Gen Z manager leaves workers stunned with surprising reason why she rejects their time-off requests

A lot of people find taking time off from work to be quite the terrifying prospect - whether you're worrying about your workload piling up or the reaction you might get from your boss.

But at the end of the day, we're all entitled to annual leave and need to take a break every so often so that we don't completely burn out.

This 'Gen Z manager' has now sparked quite the debate on social media after revealing the surprising reason why she rejects holiday requests from staff.

But it's not exactly what it sounds like - as Elizabeth Beggs, whose video about taking time off has gone viral on TikTok, believes that these employees didn't even need to submit vacation days in the first place.

The 28-year-old, from the US state of Virginia, works as a director at a packaging distribution company and is in charge of a five-person team, who are aged between 22 to 36.

But prior to this, she worked in a similar role at another unnamed firm, which is where she forged her unique management style and also her progressive approach to allocating annual leave.

Beggs explained that she firmly believes that 'time off is meant to recharge and be used how you need it, not to handle life-changing events'.

In the clip, which has gained 4.7 million views, she shared a range of examples of incidents where employees have asked to take a leave of absence, only for her to tell them they don't really need to.

Beggs said: "I had a rep text me and she said ‘Hey I think I’m miscarrying, I need to cancel...how do I submit time off?'," to which the manager replied: "Girl, go to the doctor, we’re not submitting time off for that!"

"Absolutely not," the mother-of-four continued. "You use your time off for your vacation, this is a medical emergency, let’s get you taken care of."

Beggs said the worker ended up 'being off for a while', but she still did not 'charge' her with any vacation days as she thought doing so would be 'ridiculous'.

She then referred to another instance where a member of staff had asked to reschedule a meeting as they had been 'up all night' with a newborn baby, before reiterating what she said in response to social media users.

"Yea man, don't worry about it," Beggs said. "I know you have a baby at home - the sleepless night are rough. I've been there, times four.

"Then he said, 'Actually, I had to take my oldest into the hospital last night, my wife is there with her right now and I've got to find childcare for the baby.

"Sir turn your car around! Get back to the hospital! Hang out with your baby. What do you mean your coming into work today? Absolutely not."

And thirdly, she described a situation where a team member had asked to take some time off to reconnect with their spouse and informed Beggs they had submitted an annual leave request to HR.

The manager went on: "Again, dude - you are doing great at your job, why are you getting HR involved in this? Just go! It's fine!"

She then signed off her video saying: "If any of these triggered anyone, you probably need to reevaluate how you run your team as a manager."

But her clip has actually had the opposite effect, as Beggs has been met by a host of praise online, with people hailing her fresh approach to helping employees juggle their work-life balance.

One commented: "You are not a manager…..you are a LEADER!"

A second said: "Ummm ma’am. Are you hiring? This is amazing!"

A third added: "I guarantee your employees would go to war for you. The best boss ever!"

A fourth wrote: "Boomer managers could never."

And a fifth chimed in: " I bet your team is highly productive and motivated with your management style."

Beggs further explained her management style while speaking to Newsweek, saying: "My team is very motivated and only takes time when they need to.

"I also do not consider anything crazy because if it is important to my team, it is important to me."

I imagine Beggs' inbox has imploded with CVs from people pining to work for a boss who deals with holiday requests like this.