The photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
The photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

A story about an employee who took a day of annual leave to secure concert tickets — while the rest of the team worked overtime to meet a project deadline — has sparked debate among office workers online.

The story was posted recently on Remember, a workplace community platform, under the title "An MZ employee who takes annual leave just to buy tickets while everyone else is doing overtime."

The author, who identified themselves as a team leader and is referred to here as A, said team members had been working late every day to finish an important project due the following week.

Amid the crunch, one employee applied for leave on Monday — the busiest day of the week. When A asked why, the employee said securing tickets to a performance was "truly important" to them in life, and reportedly expressed some remorse over the timing.

The employee explained that the ticketing process required setting up multiple devices and refreshing pages starting 30 minutes before sales opened, and that a failed attempt could mean hours of repeated tries — making normal work effectively impossible.

A offered a compromise: the employee could step away only during the ticketing window, and colleagues would help with the purchase. The employee refused, citing poor simultaneous connectivity and a slow office internet connection, and held firm on taking the full day off. A asked whether online ticketing was really that difficult these days.

Reactions from fellow workers were divided. Some sided with the employee, arguing there was no need to scrutinize the reason for taking leave, that the employee had taken leave precisely to avoid disrupting the team, and that being upfront about the reason showed a conscientious attitude.

Others disagreed, saying personal plans should be adjusted when the entire team is working overtime, and that the employee's conduct could still factor into a performance review regardless of whether the leave itself was legitimate. One commenter put it plainly: "Taking annual leave is the employee's right, but how the team leader evaluates that employee is the team leader's call."


choigo@heraldcorp.com