Yeah, what an asshole

i dont think she HAS that power. I believe OP could say no, as they have a right to paid leave and it was approved.

Yes go to HR whenever possible. Since it was approved 2 months ago you should be fine.

what if it's the boss?

#10 have fun at work or gl finding new work

If the manager/boss approved the leave, there's nothing they can do to force you to come back to work. On top of that, if they start treating you bad afterwards you can sue them for retaliation in the workplace. Either way, I would have, in kinder terms, told my boss to go **** his or herself.

Some people don't have the luxury of ignoring work calls, particularly those in the military or working with the government, even while on vacation.

What if it was a real emergency?

If OP were military, this wouldn't have happened. Higher ranking individuals need to make a leave request at least 2 weeks prior to the desired start date like everybody else. The only reason OP would get called in would be a true emergency. That's how it is in the US military, anyway. I imagine it would be the same in Australia.

Au contraire, 37. My husband is part of the US military and every single leave he's booked (no matter what command!) he's either been called back in to help fix something, or called to ask how to do/fix something. So yes, that is how the military works.

No it's not. They can get in trouble for that. He should go to high command. My husband was also in. They have to have their leave approved like everyone else.

But he wasn't called in because someone else wanted to take leave, was he, 41? That was my point.

I made no mention of cancelled leave. You are correct in saying the military can't make you come back early because someone wants to take their vacation instead, but that's not what I was talking about. (Though if you want to get technical, leave CAN be cancelled with a congressional order, but that's typically only in war time.) I said they don't have the luxury of ignoring their command while on vacation, because if the military needs to get ahold of you and you refuse to answer the phone they will send someone to your freaking house to get what they need from you.

Yes, I know 53. The command certainly can cancel your leave and call you back. I never said that wasn't true. But they will never EVER cancel leave so someone else can take leave, therefore OP is not in the military, therefore that is not the reason she may have she accepted a call from work while on vacation. That is what I was saying. I don't understand why you're arguing with me on this.

I think, she's arguing in context of the response to the FML rather than the FML itself. If you take it in that context, you saying "If OP was military this wouldn't happen," is saying that the OP wouldn't be getting work calls at all while on leave; which would be erroneous even in assumption. However, if you put it in context of the FML then her original statement is correct, and you saying military wouldn't be called back for someone else to take their leave is also correct and there was no further point of arguing.