Day 20 - "There's A Moment You Know You're $%@#&*"

I'm standing at work today, rinsing out a dish and minding my own sweet business, when my boss comes around the corner and interrupts me spraying water into a dish because I get frustrated when people can't follow simple directions. "There you are!" she said.

"Yup, I'm still here," I replied cheerfully.

"These came in the mail for you and your sister today," my boss replied. She pulled two oddly familiar vacation pay forms out of a manilla envelope and, to my dismay, my form was covered in blue ink and pink highlighter. "Your vacation pay got denied."

WHAT THE *&%$^)*^)*(^&%^)*^&$^^%#$????

Okay, so I didn't really say that out loud, but I really wanted to. Apparently, I in the past year had a 31 day "lapse in service," so I basically have to start over with my vacation "rewards." I won't be eligible to get paid for the vacation I took the last full week of August until October 13th. As for the week of vacation that I'm taking, oh, next week?

Sorry, says my lovely employer, you're screwed. Since it hasn't been four years since that "lapse in service," they took away my second week of paid vacation that I rightfully should receive because I have been an employee for more than four years, which is what is needed to get two weeks of vacation.

Isn't this, oh I don't know, illegal? Unethical? Complete and utter bullshit?

Personally, this is ridiculous. The whole work environment since I've graduated has gone down the crapper, and whether it's me realizing that I'm a college graduate or the management (still) is off kilter or I just really don't like this job but there aren't any other options, I don't know. It's crappy that employers think they can treat employees like this. No wonder we can't keep good employees for any extended amount of time.

-AA