Christmas leave priority

Almost every leave request I’ve put in this year has been denied because it coincides with school holidays.

Genuine question, but why are you requesting it all in School holidays? The beauty of not be a parent for me was going away when the kids were at school so it was cheaper, great availability and much quieter, May, June and July this year had absolutely banging weather, even now the weather is great, and normally is in Septmeber.

I really miss the pre-kids days sometimes!

So the kids are only off for around 13 weeks, leaving you around 39 weeks where you wouldn't be competing with school holidays at all.. is there a reason you've not asked for time off then?

So, if a child free person said that they thought parents should get priority for Christmas leave.

I’m a retail manager. We are shut Christmas Day and Boxing Day and that’s it. What I do is ensure everyone in scheduled to have 3 days off 24/25/26th or 25/26/27th. I put a message out asking if anyone has a preference and work with that. A few people would rather work Christmas Eve in order to have new years off which is fine. I wouldn’t dream of prioritising those with children and I have children myself.

If you love the privileges parents get so much (“privilege” your word not mine), and in the theme of your previous post that people can make their own choices: become one.

Natural. IVF. Adoption. Choice is yours.

but please: stop trying to please equality when it’s literally kids you’re competing with, and you were one once and for some reason continue to behave as one

Your other option, again in keeping with the spirit of being free decision makers: change employer to one that will never make you work on Christmas as they shut down at Christmas. Would seemingly save you a lot of angst and trouble.

Roads are dead quiet at night. Go after work. Even if you need 2 hours to fetch your partner you would get there at midnight and would wake up at your parents on Xmas day.

You really just need to work out how to work with the situation you have. I was driven all over the place late at night/overnight as a child because our family were spread out all over the place. Have done that ever since. Much better than sitting in all the traffic at 6am.

I do all of my travel late at night. It’s so much easier. You’re really limiting yourself. (It looks and sounds like a tantrum.)

I would disagree 100%. It’s an attitude that irritates me to the core.

So you are not actually working over Christmas. You are working Christmas eve, then off for several days. There have been various suggestions on how you could make this work but you don't want to listen or make them work for you. Yes your workplace have a ridiculous system in place but just make it work. Arrive late on Christmas day, fine, celebrate on the 26th. I arrived at my daughter's house at 5.30 pm last Christmas having worked all day. It was fine. They kept some dinner for me and we all had a great evening. Why get stressed when there are plenty of options to make things work

Why are you so bitter? I understand you can be frustrated that parents get priority at Xmas and your employer should find a more fairer way to grant annual leave but your resentment for ALL parents seems excessive.

You are annoyed they chose to have children BUT you chose to live five hours from your family. If you lived closer then you wouldn’t miss out on so much of Xmas due to the travel.

you seem to think that parents have it really easy skipping out of work to go and collect them from school or if they are ill but you have NO IDEA the juggling act parents deal with.

I would be interested if you want children in the future or if you are bitter because you maybe have fertility issues that will stop you being a parent? All this resentment seems abit much for some annual leave. Be annoyed yes but your completely distain for parents and children is so clear I can’t help but wonder if there is something bigger to this.

If you think you may want children at some point you will “benefit” from the system you are frustrated at.

If you don’t want children or can’t have children then I think you need to examine why your feelings are so strong. You could easily change job, find a company with fairer leave policies. You chose the job, knew working Christmas was on the cards, knew you need to use annual leave by the end of the year yet complain of how hard done by you are.

Pull a sickie, impossible to get a doctor's appointment on Xmas eve and if enough of you do that then they may get the message their idea wasn't the most equitable one!

Yes but I'm asking whether you would describe it as entitled.

Don't know and actually don't care but I would have children had it been possible but it waan't possible.

But I can assure you that I would absolute go to HR or take an employer to court if they had a policy like this which disadvantaged me as a result of something out of my control.

My Christmas is worth no less than anyone elses.

I was in agreement with you initially OP but you lost me at your child doesn't know what day it is..! How sheltered you would have to keep your child for them not to realise it was Christmas. You're argument got even more bonkers after that.

But it depends on what OP wants to do.

Festivals happen on specific dates. Some people may want to travel with partners or friends who are teachers - difficult to avoid school holidays in that case.

Her employer does sound spectacularly shit in terms of holiday approval, though.

My DP's work often happens, or is busiest, within the school year, so although we're not parents we often have to go away in school holidays.
And you can't guarantee that there'll be 'banging' weather when you go; obviously you need to book ahead, so it makes sense to book for the time when it's usually nicest.
We both like to swim in the sea, and only want to do it over a certain temperature, which is just not nearly as likely to happen outside of July and August.

I don't have children. I get that parents would really like time off to do special things with theirs. As someone who likes to be nice I tend to arrange my holidays around the needs of those with families.

BUT - every now and again I may have a reason for wanting the very occasional bit of give from others. Even working in Central Government I ended up having to threaten my boss with HR and the union as it was likely to be my beloved Godmother's last Christmas on Earth, and I had worked the entire Christmas period (when the office was open) for the previous TEN years.

So it isn't a case of "me, me, me", more a case of "others, others, others, others, others, others, others, others, others, others, me, others, others.

There's a big difference between being kind, and being stomped on every time. My last straw was when I was asked to change my holiday dates in June (note not school holidays) because someone else in the team thought her attending her child's sports day was more important than my entire holiday (already booked and paid for). From that day I never considered their wants or needs, as they had never considered mine & felt that as parents they should always have priority 100% of the time no matter what.

On what grounds? There’s no legal protection for non-parents or parents.

That’s absolutely an issue to raise. You have leave you aren’t prepared to lose because they haven’t facilitated you taking it. (And they can’t legally reduce you below 28 days inc BHs)

Okay, get that, but surely that doesn't account for two and a half weeks PLUS five days that you are carrying over?

The school holidays thing is infuriating, but you have 17.5 days this year not and it's nearly the end of September, and you'll have had 39 weeks to choose from to book at least something in?

Why on earth are you not off now?!

Can you point me to where thay right is defined please?

suspect you’ll have trouble finding it…

…how about those of other faiths? Would you be so willing to defend their “right” to time off on their celebration day?