Dd17 holiday been turned down from work

For a non parent like me, we utilise June and September for holidays, it's not great that parents get priority but you have to practical, you can't let everybody be off at the same time.

Yes. One not term-time, and zero from those that would allow her to spend time with her family- woth no alternative which would allow her the same available.

Parents aren't the only one with families.

I still don't see an issue - she doesn't ask for whole school holidays. She didn't get even one week to spend it with her school-aged family members. It's not an unreasonable ask and a good employer would be fine with that.
Yes, she isn't a mother - and so what? Parents aren't the only one who have a family.

The dd did get one of her holidays approved, the May one, a non - termtime holiday. .

The problem is you get enough people off as it is during school holidays, companies can't sustain non parents wanting to be off at the same time. You've got be practical about it and for this young woman it's better for her to have the ability to travel outside of school holidays as it gives her far better prices for going away with her mates. It's unfair of her mother to put her in a position where she is expected to compete with colleagues who are parents for time off in the school holidays.

Because you've got to have a bit of brain here, you can't have every sod in the business going off during the school holidays, the school holidays are a pain in arse as it is when nearly everyone you need is on leave. Nobody is going to offer you a job if you sit there in an interview and say that you quit jobs unless you get given time off in school holidays. The OPs daughter will look even worse because she's not a mother and it's like compounding an issue when non parents start demanding to be off at the same time off as parents!

Canaries are not that warm in Feb and southern hemisphere at a few weeks notice for one week?

It took me 15 years to be senior enough to get summer time holidays. Nobody cared about me having kids.

I retired when I was number two to pick annual time off and I always took winter leave because I loathe January and February.

Not sure why everyone is piling on you, your daughters workplace sound so inflexible to have refused all of the holidays. Yes we should expect to not have all of the holidays we want, but it sounds like she isn’t getting any which is not fair. think she should try and look for a workplace that can be more flexible. Totally understand where you are coming from.

I am single with young children and would not expect my colleagues without young children to have all holidays that land in the school holidays refused, how ridiculous. That’s what holiday clubs are for.

I used to work at a first come first served company and the parents were not leaving it until 90 minutes into the request opening before putting in their submissions. If there are a lot of parents, people with teacher partners, or children who want to go away with their mum then Easter, summer, and the half terms could have been booked by 12.01. It’s not a fair system really.
it’s completely normal to not be able to match up leave when people are working - especially in 9/5 M/F jobs with no TOIL or flexibility. Do they allow single days? Have a long weekend. Have a short weekend.

She’s still only 17, and it’s a real shame if she can’t get any of the holidays requested. I do think it would be helpful to know more about her job to really understand why all these requests have been rejected.

if no good reason, she should request a meeting with her employers to discuss this further.

if it’s a buoyant job market especially at her young age, I would be considering moving job to a more flexible employer.

but there’s some context missing so it is hard to say.

I employ about ten young girls, late teens, early 20’s as dental nurses. They work hard, and have the same entitlement to holidays as all our other more experienced staff, regardless of commitments and whether they can only take holidays at certain times. We do however need a minimum number of staff at all times so can’t have everyone off at once. But we try and be fair. It’s very rare to not approve a holiday ( within reason)

Maybe she has made the choice that she doesn't want to go on a family holiday as the is now working and may prefer to stay at home.

I disagree.

An employer should ensure that someone can take their annual leave entitlement during the year, but excluding certain periods of time for valid reasons is something they can do. So if the OPs DD is not having requests accepted and is not offered any alternative, that is unreasonable. I think it is also unreasonable if leave policies are not spelt out before someone joins.

There are plenty of companies who don't manage this at all well in my opinion though, such as the choice of when to apply.

I think DD needs to have a conversation with her workplace. It seems unfair that she cannot have any time off at all over summer. How long did she ask for ? If it was 2 weeks off, perhaps it would be possible for her to have one week and come for part of the holiday.

If I was her I'd also be asking if no summer break this year means priority next year.

That's what I was going to say

Is this a case of computer says no? Does she need to speak to a person or has she done that already?

A lot of companies have absolutely crazy holiday systems but sometimes if you can speak to those in charge directly, you can get a change

That's an awful lot of time that she can't take. So many people don't seem to think to speak to a person these days, I just thought it was worth asking if that's been done.

editing to add - is it possible that she doesn't want to go? I recognise that's possibility as well.

February is perfect time to get some winter sun. All the fun of Christmas is over and weather is bleak until March at least, a Feb half term holiday is great to look forward to through January

Not where I work. If it full it’s full. I only got one day in the Christmas period as everyone wanted time off!

Could you and her do your own seperate spa weekend or something to make up for it? Just you and her quality time?

It doesn’t have to be because she is a women for all we know op could be pregnant or going through menopause. Or have a hormonal disorder or condition that affects her hormones.

edit I was responding to someone must have pushed the wrong button 🤣 not sure how to add them now . Oh well

Wow! In a world where you can choose to be kind.. ect, ect...
What a unkind, bitchy, pointless thing to say, the lady says she's upset, but is also taking into account that she may be hormonal. I know myself that at particular times of the month I need to be aware of my reactions and I will seek advice/ opinions of others if I feel my emotions/ feelings may be skewed by the cycle of being flooded/ depleted of certain hormones. I think it shows quite a sensible awareness that the lady knows she may be being overly sensitive or 'being unreasonable' certainly not 'stupid'. To be honest the word alone shows a very immature vocabulary, so maybe your maturity isn't quite there yet with understanding things such as hormones either.
The lady certainly does not come across as a 'slave to hormones' more a person who is aware of their hormones and emotional state and is doing very well in managing the ups and downs which they may bring.

I don't see why saying "I've left because my family is important for me and the job didn't allow me to take any single week of holidays during any school holidays to be able to spend time with them." would look bad. It's not unreasonable.

If she starts with shut up and out up, the work won't magically become fairer

To be fair some companies have a very unfair annual leave system. Following redundancy, I've been in my current job almost a year. When I started early last year I had to put leave in quick because most of the summer was booked up, by late summer this year, I looked in our team calendar and most of April to end of Aug in 2026 has already been snapped up. We are put on a crap position where by because we have a phone line we have to man alongside our other work, only one in 7 of us can be off a time, we do get a very generous 6 week holiday entitlement but there is so much greed from people wanting to take it all from April to end of August. I'm luckily able to afford to jump on flights because I have to 3 weeks of my leave in the winter because there's no ability to take it in the nice weather months.

It's like, we love Budapest and in the last have been a few times in the month of Aug and enjoyed a day or 2 at the brilliant music festival they have, we want to do it again at some point but I stand no chance because August is snapped up 2 years in advance at work and I need to know what the line up is and flight prices are before I know if I'm going. I don't like that there's no conversation and nobody asking anyone if there's a date they particularly need. It's not the ideal job for me anyway so I may well move on if another opportunity arises.

Yes, plenty of countries are warm/very warm in Feb, e.g. Canaries or southern hemisphere.

I understand your sadness though, OP

You need an income to go on holiday! You can't be irresponsible like that because the jobs market is dire, you might get that one holiday but you won't get any more when you are job hunting months and you won't look good in an interview when you tell them why you left your last job.