Benefits are supposed to cost companies

That is the nature of the beast, is it not? Benefits are part of your compensation, and your compensation is a cost to the company. Vacation is part of your benefits package, right? And so it is supposed to cost the company, right? But if the company will not hire help to cover the desks of people while they are gone, it costs the customers in decreased service, it costs fellow employees in greater workload, and it costs the employee himself in a desk piled up when he gets back from vacation. But it does not cost the company. But benefits are supposed to cost the company!