New hire's solo plan to 'bank' overtime for a day off goes viral

A story about a new hire who planned to work two extra hours a day from Monday through Thursday so she could take Friday off as annual leave has gone viral online.

Annual leave in South Korea is paid vacation earned after a full year of employment — a concept distinct from flexible working arrangements.

A post shared by A, a senior employee tasked with training the new hire, has been spreading across multiple online communities since Monday. "I'm dumbfounded — tell me if I'm the weird one or if this new hire is just very MZ," A wrote.

According to A, the new hire — identified as B — has been with the company for less than two weeks and has not yet accrued any annual leave. Even so, when A told B that a midterm check-in was scheduled for Nov. 6, B abruptly said she planned to take annual leave that day and asked that the review be moved to a different date.

When A pointed out that B could not have accrued any leave within her first month, B said she intended to work two extra hours each day from Monday through Thursday and use that accumulated time as the basis for taking Friday off. B also acknowledged she had not discussed the plan with the team leader.

"It seems she did her own calculations, but annual leave isn't some kind of savings account — I was so stunned by the idea that I was briefly at a loss for words," A wrote. "Even after I asked several times, 'Are you sure you can use leave that way?' she couldn't understand why it wouldn't work."

When A said the arrangement would likely not be permitted under company rules, B replied that she would speak with the team leader and showed no sign of backing down. A said she simply responded, "All right."

A then asked fellow users for their take: "Can annual leave actually be used this way? Am I going to be the one who gets in trouble with the team leader over this?"

A added that while she too had once been a clueless new hire, the idea of taking leave in such a manner had never crossed her mind. "I genuinely cannot understand how this person thinks," she wrote. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to train her going forward — it feels hopeless."

Reactions from users were mixed. Some found humor in the situation — "Even if it were somehow allowed, the fact that she didn't ask her senior first and just looked up the rules herself and announced it is hilarious," one wrote — while others raised practical questions: "Doesn't working two extra hours a day require the employer's approval?" Other comments ranged from "That's wild" and "Annual leave savings account" to "Did she ask ChatGPT?" and "She's going to get a rude awakening."