I wish I could say this instead of having to schedule my vacation time a month in advance.

If your business requires all its employees to be there to function, it’s understaffed.

People go on vacation, get sick, quit, have car trouble, and die. Your business needs to account for that.

So you’re saying you failed to plan adequate staffing capacity for the company’s needs?

Sounds like a planning issue on their side. Where I live, it’s expected that some periods are just less busy because people like to take off those weeks.

“that’s a shame, you should have considered it when you last downsized the workforce. I’ll be back in a month”