Christmas Annual Leave

[UnFairPolicy]

I work in an office, normal 9-5:30 jobby

We have to book annual leave for Christmas so I have booked Christmas Eve and in doing so have to use 7.5hours of my annual leave for the full day

It was announced today that our offices will be allowed to close at 3pm on Christmas Eve so I asked whether I still needed to use 7.5 hours of leave or whether I only needed to book 5. I was advised that I still need to take the full 7.5

AIBU to think that's quite unfair? No one is now going to be working the full 7.5 hours and if I cancelled my leave and re-booked it to finish at, say, 12:30 I would only need to book 2.5 hours of leave...

Opinions please

[CMOTDibbler]

We are allowed to just book the morning off on Christmas Eve

[Schuyler]

I don’t know the official perspective but I think it happens in many organisations.

[Soconfusedbylife]

I kind of agree with you but it’s the way it is every where unfortunately. DH always works Christmas Eve knowing it’ll only be a half day. For me it’s not guaranteed we’d get an early finish so this year I’ve booked AL and will just have to put up with it

[PadawanCat]

I’ve had that happen at workplaces before. I think it’s fair enough, tbh. Occasionally I’ve worked the morning, but mostly just booked the whole day.

[dreamingofsun]

i think if everyone was just sloping off early then you would need to book the 7.5 hours. Since the office appears to be closed then you cant work anyway can you, and if thats the case i think you should only be booking till 3pm.

[user139328237]

YABU
It makes perfect sense to give additional rewards to people working on the undesirable days. You have also been able to plan your day whereas they only fount out less than a week in advance.

[Pizzaformytea]

It also depends on how your company's holiday pay is worked out - can you normally take it in hours rather than full/half days? If not, then I can see why that wouldn't be an option here. I think companies that do this would argue that its a perk for the people working that day. You're not working so you don't get the perk.

[BiddyPop]

Our offices close around noon on Christmas Eve.

If you turn up, you really only need to be there for an hour or so, and much of that wandering with coffee and mince pies rather than working.

But if you don’t go in that morning, you take a full day’s annual leave to cover it.

Usually, if I have anything I want to do in the city, I go in for a couple of hours and cover myself. But some years it is nice to not go into the city at all!

[ExplodedPeach]

It's very common and I can see why, but it is annoying.

If you book your AL in hours I would definitely be annoyed! We book ours in days/half days so it would irritate me but I wouldn't make a fuss over it.

[Usernumbers1234]

Feels unfair and I get your point, but this has been standard in places I’ve been at before - if you booked the whole day off and it turned out to be a “leave early” for the rest of the staff, you still were deemed to use a full days holiday.

I have Never understood the logic behind it, I can see the sense if people are given the afternoon off for a Christmas party - you shouldn’t be able to not attend the party and claim the holiday. But not just on an “office close”

The most annoying thing for you is they announced it late. If you knew in advance you could plan for it, now you look like the difficult one if you rebook it, when you aren’t really being out of order.

[TulipsInbloom1]

The reward for working is 2 hours early finish. You want the reward, you work it.

[bellabasset]

Bit mean, if your system works on booked days the ask to leave early on another day such as New Years Eve.

[RedBlu]

Our office does this, however it's never guaranteed and some years we finish at 2pm, other years it might not be until nearer 4pm.

I have booked it off this year but I am working NYE, however we also get let off early this day as well.

[Mitzimaybe]

Can you normally book leave in hours or only in days / half days? Unless you can normally book just a few hours off then I think you just have to suck it up.

Everywhere I've ever worked, it has been the rule that if you want the day off, you have to book the whole day, but if you work it, you are allowed to leave early (at various times decided by the management.) As I used to have a long journey to go home for Christmas I always booked the day off and always felt I missed out on those few hours the others were granted, but that's just how it is.

[Usernumbers1234]

Ah - user3125whatevernumbers makes a good point I’d not considered.

If they “need” staff in the office on that day, giving them the short day as an incentive not to take holiday seems sensible. But I’ve worked in places where it wouldn’t matter if everyone took holiday on the 24th and the same applied.

If it’s something like professional services, then it doesn’t really matter when people take their holiday, so the incentive is irrelevant

[ChasedByBees]

This has been standard wherever I’ve worked.

[Mitzimaybe]

its a perk for the people working that day. You're not working so you don't get the perk

This.

[UnFairPolicy]

Yes, we do book our leave in hours, so it seems unfair that I have to book 7.5 when I actually only need to book 5 because the office will close at 3pm and I couldn't work beyond that anyway.

Thanks for your input user139328237 and I totally agree with rewarding staff for working the undesirable days, but where's my thanks for coming in on the 28th because one staff member has booked to go away without first securing leave (and is refusing to come in/change their plans, even though they have had the past 4 Christmases off), thus leaving it to me to cancel my leave on the Friday so the office has cover.....

One rule for one...

[Poodles1980]

Our office rule is Christmas Eve counts as one full day leave. Those who come in do so for maybe 2 or 3 hours and it counts as a full day work. It’s always been this way

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

standard! In every company Ive worked in its either book the full day off or come in and bugger off early.

[ADastardlyThing]

Is your leave in hours or days?

[ADastardlyThing]

Sorry X post.

Embarrassingly Im not sure if there's any legislation covering whether hours mean you can book as many or as little hours leave as you like or whether a company can still have their own policy re: full days hours or half a days hours having to be booked. Logically I'm thinking not as otherwise someone could just decide to book say 2 hours off every day for months on end.

Sorry, waffling, i think it's fair, it's a discretionary perk for those who aren't off on Xmas Eve already so pretty good for relations on a larger scale. Especially if they limit how many people can be off at once for the whole day.

[HotInWinter]

This was standard when I worked.
If you wanted it all off, it was a days leave. But typically the whole site was closed somewhere between 12.30 and 2 (so all anyone did from 12.30 was message mates in other departments to see if they had heard anything!)

[ShartGoblin]

It's annoying but it's standard practice everywhere. It feels unfair but the half day is seen (by the company) as a reward for working the day. I used to get extremely annoyed when I worked shifts at a previous company. Office closed at 12:30, one shift started at 7:30, the other at 10 but both finished at 12:30 as a reward for hard work.

[kingscote]

It does seem unfair if the office is actually closing at 3.

I'll be working the days between Christmas and New Year. We'll probably be allowed go home around lunchtime each day, but the majority of staff who will be on holidays will have to take a full day off for each day.

I suppose it's to incentivise some people to come in and provide a skeleton staff for a few hours.