To refuse this leave request for first anniversary holiday

[Clockingoff]

A woman in work was married a year ago on Sunday. Her husband surprised her with tickets to New York for St Patrick's day and a few days before and after (I'm in Ireland). The problem is that because it's a holiday time here, a number of staff have already booked days off that week and I really can't afford to let anyone else go without other staff being asked to work overtime (which will eat into the overtime budget.)

The same thing happened for her 30th birthday last year. He booked a surprise holiday to Paris and I got one day's notice that she would need three days off (and we had a large conference during one of those days so I had to 'borrow' someone from another team to cover).

I hate to say no as the tickets have been bought and she's very excited. But on the other hand I'm getting a bit fed up of these surprises that put me and colleagues in a difficult situation.

WIBU to say that due to shortage of staff it's just not possible to approve her leave, and come across as a complete cow.

In my work it would a straight no. I would ask for confirmation of holiday being booked and say you cannot grant it due to it contravening AL policy and it's the 2nd time. However if cover can be arranged unpaid leave would be fine x

Fluffyears fine is putting it too highly. Just about acceptable but don't ever do this again would be nearer the mark.

If you approve it you are effectively handing your management of staffing over holiday periods, and your overtime budget, to the whims of an employee 's idiot DH.

I think your solution is a good one, a fair one.

But either she is being somewhat economical with the truth, or she is being daft enough to let her DH undermine her reputation at work. First year anniversary , FFS. The world does not revolve around their relationship.

I think your solution sounds like a good one, OP.

My husband bought me surprise tickets for a show in London. He had the comon sense to secretly phone my boss and ask whether she would be happy for me to have leave on that day before booking it.

I would say no. It's not your problem that her DH has apparently done something so stupid and thoughtless.

If you approve it you are effectively handing your management of staffing over holiday periods, and your overtime budget, to the whims of an employee 's idiot DH.

Exactly.
Unpaid leave or indeed outright refusal might make both her and her husband cop on.

If you'd be allowed to juggle things like this, I would try to make it both possible and budget-neutral by covering her time off with overtime from other staff IF she agrees to cover an equivalent number of hours of other staff's absence without plundering the overtime budget. In effect, you'd be letting her have the time off through flexitime rather than annual leave.

It's best to try to find a way if possible, but this partner of hers needs to be told to stop with the surprise holidays with no notice. He could either email you further in advance in confidence, or could (as I did once) get his partner to book the leave without telling where the holiday is.

YANBU. My jobs have always been a minimum of 1 weeks notice for Holiday and, cant coincide with another PA's as budgets dont run to getting outside cover in any more. Hence frantic get in quick leave requests at beginning of each year to ensure you get weeks you want. Is there anything in your HR policy re Leave requirements?

Her partner is obviously a big fan of getting last minute cheap deals and will carry on if you dont have a word tbh.

In our team no more than two off at same time, first come first served except Christmas. We are asked to all put our requests in for this period by a certain date , last year by 1/8 as someone wanted to book flights and the position was considered as a whole for team . Everyone who wanted leave got at least some granted, if not all depending on what they had asked for eg I had Christmas Eve and New Years Eve but worked 2/1 as lots of others wanted that day off but nothing else. This year it will work the same way and our boss looks back to see who had what previously to ensure fairness. We are all happy with this as done fairest way possible.

Three weeks before is not a 'surprise' holiday. It's 'I want to go away and need to find an excuse my boss will accept to let me get away with doing whatever the hell it is that I want'. If the OP has refused any other leave at all during this time, the she must say no. Can you imagine the complaint if someone who was knocked back suddenly finds out that MzEntitled has had leave approved?

We have a policy that advises against booking flights or accommodation before leave as if it is turned down, it is their financial issue not ours.

Taking out the 'it is already booked' you would have refused the holiday, so refuse it. They have form for this, and it really is unfair to expect others to work extra over the holiday just so that she can be at the whim of her new husband. What this is saying is that your business is considerably less important than his.

The problem is that you did approve it last time. Did you make it clear that this was exceptional, and it was the last time you'd do it? If you did then she doesn't have a leg to stand on. If you didn't, then you need to have a think about making leave policy clearer.

I often take time off at short notice if there is nothing immediately urgent on (as most of my work is long-term projects that have deadlines known long in advance) and this has never been an issue for my employer, but it's horses for courses and of course things would change if people abused the flexibility.

Has anyone else previously been denied this holiday? Wondering as it's a BH. If so, I'd expect them to be saying "err... I'll have it off as well then!"

I'd say either swap with someone or sorry I can't authorise this.

Is it a company where short notice for leave is normally given though?

It's difficult isn't it. I've posted on here about the problems it caused for my team in an old job when a colleague's parents organised a surprise trip for her at short notice without checking dates first.

Also my son used to have language lessons and the teacher took our money for the new term and then said we couldn't have the first three lessons until later in the year because her parents had bought her a surprise trip to Argentina. I thought it was really unprofessional - and bad of her parents when they knew she had teaching commitments.

I feel really mean but I would say no. This kind of thing has to stop. You can do a semi-surprise, but you have to remember that your relatives have professional commitments.

There is also something in our A/L policy about not booking flights etc prior to leave being approved. If not already in your company policy, I'd be getting it written in, to prevent the likes of this ever even coming up again.

I think your solution clocking is the right one (i.e, she needs to either take unpaid leave or get someone to agree to cancel their A/L). I would in future say (to the whole team, not just her) that 'all A/L requests need X weeks notice except in emergencies'. Have you told her yet? If so, how did she take it?

You do realise she is going to go, whatever you say?

Tell her due to short notice and the fact that you need to pay staff extra to cover, she will have to take it as unpaid leave. She wont do it again!

I would think that if I were to plan a surprise trip for any one then checking with her work for time off first would be top of my to do list.

I don't think YABU at all to refuse. Check holiday approval guidelines with your HR department. Most companies state you have to give a minimum of x days/weeks notice, depending on how many days have been requested. And even then it's first come first serve so if others booked before she did then that's too bad.

It's bad form of the husband to not check first. Business needs come first.

Just make sure that, if you do refuse it, you have company policy backing you up.

Judge, if she does then I imagine she'll have a case of gross misconduct to answer to when she comes back.

I do like molyholy's suggestion of unpaid leave too. It allows you to use your overtime budget.

And make it clear too in advance that convenient sickness will not be tolerated.

You still have to be in a certain amount of control wrt unpaid leave. Sometimes it's just not possible to stroll off with very short notice whenever you feel the need, just because you're not actually costing the company money.
Your role needs to be covered in some way, which can be a headache for those left to sort it. I know this happens when you're ill; but that's unavoidable. Letting people imagine they can work / not work at their own convenience is something that op should be taking steps to avoid.

It depends on how good a job it is. Is she just likely to say 'screw you' and go anyway and look for something else when she comes back.
It depends on how much you value her as an employee, how difficult and expensive it would be to recruit someone else.