Annual leave request 27-29 December

[Rafting2022]

This is regarding a request for annual leave on 27, 28 and 29 December (ie the days between Christmas and New Year).

We are a team of 6 people but when the first request came from person 1 in September there were only 3 of us.

Person 1 requested those 3 dates in September and they were accepted without anyone else being asked what their plans were. (Fair enough if it’s first come first served but it would have been nice for them or the manager to check first.)

This then prompted me to ask for the same dates but was told that as person 2 only works Monday - Wednesday I could have the Wednesday off but not the Thursday and Friday as there was no-one else to cover.

No idea what has been agreed with person 3 but they are going away so assume they have also been told yes to all 3 days.

Persons 4 and 5 joined 3 weeks ago and I’ve just found out they have both be granted all 3 days.

Should their joining not have put me back in the pot and given me the option to at least take 1 of the additional days now there are extra staff available to cover?

Would it be reasonable for me to go back to my manager and ask if my initial request for 28 and 29 December could be re-considered now there is additional resource available in the team? As they are new in the team I’m more than happy to be on hand to support - there would be a very small amount of calls/emails to deal with as most of our customers are closed throughout the whole Christmas period.

Is there an option to work from home on those days?

Yes but that’s not that the same as being to go out and do stuff is it.

A new hire might have said they already have a holiday booked, and they need either the time off or a later starting date

because they are not available, so there's nothing back in the pot

New people may have something booked so need those dates.

Not sure what I'm missing but if person 3&4 have been granted the three days off where does the additional cover come from if 1&2 off?

But they haven’t. They were told they have 4 days’ leave to take before the end of the year (2 days per month worked) and they both chose to take 3 between Christmas and New Year and one on another random date.

I know this because I am training them both as part of their induction and they told me they had days to use so may as well use them for that period as they can’t carry them over to next year.

I am person 6:

Person 1 told yes in September
Person 2 working the Wednesday
Person 3 off all 3 dates
Persons 4 and 5 are the new people - yes to all 3 days
Person 6 is me working Thursday and Friday

Extra cover became available 3 weeks ago when 4 and 5 joined.

I also sat in on both their interviews when the question was asked if they had any holidays booked - both answered no.

It it safe to lone work? I worked in a bank and we had to have at least two, same with retail.

We work from home on those days, answering a few emails and maybe a phone call or two.

That’s not fair OP! They should make everyone work at least 1 day each so you all get time off

Thanks - would you broach it or let it pass this year and in January ask if annual leave requests could be fairly distributed for Christmas 2024?

4 out of 6 people are getting 3 days off

1 person is getting one day off

1 person is getting no days off as they are working the Wednesday and don’t work Thursdays or Fridays.

Manager has also booked all 3 days off (not included in the above).

Could you suggest all members of the team take all three days off as leave if they want, but three people in the team take one day each to be 'on call' to deal with any emergencies?

That would mean one person having to cancel at least one day’s approved leave to cover one of the days.

The manager could also cover…

I missed there was another person!

It's a naff way to do it tbh.
We have to say what days we want and they get shared out fairly, we need atleast 2 people in.

I would suggest a more fair way for next year, guessing it's too late now.

Also being on call would still mean you’d need to be monitoring emails and signed into the phone system to take calls. And have your laptop close by to action anything.

I would just message the boss and say "can me and X (person also working) get first refusal to be off same dates next year"

Fair enough @Sunshineclouds11 it just feels that people who have been there 3 weeks have been prioritised over staff who have been there 6 years.

I think the manager just hasn’t thought it through or realised the affect of the decision and message it sends. I’m sure they would be open to a conversation about it but I feel disappointed.

Yes I think this is the most professional way to do it.

I don’t want to be responsible for other people having to cancel leave as it’s not their fault.

I still don’t think it’s fair though and I think my request from September or whenever it was should have been re-visited when new staff joined.

Sounds pretty rubbish.

I don't like first come first served approaches to annual leave as it just gets earlier and earlier that people put requests in. Fairest is a date by which to submit your main holiday requests and then it is all allocated fairly. Christmas and new year period dealt with separately. Everybody puts requests in and then allocated accordingly taking in to account what they worked previous year etc.

Could the logic have been that the 2 new hired won’t be competent to actually work alone during those dates anyway and therefore it makes no difference to your leave whether they are there or not?

Where I work we had a new starter just under a month ago, she is lovely and really hard working, but there’s no chance that in basically 4 weeks time we would allow her to be the only person working to cover the entire team being off. Similarly if there is only very minimal work to be done over that period if most customers are closed, it doesn’t make sense to have both of them AND you in to cover it, as your manager knows at that point 2 of you are being paid to do nothing really so may as well be off?

Not saying thats right or wrong but that may well be the management logic.

Yeah maybe just bad timing with them joining at the end of the year although they would be just as capable as me of doing certain tasks. There will be things that I won’t be able to do when I cover - not everyone in the team is trained for all tasks. I’ll just muddle through somehow or flag up to management anything I can’t resolve and they’ll have to sort it.

A latest date to submit Christmas annual leave requests by seems fairest with priority being given to those who worked the previous year maybe.

This went wrong in September really when the first person got approved without anyone else having chance to get their request in.

Personally, if the manager is able to cover, I think it's really poor form for them to refuse your request and book themselves off, unless there is a history of them covering that period in previous years so that you could take time off. Personally, I'd usually put myself on before refusing someone's leave request.

I do get why you think it's unfair, but if the requests for other team members have been approved now, they may have made plans. It's not really fair to them to change it now. I think I would therefore be inclined to accept the situation this year but point out the unfairness to your manager and ask for some assurances that you will be first in line for time off in the same period next year (along with the other person who is working during that period this year).