AIBU to think a junior probationer’s month abroad request is unreasonable?

But they aren't.

And what if it was for child care, would they want a month off every summer? Would everyone with children then want a month off in the summer? Should they all get it?

I mean, what if the probationer needs a month off to build a straw man one blade of straw at a time...

I think you are being too soft on them. For booking a month off without approval and with insufficient leave accrued and during probation period, I’d get rid of them. Utter lack of commitment and professionalism.

What if the probationer was a parent who needed a month off work to have children over the summer holidays? Would you land at a different decision then? Personally, I'd offer this employee to take the 5 days off paid leave, the rest as unpaid and extend probation by another month, as PP suggested. I think that's the best case scenario and if they don't like that response, to hand in their notice

I think you @ the wrong person as I was saying how ridiculous it was that they were trying to say they could work from holiday?!

I wonder how long they'll stay in the job anyway. Wanting to return home so quickly smacks of home sickness.

@InLoveWithAI @BillieWiper Did you not see that the person would be expecting to hang out with family during the day and then allegedly work from 9pm to 5am, in line with where the OP's organisation is? When are they sleeping? You think this is a realistic proposal to present to your (new) employer? The OP doesn't know this employee well yet, this is not the same as accommodating a staff member with a history at the company. This is setting aside the cheeky 'notice' they gave over email when they knew the OP was going way.

Pro data means they wouldn’t have enough leave in a year to take this much anyway

We have work the world in my organisation and I think it’s great. You still have to go through the process of clearing it through proper channels and there are rules. This is essential for tax and governance reasons. This person has been in the organisation a matter of weeks and is already pushing boundaries beyond belief. They are not showing the right traits and are a risk going forwards.

Good solution, OP.

That’s more than fair of you, OP. How they respond will tell you all you need to know about them. Definitely get the ball rolling on a temp, and make sure you find the best person you can, because I suspect this individual will make a scene and then flounce.

I’ve been reading quickly, but I think this reply on p 6 may be the first to discuss the implications for your team, OP. Apologies to PP if that is wrong.

How are your longer term employees going to feel if they see this entitled young CF get away with this? You know that everyone will be picking up the slack. For that reason alone, I would offer the probationer the choice between cancelling (or requesting accrued leave only) and resigning.

Personally it's a straight no from me. This person has just started a new job and booked an extended overseas trip without consent or approval. It smacks of entitlement and contempt for colleagues, which is only continue or get worse. However good they may be, they are unreliable and untrustworthy.

I would think, it benefits nobody sacking them because it’s 4 weeks away and you can’t train someone up.

I would state booking this has been unacceptable and it does them no favours performing this way as it’s not company procedure.

I would then agree to compromise and state:

• take two weeks paid annual leave
• take two weeks unpaid OR if you’ve got not alternative cover for this time, work it but UK hours. They like it or lump it.

@estrogone if you asked whether they had plans to visit their home country, and they said no, and if they booked the leave before joining, then they have lied to you.

I would let them go, simply because I would not want to keep on an employee who had already lied to me during the interview process about something fairly important like this. I would not be able to trust them. Whereas had they brought this up BEFORE I made the hiring decision, I would have been annoyed by the inconvenience and grateful for the evidence of trustworthiness, and I probably would have found a way to make it work

But that is me - I, personally, place a huge importance on trust, even if sometimes this means missing out on opportunities.

You are the successful business owner who will have faced tricky decisions like this before, and if you can make it work for you with the plan you described, then yours will be the right approach.

This is SOOOO TRUE.

Seen your update OP and agree it’s the best avenue in the circumstances.

i would definitely have to make a remark about the untruth in the interview (not going back home) and how difficult this has made things. It’s very self centred of the junior especially given the possible tax consequences of them working from overseas could (if unlikely) be significant!

i think you’re being very reasonable in the circumstances and hope it works out!

I would terminate her.

If you allow her to take unpaid leave you’ll be setting a precedent. She’d know that she can take the piss and you’d suck it up. Except at that point she’d be permanent and difficult to get rid of.

Consider the training you’ve given her sunk cost and move on.

However, I also feel that as an employer/boss you need to toughen up and be less accommodating. Give the devil an inch et cetera…

They have just failed probabtion.

You need to start the recruitment process.

I'd let them go on unpaid leave but read them the riot act and extend probation by 3 months. Also, you need an overseas working policy. Where I used to work, working in EU was okay but outside of EU needed approval by IT to ensure suitable data protection policies and VPN etc could be put in place.

The other thing this young person needs to learn is when you choose to live and work far away, your trips to your home country may have to be shorter to suit your work. I am not saying this without any knowledge as DH, DS and I did a two week round trip to New Zealand to visit relatives. Was it a very long flight for a relatively short stay - well yes but the length of visit was dictated by our annual leave entitlement.

Keep this one on and they’ll be booking annual month long trips home. After all they had it agreed once.

Don't forget to set up payroll in the country they are going to so you can meet your tax obligations

A sensible solution OP, however I would ensure that they don't accrue any more annual leave entitlement whilst they are on the unpaid leave element of their holiday.

Get rid now. Thousands of good young people out there ready to graft unlike this bell end

There may be exceptions on compassionate grounds to the tax rules I’m not sure but that isn’t the case here

I can’t find any reference to this up the thread - apologies if I have missed something.

If the job includes any kind of personal data (customers, clients etc) you should be very cautious. GDPR applies all over Europe and a few other places, but Thailand is not one of them. Allowing remote working from Thailand with personal data means that the company may not be complying with GDPR, because personal data could be compromised.