My buddy from college, Jack, was getting married and our friend Rob was planning a bachelor party for him in Vegas. It was going to be the last weekend of the month and I wanted to go. The trouble was, I was scheduled to work that weekend. I needed to get the time off from work or I was going to miss out on all the fun. 

I have some vacation leave, [bad word] policy requires that my boss sign off on any leave we take. I’ve heard [bad word] doing that for longer periods of leave —like maternity leave or a leave of absence—but [bad word] does that even for vacation leave. I thought about just calling in sick that weekend—I do have a lot of accumulated sick leave—but I didn’t think my boss would appreciate me leaving him hanging. 

In the end, I just asked him straight out and, to my surprise, he said, “okay.” Now, I just need to get ready for a wild weekend with the guys. I can’t wait!