No holiday left but it’s not my fault!

[Fleura]

Discovered today after painstakingly working out leave to the nth degree to ensure I’ve banked a number of days to cover a busy Sept-Dec that I have just 1 day left as opposed to the 10 I had calculated.

I’ve now had my full annual leave clarified - the same number I was given when I started but crucially now confirming bank holidays were included - and it looks like my boss was working off the wrong figures. Unhelpfully, he left the business two months ago but thankfully, I have email correspondance where I clarify how many remaining days I have on each request.

It’s my first job after 6 years at home and at part-time hours so while the initial figure I was given was never make or break, I was sure to double check we were both on the same page with days remaining.

The question is what do I do now?! It’s a very small company - no HR - but equally a friendly and relaxed environment and we all get on well. I’ve just had a glowing review so I’m definitely in the good books but equally, I doubt they will want to dish out an additional 9 days! I’m thinking of suggesting a combination of unpaid leave - which I can luckily afford - and work from home flexibility so I can work while away on holiday at Christmas.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I've had similar, we usually go on holiday whenever the schools are off- I work 3 days a week, so always end up 'owing' holiday. The company I work for is small, so I either take it as unpaid leave or make my hours up & work the days that I usually have off to make up the short fall. Could you suggest doing the same?

Could you be more specific? That seems very strange. Did you think you had an abnormally high number of days. The minimum is FTE of 28 days inclusive of BH but pretty much the norm now seems to be 25 days plus the BH. Obviously part time you get your annual leave pro rated and usually just get the BH if they happen to fall on your work day so a bit pot luck usually as long as your total is over the legal minimum.

as for what you can do- what does your contract say as ultimately that is what you are entitled to. It should be specified.

How did you manage to be so far out in your calculations? Most jobs are 20 days or 25 days plus bank holidays, then pro rata for part time.

If you're working part time then nine extra days of leave is probably more than two weeks!

Thanks for your replies - to be honest, I wasn’t very confident in my own calculations plus there was an added element of low self esteem having been out of work for so long and equally not wanting to be seen as being difficult. I had already tried to negotiate on salary which wasn’t received very well. I thought asking directly was the answer and it should have been! My previous boss was so incredibly pedantic I thought I was in more than safe hands although everyone obviously makes mistakes.

On a side note, since his departure, it’s become clear that his pedantic-ness was all a bit of a front and we’ve all been left having to firefight and clear up his messes…..so this will no doubt not be seen as a surprise and chalked up as another stitch up he’s done to a colleague.

I’d like to say it serves as a reminder that assumptions are the mother of all failures but actually it really doesn’t - I did the right thing in asking the question, I just got given the wrong information 🤦‍♀️

Do you have any written communication regards to the holiday? If you have, you can make a case that you relied on it and might be able to negotiate. Your contract really is what is the absolute truth and if they said your time off excludes the bank holiday and it should be specific then you are legally allowed it

Failing that can you afford to take any of that time you need as non paid?

as you are part time could you possible work a few weeks full time to gain time in lieu.

I work part time but am able to move things about quite flexibly so there may be ways to try and claw a bit of time back . Depends on what you do really.

I had this at a new job I started in January I thought my annual leave allowance was way to high and questioned it a couple of times with my manager as I work 4 days a week I thought they'd calculated it for 5 days. Turns out my manager didn't realise if your working day fell on a bank holiday you had to use one of your annual leave days for it. So they changed it and told everyone in the team who had been getting extra holiday for years they now had to book the bank holidays off. Wish I'd never mentioned it now I was just worried I was getting too much but now ruined it for everyone else so that was a great start to my new role 😆