If your teens work, do you book holidays with them before or after...

[BrainOutsourced]

They ask for leave?

Teen employee seems surprised leave was denied. Parents apparently booked their holiday for half term and both teen and parents just expected us to say yes. Teen is now saying but Parents have already booked it! As if that's a reason we have to allow it!

Do parents not realise their teens job has the same leave expectations as their own job? It needs approval, notice and can be denied due to business need (ie half term being the busier) or too many people being off already.

Sounds a shit place to work TBH.

Yeah I be was thinking the same. Multinational that doesn't have safe staff numbers to cover holiday periods??

Teen goes on holidays with her friends, not me. So she books the holidays herself. I have emphasized the importance of checking in with her manager and that leave may not be guaranteed. That's because I'm a manager myself and I know it can be a headache, especially at peak holiday times. So far they have accommodated all her leave requests.

I've also told her that she's not in school anymore. All communication is directly between her and her manager. I wouldn't dream of phoning in sick on her behalf or making leave leave requests for her etc.

It isnt. I actually love my job! Staff arent asked to work over their contract. We just swap their days and times to cover holidays. Management pick up the slack, not the staff. So when I say we need minimum and we have no flexibility it is because us management are already working 7 days to cover and there is literally noone else to work.

Budgets go up over Christmas so we can get fixed term temps in. Half terms are a week long so a bit unrealistic to hire someone for a week so a staff member can go away! Everyone can take their allowances, just not at the same time. The allowed holiday for this half term has been filled by staff members who requested earlier.

I would, and did, always ask them to get their leave approved before we booked a holiday! Too much at risk- either losing the deposit on the booking or losing a job.

And we work those hours because we value our staff and WANT them to enjoy their time off. It is not their fault head office slashes the budget.

You don't say what the job is but if it's pocket money job and I can't get leave from work at another time we would tell DS to leave the job over miss a family holiday

So you were expecting teen to go to school all year, work for you all the holidays and never have a break because your company doesn’t employ enough staff? And Management may cover the holidays and work up to 60 hours per week occasionally. As Management that is their choice if they don’t employ enough staff.
To be fair it sounds like even if teen had asked you with a month or more notice you would have still said no. I would recommend giving them the leave if they are a good hard working employee. If not let them go and employ someone else but maybe make it clear in the interview that they can never have holidays in the school holidays and see how many people still want the job.

What is the position? How much are they being paid and how many hours are they contracted?

If you are an employee anywhere, then you need to get your annual leave signed off before you book a holiday. That's just a given. It's likely worded in policies too. Just because someone is 18 doesn't excuse them from the roolz

So a teen has a casual Saturday job and because the leave request is declined you expect the family to cancel their holiday? Or to leave one child at home so he can work a few hours? That’s beyond ridiculous, of course he should quit and go on his family holiday. This is in no way the same as his parent’s jobs. He’s a teenager with a Saturday job!

Not at all. There are people taking leave in the school holidays all the time. Because they booked it....
And it isnt a full time job. It's a 12 hour contract.
So, a little less dramatic than your interpretation!

Not at all. I just request basic respect and planning.

I think it's definitely something I will talk to my DD about before she starts work as teens have only known having the school holidays off and won't necessarily understand about annual leave.

In my first ever job a sixteen year old went on holiday with his parents during half term and didn't even ask for time off, we only found out about it when he didn't turn up for work. He had genuinely not understood how annual leave worked. He didn't lose his job and ended up working there for a few years.

No I get him to clear it with his boss first with as much notice as possible. He is the most junior and in 2022 had to work Christmas Eve and day after Boxing Day. This year we planned a trip, so he asked in March for two weeks at Christmas off.

How old us the kid it sounds like they are still in full time education.so when would you be expecting ghem to take holiday.i would not think of booking family holiday to work round a school kids Saturday job.

So is this a gap year job or apprenticeship or just work kid is doing whilst still at school?

One of the quickest ways to loose good staff is to not allow them to take their holiday time when they want it - whatever their age.

Yes it should be prebooked but a good employer should do their upmost to grant requested holiday time. Slashing budgets and trying to restrict when holidays are taken because of this reflects badly on the employer.

A 12 hour a week job for a teenager is not a long term career. Most would ditch the job for the holiday and then get a new job somewhere a bit more flexible.

• *@BrainOutsourced

“If he had told us at interview he was going away at this point tbh we probably wouldn’t have taken him on as we only have so much flexibility. Summer is looking dicey as well! “

Read the above OP, in your own words, you have said you wouldn’t have let him have the leave and you are also saying teen can’t even book holiday in 5 months time. All for a 12 hour working week to probably earn at the most about £84 a week, as you keep sidestepping the PP who are asking if teen is on minimum wage. So no I don’t think I am being dramatic.

Honestly I'm shocked by this attitude of 'I'd just have my teen sack the job off'.

Explains why we've had problems with graduates (on good contracts with prospects) having a total lack of respect for the employer and the workplace I suppose. If they're taught early on that contract conditions and workplace expectations aren't important, at what point will they learn?

I've worked since I was 15 and securing authorised leave for a holiday is something instilled in me from day 1.

I suspect it's one of the supermarkets.
Tbh if it was my teen I would have made sure they could get time off before booking. Equally I would expect holidays booked before taking the job to be honoured, that's normal in all recruitment I've ever done.

Maybe reflects the change in attitude across the board about work life balance. People prioritise home life over work now especially since COVID. Maybe employers need to catch up not the other way round.

Why aren't you saying what kind of work it is and what the pay is like, OP?

I'm a parent of a teen with a minimum wage retail job. I'm not surprised that some teens will leave their jobs. Employers can be very unreasonable. DS requested leave in January for 1 week in July - not even in school holidays - for after his exams. It's the only holiday he has ever requested - all other holiday has been imposed on him at short notice - basically told don't come in next week you are on holiday - and this one week that he asked for was refused. So he will quit, when the time is right, because he wants to go away with his friends and that is the week that they have chosen. He'll find another job before he quits and the retailer will lose a reliable member of staff and they will have to train up someone new.

Overwhelmingly teens work flexibly, on zero hours contracts, so no, it wouldn't necessarily be the front of their mind, if you didn't make it really clear to them when you took them on.

I have 3 dc in their 20s and all of them have worked in quite a variety of jobs when they were in 6th form, at University, and even after leaving University, and every one of them would be able to say they weren't available if something came up they wanted to do. That's how zero hours contracts work, both for the employer and the employees. Others then pick up extra shifts, which suit them. It works, and works well.

As others have said, potentially parents would have asked teen to check, but teens often think they know far more than their parents.

Ultimately, if it is 12 hours a week, they will just pick up another job somewhere.
If you think they are worth hanging on to, then give them a bollocking and manage it somehow. If you think there are 30 other youngsters queuing up to have the job, then sack them if they go away.