AIBU to be sick of my manager continuing to pester me about taking holidays?

If your manager is asking for confirmation I’d see that as a sign that other people are looking at the same time slot and she is concerned that you will miss out as someone will beat you to it. Sounds to me like she is trying to help you out here, not pestering you

Ugh the staff of mine that book holiday last min then are shocked when I say no, even tho I’ve pestered them to get it booked so that it can work for the business and everyone else’s holidays is unbelievably annoying. Your boss is trying to help you and also make sure it works for them, which they’re allowed to do. Don’t be an entitled brat about it

christ, I thought I’d heard it all but this is totally batshit. I love it. I’d love to get a request like this as a manager.

i’d try to to accommodate but couldn’t guarantee it - it’s first come first served for us and I’d be getting you to organise a swap with a colleague if needed, I wouldn’t be doing that.

In some jobs you are allocated your holidays in advance, and you have to try and get them swapped

I don't know your work but mine i need alot if notice and if you don't book ahead you don't get it. A request for leave is just that... Also 2-3 weeks is alot and unlikely to be granted for such a long block at once especially if short notice. You need to talk to your manager and explain the situation. Totally understandable why they want to know holiday dates sooner than later. Yabu I'm afraid

I would have loved to have seen the manager's face when the OP said they'd need 3 weeks off to bond with a skunk.

I’m leaning towards it being cruel to keep an exotic animal as a pet tbh.
Whatever it is

Leaning towards Koala now

Is it a panda?

IME no ones job gets covered when you go on leave cos you come back to a full inbox even if you use an out of office redirection!!! But then IME unless something significant is planned, taking leave is no real issue even at short notice.

So I suspect it depends where you work and what you do.

Are you customer facing? Would you role need cover? If yes to either, then c8weeks notice is typically required. Sorry but the breeder can give you a relatively accurate window.

Tell your manager that if you miss out, you miss out and you can't book it yet.
If it's a sugar glider, please get two. If an owl, have you got the full set up? (I still don't agree with keeping them) I did wonder if it was a parrot of some sort, I've got a cockateil. @CaesarAugusta if it is a bird there's YouTube channels dedicated to keeping them company, that you leave on when you go out.

Is it a skunk?

Basically OP you aren’t being clear, either it’s really important you are at home with this new pet for the first 2 weeks (so you probably could do with reserving the time), or it’s ok if someone else goes to work tomorrow, books the first two weeks of August off and you can’t have any leave until your new pet is 10 weeks old.

in the school holidays and high demand leave periods, it’s usually easier to cancel leave that book it in. I don’t understand why if this is important, you wouldn’t just book roughly the dates then move them a bit when new pet is born.

so 8 weeks from now would mean you are booking prime holiday season of first 2 weeks of August.

In you case, why wouldn’t you just book that tomorrow even if the pet hasn’t been born? Particularly if your work would let you change your exact dates once booked (presuming your new dates are free).

You know you’ll definitely need the 2nd week of august (assume being a week overdue is about the limit you could expect). Why wouldn’t you risk a colleague getting in first with their request if it’s so important to be at home with your new pet that week?

So what arrangements have you got for looking after this pet after your leave is over?

The danger is too that if you want 2 weeks off together especially over the summer someone might have eg
first week of August off
then someone might have 3rd and 4th week off
leaving only 2 week in the middle

I think you need conformation of the breeder
is the animal pregant yet and if this hasn’t actually happened it’s all pie in the sky

As your manager I wouldn’t be happy with this either. My staff know that we can only have so many people off at the same time and requests are just that, requests. Also if they don’t have a certain percentage of holidays booked after four months we start allocating them so we can spread them out accordingly and not get to the end of the year with loads of people trying to fit in the days they have left.

It sounds like OP completely understands that leaving it a bit late means she will have to work around colleagues who have already booked their leave and is OK with that. OP said if others have already booked leave, she may need to leave with the breeder for another 2-3 weeks, in which case OP, YANBU. This wouldn’t be an issue where I work as long as you weren’t demanding other people cancel their leave to accommodate you - which it doesn’t sound like you are!

I’m a manager, this wouldn’t phase me at all purely because if an employee was hesitant about booking leave, it would only be them that lost out if they got to the crucial time and I wasn’t able to authorise it because of insufficient staffing. Not putting some leave in at all potentially risks a colleague getting in their first but it might work differently in your organisation.

I understand @LeaderBee what you are saying but try to think of this from the managers point of view here. Also - how much notice do you have to give? How many people are in the team and have to be considered here? Do you have to cover someone and does someone need to be available to cover you.

I work for the nhs

I like manage 6 people and I have to match up with my manager who has another manager she buddies with and my equivalent on her team does the same.

When the new holiday year is bookable - so every January for the following March to April, we always ask people for their preferences in the first week of January for annual leave for the year and we have a holiday meeting and look at it all and work out what can be authorised and try to be as accommodating as possible. We have all worked for the nhs for a while and they are generous with leave (a full timer with max entitlement gets 33 days)

I usually know when I want the bulk of my leave off as I have to work round school holidays, my kids childminder being off and my partner.

What we say is that if people don’t submit their preferences in the January then it can’t be taken into account with the initial planning and then basically people are left with what is left available as we can’t all be off at the same time. We are also required to give 6 weeks notice unless it’s the odd day or an emergency.

Once we have looked at it all and it’s then authorised it goes on the holiday charts in our offices and onto the system so that everyone is aware.

The Holiday is then reviewed by us quarterly (the system runs reports) and so during the first 3 months of April, May and June - we are expected to have taken/ or have booked a quarter of our leave allowance, by the end of the second quarter - we’re expected to have taken or booked half our entitlement. If someone refuses to take or book leave this is escalated my manager who has a conversation with them as to why they aren’t booking leave - this has only happened a couple of times as to be fair we all generally know when we want to be off.

This is to avoid getting to January and people having 3-4 weeks to cram in which can cause a huge problem.

I think you just need to think of the whole team really that’s the issue.

8 weeks is young to get either a puppy or kiiten which suggests its not a very reputable breeder. Have you checked? I know its not the topic of the thread but i am seeing so many people caught out by backyard breeders and ending up with sick puppies and kittens.