time off request

bikes

I have a friend who approached me with a question regarding her 16 yr. old daughter Amy, who currently works for a fast food restaurant. Amy recently asked for some time off, and gave the manager a few weeks notice. The next day she found her time off request slips posted on the employee bulletin board for everyone to see with a note from the mgr. stating "I need to know why you need these days off." Her daughter was upset because (1) she didn't feel that he needed to post them for everyone to see and (2) she doesn't feel it's his business as to exactly why she needs this time off.

Since she is a part-time high school worker, she does not have specific "vacation" or "personal" time. She said he has never done this to any other employee since she's been there, which has been almost 2 years. At this time, she is second highest in seniority.

Are there any rules/laws associated with this? Does an employee have to give a specific reason as to why they need time off? I know that at the company I work for, you simply state whether it's vacation, sick, etc. time and no questions are asked. I didn't know if it's different since she is part-time, under the age of 18, and is not accruing vacation, personal or sick time. We live in Wisconsin.

Don D

Unfortunately, Bikes, some managers are uncommunicative, knothead boors. This seems to be one. Also unfortunately, oftentimes we must work through them according to their set of unreasonable demands. Since the young worker has no real bank of leave to draw upon, she must ask (maybe grovel) for unpaid personal absence and to get it, she may have to give some sort of explanation. She can either do that or restate to him in person that it is PERSONAL, or she can pitch a fit and perhaps lose her job. She should not engage in the passing back and forth of notes at this point or she risks another one being posted on the board. When the manager posted her request on a bulletin board, he gave a clear signal that he does not wish to communicate on a personal, thoughtful level. He also indicated clearly his negative regard for people. As Margaret reminded us in another post, some people are simply A-holes. Some are born that way and some work very, very hard to attain the rank. If nothing else, this will be a good lesson for the young worker.