Woman Says She Was Told to Bring Laptop on Honeymoon to 'Keep Up' With Work

A woman has said in a now-viral post that she was told to bring her laptop to her honeymoon so that she can "keep up" with work while she's away.

Posting to Reddit's "Antiwork" forum on Friday under the username u/bekahbellz, the woman explained that her boss made the aforementioned "suggestion" on Thursday as she submitted her formal PTO request for her upcoming wedding in October. So far, the post has received more than 10,000 upvotes and over 1,00 comments.

Although the woman said her boss "wants to deny" her PTO request, the post demonstrates an expert-approved way of notifying employers of pre-planned vacations.

"I interviewed for an IT sales position back in January," the woman said at the beginning of her post. "During the second interview, I made sure to mention SEVERAL times that I was getting married out of town, and had already booked a nine-day honeymoon to the Dominican Republic. Everything went well, and I got the job."

However, when she tried to submit her official PTO request, she received a "guilt trip" from her boss.

"[He] said that two weeks is too much time to take off for a wedding, and then went on to suggest I shorten my honeymoon and do my wedding in the city I live in currently instead. When I put up resistance, he suggested I bring my laptop on my honeymoon to keep up with 'critical issues,'" she wrote.

"Are we all just supposed to put up with this? Am I not allowed to have a life outside of work anymore?" she asked. "I know that two weeks off at a time is a lot, but I made sure that everyone was aware before I was even offered a job."

u/bekahbellz told Newsweek that she hasn't spoken to her boss about the PTO request since Thursday.

"He told me to put the request in our team's calendar and he would 'work on it,'" she said.

Writing for employment website Monster, talent consultant and career coach Vicki Salemi said that prospective employees should disclose all pre-planned vacation dates in the second round of the job interview process, which u/bekahbellz did.

"That's when potential start dates may ease their way into the conversation, and the recruiter or hiring manager may ask when you're available," Salemi said. "But even if they don't bring up start dates by the second round, you still need to reveal your intentions. You're not asking for their permission—you're simply telling them as an FYI."

She added that employees shouldn't "feel awkward" about revealing vacation plans during the interview process and that people are "entitled to a personal life."

Many commenters agreed that u/bekahbellz was entitled to her vacation and told her to begin looking for a new job.

"Set up a new job for when you get back from your honeymoon and resign with 0 days notice the day you were due to go on leave," wrote u/FractionofaFraction.

"Pardon? Your boss is wanting you to change your wedding plans for work arrangements that were made prior to the job? Uh no. You should report to HR and if they have any sort of decency then they would put him in his place. If not, work super well and say nothing more but when your wedding comes, have something else lined up for when you return and leave 'em in the dust," added u/reeboks270.

03/25/2022: This article has been updated to include comment from u/bekahbellz.