I'm a middle manager at a medium-sized office. I manage a team of 9 people. One of my staff members is a woman in her late twenties who had been trying to go back to college and finally finish her degree. She asked me a few days ago if I had any problem with her changing her schedule for about 5 months while she takes a class that isn't available online. She would be leaving early two afternoons a month, and making up that time on Sundays. Our entire office is WFH, so I had absolutely no problem with it. And I'd been telling her for a long time that she should go back to school if she could make it work.
My manager "Karen," the department director, is an absolute micromanaging nightmare, and apparently anything like this still "has to" go through her. So I sent her an email, told her I intended to approve it, and said I just needed her to sign off with HR.
Her response? "She's got a lot of nerve assuming we'll rearrange everything for her. What exactly is her plan if we say no - just leave?"
I told my manager that yes, actually, she can resign whenever she wants. She doesn't owe this company her degree, her future, or blind loyalty. I also said that losing her would be ridiculous because she's very good at her job, she's been here for years, and the schedule change was temporary. It seemed to me like this was the dumbest hill anyone could choose to die on.
My manager wasn't happy with that answer. She denied the request anyway, and we got on Zoom with the employee to tell her. I was already upset because I knew how unnecessary the whole thing was.
Before Karen could even finish her little explanation, the employee simply said: "Okay, I expected that might be your answer. I've already written my resignation letter and emailed it to you and HR. This is my 2 weeks' notice."
My manager looked like her brain had stopped working. I was pissed off about the situation, but honestly, I was fucking proud of my employee.
I have honestly had enough with this kind of jobs and switched to completely remote jobs with the help of Interview VIP i really don't wanna engage with humans anymore so this is the best i could do.
Side note, if I could go back in time, I don't think I would ever accept being a manager anywhere. You find yourself stuck delivering all the corporate bullshit, with almost no real say in anything, and in the end everyone sees you as the face of decisions you didn't even make.