Requesting Annual Leave

[DottieLottie1]

Is it strange to ask for annual leave now for leave that falls in the next leave year? We work Jan-Dec, I'm asking for time next March.

Apparently I'm being ridiculous!

We do Jan - Dec and we can't book next years leave until next year.

There are 2 types of people on this. Those who understand that some people like to book in advance and those who think that organising anything more than a month or so before you go is ridiculous.

Unfortunately if your manager is one of the latter types then you're basically screwed. Luckily my manager is fine, but this reminds me that I have booked a ski holiday for next Feb and need to get the email approval chain just in case I end up moving departments.

Not Seniority order. If that was the case I'd be the most senior. My manager/s don't do the same job as me/us- team of 30.

I do but I work in a small team so need to check no one else is off before I book anything, tbf my boss usually forgets so I have to remind him

it's not unusual that the system isn't open for it, but surely the point is that your boss and team have it in their calendar and you've got that time secure? If they are refusing that, they are knobs!

seniority order? that's mad… unless juniors go first, that would be good leadership.

Not sure it's the same at other places, but at my work it's length of service, so those who've been there the longest get first pick. It goes in rounds though, so you choose your first week and then, when everyone has picked theirs, it starts again for week 2 and so on.

This is one of the many reasons I will never leave the company I work for now - very generous amount of annual leave and lots of flexibility as to when I can take it

My 2 previous employers were AWFUL with allocating annual leave, I was never able to take my full amount/was never paid in lieu of those days or I was never allowed the days I needed (not unreasonable requests. I.e I have been in your position op and it is not a nice place to be so I can sympathise!

I used to work somewhere like this. Leave year was Jan to Dec and you couldn't book anything until 1st January. It was impossible to book summer holidays early enough to get the early booking discount. And holidays were allocated based on seniority, so if you had provisionally booked time off then someone more senior wanted it, your leave was revoked. It was a nightmare where people had specific reasons for wanting to book well in advance, such as attending a wedding or getting married themselves.

Where I work now is worlds apart. Lots of flexibility and no one falling out over leave. In my old employer there was constant bad feeling amongst staff because everyone was arguing over leave all the time.

seniority order? that's mad… unless juniors go first, that would be good leadership.

slightly better than the "people with children have priority" which I have seen in one place and drives me mad! (and I DO have kids myself!)

It's not ideal to find a fair system when many people will compete with each other for genuine reasons, but some of these are completely ridiculous and unacceptable.

Our system wont let u book until the first day of new leave year. Manager keeps spread sheet though and will take reasonable requests

This is what I have to do for my team, and no one else does my job and there's no cover for me (including when I took a month off to get married and go on honeymoon, I just have to catch up when I get back...), So I just put it in my diary and let my line manager know.

That's ridiculous.

Surely if the system won't let them book next years leave until December they should just put leave requests in a diary and add them to the system in January.

It does sound ridiculous not to allow advance booking!
Makes me feel v lucky as requests for AL are almost never declined at my work, whether far ahead or short notice.

Yes there should almost always be someone in but we are a team of 45 odd so there's bound to be someone, usually someone at each level (and we can cope fine if both senior managers aren't there!). Over Christmas we all had what we wanted too - although I was pretty much the only person in on 28th December!

I've known people book in advance to ensure they get the school holidays, seems completely normal to me (used to work in HR), not sure why they can't just make a diary note if the system isn't ready!

I used to work somewhere like this and it was a big global company too. We also weren't allowed to book time off for Christmas until beginning of November which was ludicrous for anyone needing to book flights.

We were allowed to request the holiday but nothing was confirmed until it was inputted on the system at the allotted time.

Our system is that we can request our own leave within the leave year, managers can put leave on the system for the following leave year and authorise it. They won't do this for the odd day, but I requested a specific 2 weeks off to go to US to visit family 15 months ago and that was accepted and put on the sytem by my line manager so I could buy the flights.

@edwinbear

That’s the same at my place. I booked leave for Oct 2020 in March 2019 as I know I wanted to go.

It’s approved and I have a copy of my form signed and waiting for when the system “opens”.

It’s not unusual at all I save for my hols or use the Direct debit schemes so I like to book as far as possible.

Not at all. I think it's better than leaving it to the last minute l like a lot of people do. In a previous job role l used to co-ordinate annual leave and staffing. It could be a nightmare.

I've booked a holiday for May next year, I can't officially book it off as our system doesn't go that far ahead, but I have it unofficially all booked in and marked up on calendars etc so it's fine. DH's system does go that far ahead (thankfully as we'd need his booked in properly to claim on insurance if his leave gets cancelled).

We can’t do that either. next year becomes available somd time in december.

We can't officially do it but just confirmed through email and input when it opens in march.