Rubber Stamp Rambo

So this guy comes into my office and says:

I need to take Monday and Tuesday of next week off.  Is that okay?

Of course it’s not okay.  Monday is a crucial day in the life of Startup Incorporated.  Never mind that it will be the 375th consecutive such crucial day.  Absolutely critical I tells ya.  Critical!

In my ventures over the last ten plus years, my CEOs gave me a hard time about every single vacation day I ever took.  Every. Single. One.  Three days, seven days, one day, half day – didn’t matter.  So in the spirit of being a real manager I tried, I really tried to think intelligently about whether in fact Monday was a good day for this guy to take off.  Once.  And my brain hurt so I stopped.  There is no answer to that question.

When someone comes to you with a vacation request, break out the rubber stamp, Rambo, and get stamping.  There is never a good moment for this guy to go on vacation so smile, rubber stamp it and wish him good luck at the D&D convention.