Attendance record questioned as I booked holiday in advance for childcare

[NoHoliday4u]

I was pulled into a meeting today to address my attendance.
they stated ive been absent for 6 days for childcare reasons, and this is impacting ability to perform my job role. I was surprised as my husband normally covers sickness and I confirmed I've taken 1 day (which I took as unpaid emergency leave). It transpires the other 5 days are occasions where I have prebooked holiday well in advance through the correct channel and received approval but where I've mentioned the reason for the request has been for childcare.

Apparently you can book time to play golf but not to cover school holidays or performances.

Surely this can't be right?! I'm feeling quite upset as I always go above and beyond, working from home when I had covid.

That doesn't seem right to me. What you use your leave for isn't their business, frankly. Have you asked them why it makes any difference what you used your personal annual leave for?

They can't penalise you for taking annual leave, especially not as it's within statutory entitlement.

Is it possible it's not being logged as annual leave and instead as parental leave or similar?

Why do you need to say what you are requesting annual leave for?

Stop doing that. You are taking your legal leave entitlement.

Wtf? Surely all parents take annual leave to look after their children?

Why are you telling anyone what you plan to do with your holiday days ?

Have they put the wrong code or something against it in your HR system. Put it down as dependent/childcare leave and not annual leave?

You haven't been absent you've been on pre arranged holiday. This doesn't and cannot count towards your overall attendance record. Are they using Bradford factor?

The only time it would be reasonable to have a chat about it, is where there's numerous instances of asking for last minute holidays/unpaid time (i.e same or next day) due to childcare, as that leaves them on the lurch. Pre booked holiday means they've a) approved it and b) had time to prep cover.

Please flag this to your HR team!

I think someone has misunderstood or incorrectly coded your request and have put it down as special leave for childcare rather than holiday, but surely easily cleared up?

Small company so no hr team and not incorrectly coded. I have access to the tracking document I have only 1 date of unpaid leave, also not noted as sickness either!

I have stopped stating why I've requested annual leave, but as stated small company so if a colleague asks what I'm up to I've said oh getting the kids, watching the school play etc.

That's not right, I hope they haven't formally recorded any of this. Even thinking it is wrong.
If they ask why you're taking annual leave in future either lie and say you're going away, meeting an old friend, seeing family etc., or if you're not comfortable making stuff up, say 'I'm not sure what I'm doing yet'. Or you could be really blunt and tell anyone asking you're not comfortable saying because the reasons have been recorded and used against you previously

You must talk to the person you report to and have this cleared up asap.

And even though you see it as chitchat, the colleagues you are speaking to are gossiping/repeating what you have said behind your back and it’s counting against you for some unfathomable reason. It sounds as if they are trying to get rid of you by saying you are unreliable. They may have an issue with female employees who have kids. Unfortunately it shouldn’t happen but we are often discriminated against.

From now on if they ask what you are doing with your annual leave ask them why they want to know?

Well obviously 5 days have been coded incorrectly if they've put it down as childcare leave. just ask them to recode as annual leaves

So when you pointed out it was annual leave, not childcare-related absence, what did they say?

Have you been in the job long? I can see if you’ve not long started and had a lot of time off it could be an issue.

I want them to put it in writing as quite frankly I'm sure it must be illegal.

My line manager is the one who provided the incorrect information to the Managing Director. It's a team of 12 so really small company, and 4 of the rest of the team have more absence for sickness than me!

Over a year in the job, but even if I was new there is nothing in the contract limiting how much time can be taken when!

Nothing really.
I said I've taken 1 day unpaid but worked, otherwise other time for childcare has been taken as annual leave. Are these the days you are referring to?

Director- I don't know, Clive gave me the numbers

Me- well I will be emailing Clive to ask him to provide me with the specific dates he has me as absent childcare reasons that are not dates i booked as annual leave.

Director- basically I don't care, Im choosing to believe what I've been told even if you provide me with evidence to the contrary

Paraphrased but you get the gist!

Its none of their business what you use your annual leave for. I'd be asking them to confirm where your high absence rate is as the system shows 1 day.

Your director sounds like an arsehole then
I'd be wanting to speak to Clive too

Stop listing childcare and just put annual leave if there's a box asking what your annual leave is for. My work has a drop-down list and if you select any option, there's either a blank box or a drop-down (for sickness types). For annual leave I put annual leave in the box. Childcare is completely separate but also has a box where colleagues just write something like "nursery closed" or "childminder sick" or whatever fits.

I'd email Clive copying the director in - saying there seems to have been a mistake in coding these absences, I booked and had approved annual leave on these x dates. Could you please update your records to accurately reflect these dates were annual leave and not absences.

I would email Manager facts cc’ing director in and asking manager to clarify where the confusion has come from so you can ensure such a misunderstanding is avoided in future as you’ve found the allegations quite upsetting

May be worth contacting ACAS for advice - they have a free helpline.

This is sex discrimination surely. What is Clive's problem exactly?? Has a whole team of slackers been pulled in and they had nothing on you so just talked shite??

I'd write an email to them both, summarising what was said and ask them to confirm it.