade delegation demands. I will also be caught up in writing EERs for all the staff, not just these two.

I had asked the young woman with the plan to attend her friends wedding to take charge of the trade mission. She told me she had plans to travel that week. I said I would look into assigning it to another manager. However, she jumped ahead of me, worked her own deal without telling me, and then went ahead and announced she’d bought her tickets and planned to go. My senior managers were aghast at the disregard for procedure and authority. It’s really not our problem she bought tickets without have firm leave approval first.

Frankly, as a Dad who took time off for both my daughters’ HS and college graduations, I’m more likely to approve that employee’s request (she followed procedure) than the wedding one. It’s just wedding of a college friend.

We are just a flat organization that runs all loosey goosey. We do not have telework and in office work is required. That is something we cannot negotiate with the CEO. It is what it is. We are also on 24/7 365. It is the nature of the work. You can be on call for anything that arises.

OP, you are in the right. Most of us responsible adults understand that. The world has just lost its marbles thinking that workers deserve to be take vacation whenever and continue to be paid for not showing up because they're entitled to it,. The answer is no. You can only grant one request so do it.

Workers ARE entitled to vacation, nitwit. It's literally part of compensation. If companies don't grant vacation even though it is stipulated in the contract, it is a breach of contract and the work agreements.

Companies have no right to dictate what employees do with the compensation they've already earned.

You missed the second part of the sentence, genius. No, workers do not have a right to take vacation whenever. It must be approved on dates requested and that is usually stated in the employment contract. I've never seen an employment contract state otherwise.

....but actually, US workers do not have a right to paid vacation so your whole statement really is out the window.

Have fun losing your best staff because your company sucks under your type of leadership.

Why? Because I make money and meet deadlines? Sorry, Jan. When the business makes money, we all make money. We get very excited about that. Plus, we're attorneys. We're used to working overtime to get paid. IF you're a whiny attorney, you're not going to get very far.

I mean, younger staff know the fix is in for them in law: the route to partner is even harder and more cutthroat, and only the rainmakers who play golf with clients are going to make it. You are paid well, but the riches flow up, so there is little value in killing yourself when you know partner is never in the cards.

I’m in a field in which there are partners (not law) and the same holds true.

[Anonymous]

I am a millennial in a management role. I really can’t imagine denying a leave request, let alone when the request involves a milestone event. Something similar happened to me recently with multiple colleagues out the same week so I worked basically around the clock that week to keep things running. That sort of thing doesn’t happen often and I know when I take time off my colleagues cover for me. I also don’t want them to be miserable.

You sound like a truly awful manager, but sure, blame it on millennials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m the OP and have been back several times. The bigger point is we have a process in this office. We have a leave planning calendar where everyone puts their anticipated out of office time. This is for coordination purposes only. If you want approved leave until it is formally requested in the T&A system and approved by your supervisor. By the regs I posted earlier, yes, employees have the right to schedule earned PTO, but the managers have the right to determine when that leave can be taken due the needs of the office.

The last week week of May is very busy. We have a trade delegation scheduled that week and it is also EER season. I cannot commit to giving both people time off until I have a bigger picture of the trade delegation demands. I will also be caught up in writing EERs for all the staff, not just these two.

I had asked the young woman with the plan to attend her friends wedding to take charge of the trade mission. She told me she had plans to travel that week. I said I would look into assigning it to another manager. However, she jumped ahead of me, worked her own deal without telling me, and then went ahead and announced she’d bought her tickets and planned to go. My senior managers were aghast at the disregard for procedure and authority. It’s really not our problem she bought tickets without have firm leave approval first.

Frankly, as a Dad who took time off for both my daughters’ HS and college graduations, I’m more likely to approve that employee’s request (she followed procedure) than the wedding one. It’s just wedding of a college friend.

We are just a flat organization that runs all loosey goosey. We do not have telework and in office work is required. That is something we cannot negotiate with the CEO. It is what it is. We are also on 24/7 365. It is the nature of the work. You can be on call for anything that arises.

OP, you are in the right. Most of us responsible adults understand that. The world has just lost its marbles thinking that workers deserve to be take vacation whenever and continue to be paid for not showing up because they're entitled to it,. The answer is no. You can only grant one request so do it.

Workers ARE entitled to vacation, nitwit. It's literally part of compensation. If companies don't grant vacation even though it is stipulated in the contract, it is a breach of contract and the work agreements.

Companies have no right to dictate what employees do with the compensation they've already earned.

Soooo...you have no problem with teachers using as many accumulated sick days as they please?

Why would I have a problem if a teachers uses sick days if they're sick? A teacher shouldn't be allowed to use sick days for an extended period of time of they have something like cancer? Are you absolutely demented?

PP here. Not demented at all. If you work in a non-unionized school system, they don't want you out for extended periods of time, even if you have accumulated sick leave days. Parents don't either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And now Ms. High School Graduation lied to me this afternoon. She was OOO and apparently was getting fit for a wedding t dress. When asked where she was and why I couldn’t reach her she claimed to be with a potential client. Her assistant told me otherwise.

You should fire her and then tell the other employee that she can’t take off because you’re going to be short staffed. Lol.

Seriously though, when are employees allowed to do things during business hours? In this case, she probably knew you would make a big deal about her taking an hour or two for a personal errand so she decided not to tell you.

[Anonymous]

I don't have anything to offer about management style, but I am surprised at how many people work in settings where two people taking off the same week during a busy time of year would not significantly impact others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe bosses require people to "ask permission" to use the leave they have warned.

I never asked permission and my bosses didn’t mind. We were all adults. I gave as much notice as I could. If they had asked me to switch things around due to looming deadlines, I would have done my best to accommodate the request.

When you have a good relationship, you don’t act like this.

[Anonymous]

If your organization is so incredibly short staffed that there is literally no back up, plan for a situation where someone has a heart attack or is hospitalized or someone’s parent dies. The problem is not really with the employees. And the same is true with the school system. Ideally, there would be one or two highly trained individuals who are like permanent on-call substitutes for a school who can easily swap in when someone is out I’m saying this is someone who graded finals from a hospital room while high on narcotics because there was no one else who could fulfill that function. here the problem is not with the teacher or the employee but with a system that has no Slack built in for emergencies which can and do happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm tired of working for jerks.

And how does a millennial have a hs graduate? I'm 36 and am an older millennial.

You could have had a kid at 18

Very rare in the Millennial generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op you suck.

It’s not ‘asking’ to take time off, they’re not your slaves. They are telling you they will be gone. Stop being a jerk.

Yeah, your employee isn’t going to skip their kid’s HS graduation, and the other isn’t going to skip the wedding if it’s a close friend or family member. Dial down the middle management power trip a tetch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op you suck.

It’s not ‘asking’ to take time off, they’re not your slaves. They are telling you they will be gone. Stop being a jerk.

Oh, so you just demand stuff from your boss like a teen throwing a tantrum? You’re gone! Outta here!

You are so powerless and you’re throwing tantrums. Exclamation points! “Outta here!!”

Hilarious.