Easter holiday club dilemma WWYD?

[owolette]

I work in a retail shop that is due to reopen on 12th April. My employer doesn't know if I will be amongst the first group of staff back.
I have until Friday to book Easter holiday club for my dc.

These are my options:

• Book the holiday club for the second week regardless and pay £200 which I can barely afford whilst on furlough.
• Don't book it and risk having to tell my employer I cannot work for the first week back if I am one of the first back.

WWYD?

Tell my employer that if I am required to work that week I need to book the holiday club and have to do so before x date.

When you say your employer doesn't know, have you explained the full circumstances to them?

I would contact them again (via email/text) and say 'I need to know whether I will be working from 12th April so I can arrange childcare. If you don't let me know by tomorrow, I won't be able to work that week'

If they don't and then you are asked to work, you will have your text/email to show you did all you could to avoid this.

Sorry it's not clear from your post, have you told your employer about needing to book the holiday club? If they're aware they may be able to make arrangements for other staff to return first.

I did email her explaining everything and she just said she wouldn't know anything until after the cut off date for holiday club bookings.

I do have proof but as she hasn't said a definitive yes or no, I'm worried they could still expect me in.

If you've told them, there's nothing more you can reasonably do. You're on furlough so it's fair to say you can't afford to waste the £200 - it's not as though it would be like other years when this was a normal cost you'd have to pay - but you'd have been on your normal wages.

Don't waste £200. If they come back and ask you to work, you can try the holiday club on the off chance they might have a cancellation, and if not, explain that you've tried to arrange last-minute childcare but unfortunately haven't been able to.

To be far to the boss Boris hasn’t definitively said yet that retail will be able to open so there will be a bit of uncertainty
If you haven’t already I would email her and say that you can’t afford to pay £200 on the offchance (which is reasonable) and if she needs you to work you need to know by x date -Just to that you have it in writing

Could you book it and request that you are in the first group back if at all possible? They might be glad for the volunteers.

Well she's only getting a weeks notice, so that's all you'll get. I'd probably book the holiday club as I've a feeling that the next phase will go ahead on the 12th.

@DavidsSchitt
so do i but it doesn't necessarily follow that the OP's boss will want her in from day 1.

No it doesn't, I'm just saying what I would do