The secretary where I work has taken off A LOT of days since she has been working there. Usually once a month or every few weeks, she’s taking a week or several days off. However, we are county employees and accrue so many hours of leave time each pay period. She rarely took off in the past, so now she has a bunch of hours.

She’s off this week and when she’s off, my boss or one of us has to sit up front while juggling our caseloads. Usually it’s my boss, because we have deadlines to meet with our caseloads and are in court at least twice a week. My boss, upset yesterday, told us she told her this is the last vacation she’s approving for awhile.

The way the county works, if you have the leave time and give enough notice, you are legally entitled to that leave.

Do you think a boss should be able to decline someone’s leave if they give notice and have the leave time? Why or why not? Should you be forced to use a certain amount of leave time each year so it doesn’t accrue?