“I’ll work two extra hours a day Monday through Thursday and take Friday off” ... A new hire’s bizarre math

[Financial News]  A new employee who had been at the company for less than two weeks has sparked controversy by asking to work extra hours from Monday through Thursday and take Friday off. The employee had not yet accrued any annual leave at the company, but planned to bank overtime hours and take a day off.
The new employee planned to work an extra two hours a day for four days, Monday through Thursday, to make up a total of eight hours and use them to take Friday off.
A worker’s workplace dilemma was recently posted on an online community under the title “A new hire is using annual leave in a weird way.”
The person who wrote the post, identified as A, is responsible for training new employees at the company. A recently told an employee undergoing training that they would check on the employee’s work progress next Friday, but got an unexpected response.
The new employee, identified as B, asked to change the schedule, saying, “I’m planning to take annual leave that day, so please change the date of the check-in.”
A asked, “You haven’t even been here a month, so you don’t have any annual leave, do you?” B then explained that they would work an extra two hours each day from Monday through Thursday to make up eight hours, and then take Friday off.
The plan had not even received prior approval from the team leader.
Although A explained that the plan was not allowed under company rules, B reportedly tried to stick to it, saying, “I’ll talk to the team leader and see what I can work out.”
Taken aback by the request, A confessed, “Annual leave isn’t some kind of savings account. It was such an outlandish idea that I was briefly at a loss for words,” adding, “I just can’t understand the way this new hire thinks.”
A also expressed concern about the training ahead. “I was once a clueless new hire too, but I never had a thought like this,” A said. “I have no idea how I’m supposed to train them going forward.”
Most netizens who came across the story said they could not understand the new employee’s request.
Critical comments included, “People like this are getting jobs?”, “The MZ generation these days is seriously out of hand,” and “Not knowing the company rules is a problem, but their whole understanding of things is different.”
Other netizens criticized the new employee’s behavior with comments such as, “Not MZ, but the MY (my way) generation,” “Annual-leave savings account,” “Did they ask ChatGPT?”, and “Good thing this came to light during the probationary period.”
However, adjusting working hours on different workdays to take a particular day off is not prohibited at every workplace.
If a workplace has a flexible work arrangement or operates a compensatory leave system under the Labor Standards Act, it may adjust working hours or grant leave in accordance with the relevant requirements.
However, these systems must be distinguished from statutory annual leave. Annual leave does not accrue by adding together extra hours worked.
Under the Labor Standards Act, employees with less than one year of service may, in principle, receive one day of annual leave for each month in which they have perfect attendance.
Therefore, unless the company operates a relevant system or the necessary approval has been obtained, an employee cannot unilaterally convert overtime hours into annual leave and use them.


[email protected] Han Seung-gon Reporter