Annual Leave Query

[J2daG1990]

Hi All,

Before I speak to HR at work regarding this, I wanted to hear your opinions on the following in regards to Annual Leave at work.

Yesterday I've gone into our holiday booking system and requested to have the 5th and 8th July off as holiday.

I've checked beforehand and no one else in our team has either day booked off (you can't book the day off if someone else in the team has already had holiday approved).

Fast forward 24 hours and our manager (who normally approves the holiday), instead of approving and checking no one else has it booked off, sends an email around to everyone in the team, asking if anyone was planning to book off any holidays in July that they haven't already done so.

Annoyingly, someone else in the team has responded to say that they were "thinking" about booking the week off (2nd-6th July). Because of this, I've been asked to potentially pick another long weekend off.

Now this has annoyed me because 1) Surely if they were thinking about booking it off they would have done so by now... we're almost a quarter of the way through the year so everyone has had 2 months to book their holiday. 2) Surely the fairest way to operate is on a 1st come 1st serve basis?

My friend has tickets to go to the Wireless Festival that weekend, so these days are not just randomly plucked out of thin air to spend my remaining annual leave. I have a genuine reason to book the days off.

If my manager turns around and says the holiday is not approved, as someone else wants the whole week off to go away on holiday, do you think it's worth raising with HR?

I also have the feeling that if that email was not sent round to the team, then there wouldn't have been any issue.

What would you do?

[J2daG1990]

desolate said:

Ring in sick.

I could, but it would be a bit obvious that I'm clearly not!

[J2daG1990]

Welshbeef said:

Well speak to the other individual and show the the time and date stamp of the email request plus the festival tickets.

Dead simple & no it’s not a HR situation.

So if on Monday I get an email saying Annual Leave not approved, I should just suck it up?

The issue isn't who requested it first (otherwise I'd have had it approved). Manager seems to worry that people are going to miss out on not being able to have a week off in July, hence the email sent round to the team.

My argument is that if they wanted it, they would have already requested it by now surely?

If it were the other way around and I wanted to book a holiday off in July and could see someone else already has the days off in the calendar, then I would just suck it up and pick alternative dates where no one was off. They beat me to it, so tuff!

Edited by J2daG1990 on Friday 23 February 19:43

Edited by J2daG1990 on Friday 23 February 19:46

[J2daG1990]

Wooda80 said:

It may be painful to realise, but the way that this gets resolved may be a reflection of how your boss sees you within the team.

How do you think you fit in, does your boss generally value you and your work?

Honestly?

I've been here almost 2 years now and have never taken a day off sick.

I'd like to think I'm one of the hardest workers on the team (without sounding big-headed!). Our stats would certainty back that up, as would feedback from team members and those above.

[J2daG1990]

garyhun said:

Have you spoken directly to your manager about this yet? That would be my first port of call; explain the course of events and hopefully he realises he’s made a mistake and you get your holiday.

If not then you may have to suck it up as I’m not too convinced that HR are going to want to get involved in a disagreement between you and your manager.

So far only via email. The last email I received was that they would get back to me.

I'll have a chat on Monday to discuss.

I have no problem talking in person and we get on well

[J2daG1990]

Welshbeef said:

Honest question are you that distant from your line manager you cannot have an open discussion?


My policy generally is IF you have staff with kids they practically have to have their leave during school holidays due to child care. It also works pretty well that those without kids generally do not want to go on holiday during school holidays (as its pricier plus the holiday destinations generally are guess what full of families).

Xmas Rota I strictly don’t do a first come first served. Instead ask first who doesn’t mind working it, others may have elected to work it one year so might then want the next off etc but they are adults and are sensible about it. They work as a team.


If I were you as already stated I’d flag to the other member of staff you’d already requested it before that mgr request & as it turns out you’ve already committed to a music festival tickets before having leave signed off can you help me out? Etc.

Whatever happens don’t take a sick day

Also as it’s a long weekend ie Friday off and Monday off then only 1 day would possibly be tight can the others cover off? Maybe if so no issue.

Absolutely not no, we get on very well. I would have rather have had the discussion as you state, but they sent the email to the whole team without speaking to me first.

Our Xmas rota is also very similar. The first few weeks we were told to get our holidays in during a window so that if there were any clashes it could all be sorted in the first month. We are now in February and it's still not as simple as looking in the calendar, seeing which days are free and being allowed to book them off, hence my frustration.

The other member of staff hasn't directly told me they thought about having the week off. I only know because my manager emailed me the person's name who said they may want to book the holiday.