Give the Employees a Break

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” - Richard Branson

We've all heard of the atrocities going on in the Amazon warehouses. We also know that this is not an isolated issue. There are other companies that seem to think that they can do whatever they want with their employees.

If you treat your employees like automaton, they will eventually burn out or leave.
This issues hit close to home for me. There's a close relative of mine that was recently put on leave ... That person requested vacation on many occasions but the company failed to comply to the request. Saying things like "who would take care of your responsibility if you're away?" ... well who's taking care of things now that this person was forced out?

It's funny when you think about it. On one side, you have people saying that employees are disposable - that it would take a week to replace anyone ... and on the other, you can't give someone a break for more than a week because they are needed every day. So you can go without a person for a week, until you find a replacement, but you can't let that person on vacation for a week.

If the employee requests a vacation, it is the responsibility of the employer to make it happen and they should be moving heaven and earth to make it happen. Everybody deserves a break from time to time.