Argh! My boss won't let me take a vacation! [View All]

:grr:

I haven't taken a real vacation in YEARS because my boss REFUSES to give me any length of time off (no more than 3 days at a time), DESPITE a contract guaranteeing me 14 days a year of paid vacation. I just received my quarterly benefits summary, and it shows that I have 288 hours of accumulated paid vacation time (more than seven weeks), and 258 hours of accumulated paid sick leave (six and a half weeks).

Seeing these numbers is a huge reminder that I'm a workaholic and work way too damned much for way too little money (I do enjoy my work though), so I walked down to my bosses office to ask for a week off next month. "No, we have projects X, Y, and Z coming up next month, I can't spare you". How about October? "I already have four people out in October, and projects D & F will be coming up." November? "I can't give you any time in November off, we'll be in the crunch for next semester." How about December? "It's a short month already, you already get half the month off, and it's unreasonable to ask for more." So I asked him when I could take some time off.

"I can spare you for a week or two in April.":wtf:

What's your take on this, and how would you react? I'm union so there are a LOT of avenues open to me, but I DO want to maintain a peacable work environment as much as possible. Should I file a formal grievance with the union? Should I pull an "oops, but I already bought the non-refundable tickets" gambit and back him into a corner on it? Should I just request the entire month of next June off NOW, before he has a chance to schedule anything during that time? My options are many, and I need a vacation dammit!