That was always my complaint when I was a retail manager. I'd try to schedule enough people to be able to operate short-staffed, and corporate always said "no", so when someone called in sick we had to panic.

That extra staffer that at 9-12 bucks an hour (this was a while back) didn't seem so wasteful when being short one employee due to illness could cost a couple grand an hour in lost income.

"But if you have too many employees to keep everyone busy, they won't be working as hard!"

"Okay. Great!"

Take it up with the law, because if I don't take those vacation days you will end up paying more for it.

"Hire taller staff ‍️"

Employees cost far more than most think, and that cost is the employers number one expense. Add it all up and $9-$12 comes out more like $16-$22. But the upfront costs in hiring a new person is the real kicker.

Advertising, interviewing, HR and IT onboarding, extra unemployment taxes on the initial income, training, all that stacks. Also, consider how useless a new employee is vs. one that's been on task for some time. And that employee is taking valuable time from an experienced worker!

Would being short one employee really cost thousands an hour? Can't think of such a retail space. ?

But yeah, low-end employers are damned short sighted. Given the upfront costs of new employees, shouldn't they be working hard to retain folks? Speaking of costs, at the employment firm I worked IT at, we'd charge higher rates for payroll if a company had shit turnover. We knew we'd be paying extra unemployment insurance, and don't quote me, but I think there was a higher worker's comp cost. In any case, if turnover was high, that was a sign of a shit employer who would be a shit client.

If everything falls apart because you aren't at work, then you are not getting paid enough.

I remember telling my boss I would be on vacation, and when. He said I was supposed to request vacation time. I said ok, I'd like to request vacation time for these days I will be on the other side of the state, and not at work.

Buying a step stool would be cheaper than the inevitable height discrimination lawsuit

Agree with this take 100%. Retaining employees also retains institutional knowledge. I worked in a call center for a vision insurance company. I lasted 5 years where most new hires lasted less than 1 year. By the time I left I had in-depth knowledge about materials used in eye-wear, wholesale costs, how prescriptions translated into the type of correction being performed and how that would impact lens thickness, claims processing, medicaid billing rules, HIPAA, and how the affordable care act worked. The company decided to pass me over for multiple promotions, had no raises, refused to allow me to take my PTO, get paid out for my PTO, or let my PTO roll over. Just got fed up one day and rage quit. I moved to a medical insurance company that paid 5$ more per hour, ($18 vs the $13 I was making at the first place,) to obtain all that knowledge. I learned even more at the new company, until they started pulling the same shit. So I rage quit again. All of that knowledge left with me, and I got a state job that comes with a pension, fuck tons of sick, vacation, and personal time that rolls over and no one questions when I need to use it, along with a $10 per hour raise, ($18 per our at the old place, $28 per hour at the state job.) I'm much happier and much less stressed now. What's sad is that all it really would have took to make me happy at either of the first jobs was being able to take my PTO. I was willing to overlook a lot of the other bullshit like the lack of wage progression and growth. These bean counters are penny wise and pound foolish.

Sounds like a management problem to me

In college, many years back, I worked for a Home Depot that was chronically understaffed. I worked the lumber and building materials department, often during peak hours for contractors coming in to buy things for their projects and often completely by myself. Iʻd also work until like 11 at night and have to be in at dawn the next day. Keep in mind, I was also part-time (it was my senior year of college). I requested time off for Thanksgiving to see my family, something no other retailer I worked for objected to. They denied my request.

So, like Peter Gibbons, I just stopped going. I went home one night and just never came back (other than to sneakily collect my last check a few weeks later). Never answered the phone when they called. I just disappeared.

Years later I bumped into one of my former co-workers (he was working at a car rental place and I was renting a van). He said that he did pretty much the same thing not too longer after lol.

Which I always thought was weird, it's not like there aren't enough people around who don't care about Christmas (and would also jump at the holiday bonus).

This. Businesses running leaner and leaner to comical levels so the C-suite can make more profit. It's not my problem if they're too shortsighted because of the dollar signs -- my vacation time is a necessary component of my employment agreement and my compensation.

Late last year my company switched to "unlimited PTO." Ironically this happened just before I had saved up 120 hours (specifically vacation hours separate from sick days or anything else) to go visit my fiance abroad without question. A couple weeks ago HR sent out a message to the managers that "unlimited" (which includes sick days, bereavement, etc) basically means 25 days at max, but we should "encourage" around 15 days.

When I brought up that "Unlimited PTO" was gonna be real bad news for us, my coworkers didn't really believe it, but now some of them are getting pushback or outright denied on trips they had planned last year. If you are applying for a company that says "unlimited PTO" ask exactly what that means. And if they say "manager's discretion" ask what the HR recommendation or policy is to the manager. It's meant to be a profit-increasing tool to get new recruits to sign on, as well as ensuring that they can cut you off from taking days off when they feel like.

don't quote me

More like: take your time off as soon as possible.. you should always have zero days set aside

It also eliminates the vacation pay-out when someone resigns.

In the Netherlands, I've never had this happen.. Sure, they want you to teken time off at certain period, but if the know you want time off at a cwrtaib period, they should just get staff to meet minimum service levels.

Ah yeah totally forgot about that too, definitely

"Guess you should've planned better, this probably won't reflect well on your next performance review. Anyway, see ya!"