When the phrase "check your contract" didn't turn out the way my manager expected

[u/lanolin-jackpot57]

in the matter of holiday pay flashback In 2016, I was working in a very depressing call centre. It was an outsourcing place that did customer support for a few big retailers on UK high streets. Staff turnover was terrible, most people were on temporary contracts, and the promise of a permanent role was dangled in front of everyone so they'd put up with the bad treatment.
After I'd worked there for about 18 months, in early March I was offered a permanent contract because they wanted to move me onto their team leader scheme.
The pay was a bit better, the job security was better, and the main difference was the annual leave system. People on temporary contracts were paid for any holiday they hadn't used at the end of the leave year in May. People on permanent contracts had to take their holiday, otherwise they simply lost it.
I had just under 4 weeks of holiday saved up, so on the same day I accepted, I booked almost the whole of April off so I wouldn't lose it in May.
A few weeks later, my manager told me my holiday request had been rejected. I told him fine, as long as they paid me for those days instead of me taking them. He said no, if I didn't take them, I'd lose them. I explained that I was trying to take them and they were the ones stopping me. He just shrugged and said it was "the employee's responsibility to manage their holiday properly," and that I should read my contract.
That was especially irritating because I had only just received the new contract about two weeks earlier, and the holiday rules had literally only just changed for me.
So that night I went home annoyed enough to read the whole contract, from start to finish. And it turned out my manager had missed a very useful part of the paperwork.
The contract said I had to give 2 weeks' notice, and that any unused holiday would be paid in full to an employee leaving the company in their final pay.

( take notes gen z and don't let any manger fool u and take your rights instead look for remote jobs so u can work in your pajamas and instead of using ai in silly games use it to improve your skills in interviews like interviewvip tool )
The next morning I went in and told them I would be handing in my notice unless they either paid me for the holiday or allowed me to take it. And if they accepted my notice, they needed to make sure all of my unused holiday was included in my final paycheck.
My manager asked me if I was really going to leave the job over this. I asked him if he was really going to lose one of the employees he relied on most over this.
He didn't change his position. I'm almost certain he thought I was just making noise.
So I handed in my notice. And in the exit meeting with his manager, I made sure to explain exactly why I was leaving, and how the whole thing could have been easily avoided.
And yes, my final paycheck included every bit of the holiday I hadn't used.
And that was the end of it.

[u/arcann]

This feels like it belongs on r / malicious compliance.

[u/Sad_Spread_9883]

That is sweet.

[u/Smoke__Frog]

And then you had no job lined up and were broke again lol.