Hello all.
Maybe Mumsnet isn't the best place to ask this question but I'm fed up. I work as a nurse in a hospital unit (open 24 hours, 365 days a week). It is, obviously, a fact of our job that the bank holidays need to be covered on the nursing rota, and I have no problem with this per se, as I accept that it's part of the job. What I am fed up is that my boss seems automatically to give the large majority of bank holiday working to those who are child-less, and gives priority to have the day off to the nursing staff who are parents. I could understand more if this was a child-care issue, but no, 95% of the parents where I work have partners / husbands who are also off on the bank holiday, so that there is already child-care available. I have just worked all 4 days of the Easter weekend, not spent any quality time with my husband, and missed one engagement party and family gathering because of work; and yet a lot of my colleagues with children have been off the whole 4 days (again). I'm down on the next rota to work May-day as well. Christmas and New Year is even worse (and causes a lot of staff tensions) as a lot of child-less staff find themselves working all over Christmas and New Year, inevitably leading to a lot of bad feeling against the nursing staff with children, who seem to automatically get priority to have the time off. I'm not anti-family (and am indeed, currently pregnant) but am I being unreasonable to think that the bank holiday working should be shared out a bit better? It's very difficult to discuss this issue with my ward manager, who has several children herself, and is very adamant about not working bank holidays as it's 'family time'.
AIBU?
Am I being unreaosnable to think that having kids shouldn't automatically give you more right to have the bank holidays off?
KitKat1985 · 22/04/2014 10:20
And frankly rota injustices seem to make up about 65% of all conversation among NHS staff.
I am still smarting from having a request knocked back for my night hours to be reduced to less than 50% of my rota ( currently 65% + ) there are people who do more hours, same job, with only 10% n/s
I have 3 young children. Was told that changes were nor possible due to 'service demand' and 'cost' 
I do get pissed off when my childless colleagues book off three block weeks of school holidays ( and not as a result of their DPs being teachers etc) meaning I can't use my leave ...
Gosh, how dare childless people want holidays at a certain time even though they have no school-based reason for doing so?
Before I had DCs I welcomed the opportunity to have a holiday out side school holidays ' saw it a definite perk. Can't understand why others don't feel the same.
And there it is. Can't understand and so think it's OK to take your leave when you want it but not OK for others to take their leave when they want it.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Kitkat, I'm going to revise my answer if that's ok 
, I got caught up in the Xmas day thing.
As a line manager, my default thinking would be:
School holiday periods where nobody has expressed that they want leave at all = priority for those with school age kids
However, if someone with no children or older children had a reason for preferring their leave then, then I would reassess my default thinking and apply priorities as appropriate - just because someone has school age kids they are not a priority.
Bank holidays are just holidays, so same as above - no special significance attached. (So for the Easter example, a Christian who wanted it for religious reasons would prioritise over 'just' kids).
The only significance for parents of young kids for me is Xmas morning. Xmas morning is when Santa comes, if you celebrate Xmas morning in this way then that edges on priority for Xmas morning.
If a childless employee had an actual reason for wanting Xmas specifically (e.g. family gathering etc), then I would try to find a work round to satisfy everyone (maybe childless employee works the morning, and parent works afternoon).
If it came down to 2 people, both with equally valid reasons, parent or not, then I would make my decision based how much each individual puts themselves out otherwise. E.g. do they offer to cover shifts at short notice falldowns or other 'shit' times, or do they stay quiet and wait until nominated, have they volunteered to work boxing day/New year's eve etc already.
Hope that makes sense!
Thomyorke, that is exactly what I've done my entire career, volunteered to work some things to have a better chance re getting Xmas day off. I often cover call etc for the rest of the Xmas period.
Woozle, please see my explanation above to answer your question.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.