Need a day off work but they are refusing

[Treeforme]

I wondered if anyone could help.

I need a few hours off work shortly due to disabilities within the family. However I am being refused this leave. I have asked for it to be annual leave , parental, carers, unpaid making up my hours. But it is being denied, due to being too busy. However when I have offered reasonable solutions it’s still been refused.

Could anyone advise?

There's a lot of questions here, how often are you asking for time off at short notice, were they expecting a bit more consistency in your work pattern than you've been giving? Maybe they are concerned that the issue within your family will make your work schedule increasingly erratic.

I mean I do get frustrated when goal posts shift, I have my issues with my current role that I started early this year following redundancy elsewhere and I was lied to about some significant elements of the job. But also you've got to be careful about not taking the mick because you get perks taken away from everyone.

To be honest I've reached an age where I'm sick of office politics, sick of shifting goalposts and dishonesty and my ultimate plan is to get some savings put away and use my previous skills and qualifications to good measure and join a company as a freelance health & safety trainer and be in charge of my working schedule!

And when I see the amount of people that believe in pulling sickies to get more time off it infuriates me because it makes me feel reluctant to put sick leave in when I am sick I'm case it looks like I'm cheating!

Update: they have allowed a colleague to make up their hours that they missed this week.

does that mean you will make your appointment @Treeforme

Did your colleague being off mean there was no staff on site?

Hmm. I was initially sympathetic to your situation, but now I'm not so sure.

You have been quite evasive with regard to the questions about how much time you've taken off previously. However, it's clear from what you have said that we are not talking about an employer that is inherently resistant to flexible working. We are talking about a situation in which the default flexibility seems to have been withdrawn for you as an individual employee. In my experience, that usually happens when it is felt that the employee is taking the piss.

There is also the slightly random comment about your employer not liking the fact that you stand up for yourself and question things. I would be interested to know your employer's side of this.

If you are a carer you will get 5 days a year unpaid leave.

i haven’t had that much time off, no. Nothing changed, it came out of the blue.

And now my colleague is making up time for their hours that they missed this week.

You can’t get a note for a day

So why do you think they're treating you differently? You mentioned that you don't think they like you standing up for yourself and questioning things. Can you tell us more about what exactly you're questioning and what you're having to stand up for yourself about?

It seems odd that they were previously fine with you working flexibly, and that they still seem to be allowing flexibility for others, and yet no longer for you. Why do you think that might be?

Do you know the circumstances of this though? It might have been an emergency, or a health issue?

I have a certain degree of flexibility in my hours but there is a limit. The department still needs to be covered during core hours so, for example, if one colleague was on holiday & the other off sick I need to be there between 9 & 3. Save for an actual emergency of course.

Does your colleague making up time mean you can have the time off?

Is it needed for a staff member to be there on site in person for those hours? What would happen if you phoned in sick that day? Or died? Would someone else cover the hours? I would just explain you absolutely cannot work those hours and leave it at that.

No

how much is ‘not that much’ though. Your employer may think it is that much. More than 5? Less than 20? You’ve been quite vague. ‘Not that much’ implies it’s happened much more than once or twice

And there other person - you do t know their situation or their history, this may be a complete one off for them but a regular thing for you!

Then I’m not sure why it’s relevant that a colleague is making up their hours? Surely that’s how it works, it would be notable if they didn’t have to make the hours up.

OP you say ‘disabilities within the family’ - what does that mean? Is it to care for a dependent? You are entitled to dependant leave but that is for emergencies - so something unforeseen happening that day. If this is in the future, you can get compassionate leave for someone with an illness, such as a scheduled surgery. But IME this is for someone close to you.