You either learn to play the game, or you play the game somewhere else. If you know your vacation request won't be approved unless you give at least 2wks notic

You either learn to play the game, or you play the game somewhere else. If you know your vacation request won't be approved unless you give at least 2wks notice, you either give at least 2wks' notice or you take a sick day (if you don't think you'll be caught in a lie about it). You shouldn't expect CEOs to care about whether you're happy with your work -- it's rare if they do, and oftentimes it's purely for optics. Sometimes even your manager won't care if you're happy with your job. At the end of the day, you're being paid to do a job & that's all they really need to care about; a lot of managers DGAF. That sucks to hear, I know, but that's the truth. FWIW some CEOs are better than others. And even if the CEOs are trash, some managers are better than others & will help insulate you from the BS above. But more often than not, you're gonna be stuck dealing with somebody's BS at some point. And it really comes down to how much you believe you'll find a better situation somewhere else, & how difficult it is to get a job elsewhere.