全家安排度假是一项艰巨的任务，要买机票，算好学校放假期间哪几天不工作，照顾好宠物，找人看家……要是在离既定出发时间仅有几天的时候，老板突然叫你取消这一切，你会怎么做？
如 果拒绝，或许饭碗就丢了。在多数情况下，员工不管有什么即将实施的度假安排，如果违抗命令不去工作，都是有可能遭到解雇的。Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott劳动法律师迈尔斯(John J. Myers)说，很少有老板会做这种事情，如果需要你，多数上级只会让你在离开的时候打电话联系。毕竟度假是有益人的健康的。研究显示，不度假的人因为各 种原因死亡的风险都比经常度假的人高，而因心脏病死亡的风险还要高出更多。
但迈尔斯说，雇主一般没有提供带薪休假的义务，如果提供带薪休假，它们也有权规定具体条款。
这 个话题起源于今年早些时候一个不常见的案例。华盛顿州一家银行的总裁迪克森(John Dickson)拒绝取消春假，和妻子、孩子一起去了夏威夷，结果被首席执行长炒掉。迪克森对一位记者说，他在几个月前就已经做好了度假安排，而且提前很 久告诉了老板。迪克森说，当首席执行长命令他取消休假时，他对老板说，家庭和婚姻对我非常重要，我真的不想取消这次度假。他还说他打算在夏威夷期间通过手 机和电子邮件继续工作。
当时这家银行显然过得很不顺利，联邦监管机构已经警告管理层要 保留更多资产，要不然就把银行强制卖掉。据报道，首席执行长多次说，当部下身陷枪林弹雨之时，一个首领是不会离开战场、抛弃他们的，他不相信部下都在高度 紧张地艰苦工作时，一家公司的两个带头人还有谁可以是在沐浴阳光。他不希望人们以为危机期间总裁是在泳池边一边晒太阳一边喝热带鸡尾酒。
但迪克森没有让步，说他在度假前工作非常努力，度假外出时也会继续努力工作。后来这家银行被监管机构接管、出售，迪克森则在另一家银行谋得了职位。
几年前当经理的时候，我也曾闪现过把度假的员工叫回来工作的念头。当时我们正在激烈地抢一条新闻，而跑口记者正在跟家人一起度假。我们急需他的专业经验和资源。但我还是克制了自己，没有叫这位记者，而是让其他记者来支援。
读者朋友，你觉得老板在什么时候要求员工取消度假计划是没有问题的呢？如果你是老板，那么在什么情况下才必须要这样做？如果老板要你取消休假计划，你会不会拒绝呢？在什么情况下你才会拒绝？
Planning a vacation trip for the whole family-lining up plane tickets, time off work on a school break, pet care or a house sitter-is a major undertaking. What would you do if, just a few days before you were scheduled to depart on such a trip, your boss told you to cancel the whole thing?
If you refused, you just might be out of a job. In most circumstances, employees can be fired for refusing an order to work, regardless of pending vacation plans. Few bosses would do such a thing; if you are needed, most supervisors would just ask you to call in while you are away, says John J. Myers, an employment attorney for Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott. After all, vacation is valuable to your health. Research has shown that people who fail to take vacations have a higher risk of death from any cause, but particularly from heart disease, than those who take regular vacations.
Nevertheless, employers generally aren't obligated to provide paid vacation, and they have the right to set the terms when they do, Mr. Myers says.
The issue arose in an unusual case earlier this year at a bank in Everett, Wash. The bank's president, John Dickson, was fired by the CEO after he refused to cancel a spring-break vacation to Hawaii with his wife and kids. Dickson told a reporter that he had made the vacation plans months earlier and informed his boss well in advance. When the CEO ordered him to cancel it, Mr. Dickson said, he told his boss, 'My family and my marriage are very important to me. I really don't want to cancel this vacation.' He also said he intended to continue working by phone and email while in Hawaii.
It was clearly a tough time for the bank; officials had been warned by federal regulators to secure more assets or face a forced sale. 'A leader doesn't leave the battlefield and abandon troops when they're under fire,' the CEO reportedly said, adding that he didn't believe either 'of the top two leaders in a company can be basking in the sun while the troops are laboring hard in a high level of anxiety.' He didn't want people to think the president was 'basking poolside with a Mai Thai' during a crisis.
Nevertheless, Mr. Dickson refused to yield, saying he had been working very hard before his vacation and would continue to do so while away. The bank has since been seized by regulators and sold. Mr. Dickson has a position at another bank.
The idea of calling an employee back from vacation crossed my mind once when I was a manager years ago. We were competing hard on a story, on the beat of a reporter who was vacationing with his family. We badly needed his expertise and sources. I got a grip on myself, though, and called on back-ups instead.
Readers, when is it OK for a boss to require an employee to cancel vacation plans? What circumstances would warrant that, if you were the boss? Would you ever refuse to cancel a vacation if your boss asked you to do so? What would it take to get you to refuse?