This is ridiculous. Vacation times aren't mandated in order to manage employees - they are are mandated in order to give them authority and to require their ma

This is ridiculous. Vacation times aren't mandated in order to manage employees - they are are mandated in order to give them authority and to require their managers to manage around their employees vacation time. By providing the employees express, written authority to override their managers, they force vacation time to be addressed. So, yes, this is kindergarten, and yes, be happy that the overall system is set up to mandate vacations. Otherwise, there will be no vacations.