How do I manage this?

[firstofallimadelight]

So my manager is a lovely kind person but she has an irritating habit of micromanaging. One issue is she won’t let staff request holidays via the online holiday form. We have to ask her and when she has found cover she will let us put in on so she can authorise it. This causes a few issues, firstly she has lost the paper we have written it down on (as requested, she doesn’t want us to email either) before. And the other issue is she won’t organise cover till 4-8 weeks before the holiday date. So total nightmare for booking trips, concerts etc. she recently got annoyed with me because i requested a date (a year in advance) then let slip I’d booked it already. I should have waited to book it!
il be honest she’s never refused me a holiday but it’s just the whole grief of having to remember and ask for authorisation and making sure I remember months later it needs booking on line (so I get my holiday pay) she also moans about finding cover.
I know from experience her manager will just back her but is there anything I can do or do I have to suck it up. ?

What is the company policy ? If it is that you submit via the online system then that’s what needs to happen. You really do need to take this up with her manager, and if they won’t support company policy your next stop should be HR. If she is refusing to let you use the online holiday form she is actually acting outside of company policy and I’m sure HR would be interested in a breach of that. Her process is also meaning that the company doesn’t have an oversight of the complete absence picture which is an issue. This sounds more than micromanaging - she can still do “her process” to organise cover etc. if you submit your requests online - this feels more like a she doesn’t do technology / properly understand the system. Speak to HR

I would not accept any of that, she sounds useless.

No-one who needs to go on holiday in the school holidays or wants to attend an in demand event has the luxury of waiting until a month or two before to book.

Your employer is required to ensure everyone takes at least the legal minimum amount of leave and its a manager's job to help ensure this happens and sort the necessary cover.

Can you suggest people put their preferred dates in at the beginning of the year and these at least are confirmed in a week or two?

It’s local council so it’s standardised for all. Manager just says this is how we do it. I could go hr, it would cause a stink though. We are a small team of 5 (Including manager ) others either don’t care or darent rock the boat. But they don’t have young children and are generally a bit more flexible and two of them whilst working in our team have a different line manager so don’t have this issue.

It’s because the cover system is rubbish. We don’t find out we have cover until closer to the time as relief staff won’t commit too early. So her reasoning is if she authorises holiday then can’t get cover she’s stuck. (This has never happened)
Ive always accepted it but getting told off for booking a holiday a year in advance has annoyed me.