My momentous decision in the last 6 hours.

I would give you a high five if I could. You definitely made the right decision.

Avi. No question, you did the right thing. You can do so much better for yourself than that crappy company! Seriously, I'm all for getting ahead in business and making a mark for yourself, but in five years, what will you remember? Dancing and laughing at your best friend's wedding? Or tooling away crunching numbers on some nameless project? Work/life balance isn't just a catch phrase. In any case, I, along with everyone else on this forum, have no doubt that at least one or more of the schools which have you currently waitlisted will see the light soon..

I'm DEFINITELY too much of an idealist...but 1% of me is thinking that telling an adcom your story might help. Then, the other 99% of me immediately goes "BAD IDEA!".

Seriously though, I think it shows tremendous leadership and a clear understanding of your priorities to be able to do what you did. I'd want my schools to know that they're not getting a guy who's going to take crap, but will stand up for his principles.

Anyone else feel like backing up my 1%?

Can't say that the idea did not cross my mind as well. Too risky, however. Need rhyme's word-magic to make the story sound rock-solid

I partly think its a bad idea because of the fact that you would have written in your essays about how challenging your job is and how you love working in your current company. Now if you suddenly turn around and say the bosses are crappy and the company doesnt care for work-life balance, the question would arise that what were you doing there for so long.

you showed great character Avi. Its not just a question of your company forcing you to choose work over your friend's wedding. it symbolizes the unethical management that sadly has become the order of day. Employees have ceased to be people and have become "resources" with a given skill set. If there is no humane touch to how business in general is conducted, then there is no point in doing it at all. keep your chin up. If you are in IT consulting, i will be glad to help you get another job.

so long 3 cheers for you !

I think quitting was a bit on the irrational side. There will always be a time in a person's career
when they have to cancel vacations, family plans, etc.

Avi,
I believe that long-term, you made a right decision. In a year you will look back at this episode in your life, and laugh about it. I know that you got caught in a moment and couldn't take the unbelievable unethical harassment of two bosses. I am thinking that I would find it hard to resist saying what you said in that room. However, the rational inner-me is saying that you could sue the sh*t out of your employer instead of quitting. In fact, more likely you wouldn't even have to go through the process as the company would be more likely to settle with you than pay exuberant amount of money to corporate lawyers.
1) you are entitled to your vacation by law
2) you have received "clearance" from your manager far in advance to take your PTO
3) request to "donate" your vacation time to upper management is at the least unethical
I could list other reasons to sue your company but you resigned... DARN IT!

This reminds me of a situation I had to deal with a couple years ago as a manager at a big IT consulting company. I had an analyst who had joined my team as a developer in late November, for a web application project that was to go live in mid-January. He was well aware of the timelines and knew we'd be in a crunch right around xmas-new year time. Shortly after we brought him on to the project, he asked for a 2 week vacation at the end of December, beginning of January. He had an opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to the Mecca with some of his friend and family, something very personal to him as he's a devout Muslim. Certainly a difficult situation, but one in which our company speaks of accommodating work/life balance.

He ended up going on the trip, committing to working extra before and after his time off so as to not screw the project. At the end of the day, we got the work done because I planned for quite a bit of 'contingency' when bringing on a new analyst so I had the resources to complete the project. But I felt he was disingenuous about the whole thing, probably knowing about the trip even when he joined the project. Turns out he quit the company just a couple months later to go to grad school.

I always wondered how others would have handled this.

Good stuff Aviroop..I would have done the same

Avi, great job standing up to what you value. Needless to say that the management got a good deal by not having to fire you. I would have loved to see you going to the office for many months and collecting your paychecks for nothing. Anyway, you can still do this for 2 months. I am surprised that your company lets you continue for 2 months after you said, "I resign". In my company, you would have been asked to pack your bags within an hour. So I say, use those 2 months to look for a better job (Without worrying about the B-schools) and collect some money from this company for nothing. But please do return the external hard-disk.

Again, thankfully you are getting 2 months, so it is okay .. otherwise you had taken a big risk with your H1 visa by saying, "I resign". If you were made to leave the same day, you would have to find a new job in 15 days, right? That was a little irrational. Thankfully this irrational action didn't hurt you. As for telling the B-schools about it, my vote is "Don't tell this story at all". There are just too many risk elements here. You may sound stubborn (Depending on how they read the story), you may sound frustrated at work / from your boss, you may sound like someone who doesn't think long before making big decisions. There are just too many ways for this story to hurt you. Hopefully you will get a great job and an admit from a school to make it all seem irrelevant in a few months.

If you need help with finding a job, please let me know. If your profile matches any requirement in my company or in other companies that I know of, then I'll definitely try to help. If you need any help, that is. All the best .. and once again, I am proud of the fact that you stood up for your values.

burger: Did you just copy that from your "Describe a challenging professional relationship essay"?

Avi- we have spoken about your work situation a few times- and you know my thoughts on this. You definitely did the right thing. Just make sure you follow up with all those headhunters who have been getting in touch!

Guys,
Thank you .. each and every one of you for your posts. I really appreciate your thoughts and support on this. Makes me realize that I do have a ton of friends!!!!!!

Looking back, I realized I may have been stubborn, but what really hit me was my managers simply telling me no to everything. They knew months in advance that I had to go to Mexico to get my h1b visa processed. Heck, they knew it one year in advance.

What really made me mad was their telling me that my personal life came in front of my work. They conveniently chose to forgot for those 2 split seconds that I worked ceaselessly for 20 months, losing my vacation hours.

Since I have to wrap up some pending stuff with them, they agreed to keep me for 2 months. I wanted to leave yesterday, but I guess I can be like George Costanza and show up to work everyday and do nothing. Also, I would get peanuts from my severance package. Probably get fired sometime this year and get a montth or 2 worth of salary. Thats about it.

I guess a few years down the drain I will be laughing at this really ridiculous decision of mine, but I learnt that its hard to trust anyone. And true, we have all become resources.. no longer humans that matter in an organization.

Well, this I can relate to. I was in the same boat a year and a half ago. Ok, almost the same boat. I didn't have any visa issues to contend with, but the rest sounds frighteningly familiar. Trust me, when I look back now, I have absolutely NO REGRETS. It's your life, Avi. Live it the way you want to.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the H1B visa issue (sorry, stupid insensitive American here ). Wow, that was gutsy then!

But nervous is right, you might want to go talk to a lawyer (one of those "free" lawyers) and see if you can sue the company, even though you resigned. I don't think resigning changes much, since it's what they did to you in the past (taking away your vacation time) that matters. Who knows, you might get the $$ you need to go to b-school after this! Seriously consider it!

Damn Avi, you're my HERO!! I wish I had the same guts. I'm on the H1B Visa and I've endured a couple of injustices because of it, so I can relate very well to the additional shenanigans on top of being considered "just a resource." I believe you will get into B-school! Have you thought about a pre-MBA internship? Depending on how soon they let you change your status, you could use you're B-school F1 to pursue an unpaid pre-MBA internship, which sets the future job hunt ball rolling in your favour. If it's voluntary, you will not be violating any F1 rules and you will be gaining experience. BTW you could do the pre-MBA thing abroad too. Just my 2 cents.

Avi - you are in California right? Reconfirm with HR, but I believe California state law states that companies have to allow employees to carry over all vacation (irrespective of company policy for vacation carry over in all other states). And of course, any unpaid accrued vacation will be paid to you when you leave the company. Just an FYI.