Everything in this story is dysfunctional, including the protagonist's approach. It is completely unacceptable for a team leader to give their people time off and lie about it and he is well in to territory where the company could fire him. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a fire-for-cause situation, in fact. Although upper management sounds so off the rails that he would probably get away with it and get a commendation of some sort; it does seem to be a play to the environment he's in.
A tip for new team leads; there is nothing here to feel proud of and a better play is to kick up a huge stink about people are working overtime and insist that the vendor be held to sane standards or project scopes reconsidered to fit in a normal work week schedule. Trying to make this sort of situation work is going to burn people out for nothing, or get people fired with no potential upside.
Unless I were truly desperate for work to keep my family going, a team lead has a responsibility to protect their team's reasonable work hours from insane requests. That is a hill to get sacked over, but not to lie for.
A tip for new team leads; there is nothing here to feel proud of and a better play is to kick up a huge stink about people are working overtime and insist that the vendor be held to sane standards or project scopes reconsidered to fit in a normal work week schedule. Trying to make this sort of situation work is going to burn people out for nothing, or get people fired with no potential upside.
Unless I were truly desperate for work to keep my family going, a team lead has a responsibility to protect their team's reasonable work hours from insane requests. That is a hill to get sacked over, but not to lie for.