I manage a small office-based team. One of my direct reports took an internal secondment to another team a year ago. At the time, she said that she would resign from her role in my team because she had no intention of returning to the role after her secondment and wanted to make my life easier (by allowing me to recruit someone to a permanent contract instead of a temporary one).
Unfortunately though, the HR team wouldn't allow her to resign - something to do with the potential for having to pay out for redundancy if there wasn't another role for her to go into when her contract ended - so I had to recruit someone to cover her on a temporary basis. Her secondment contract has since been extended twice, and her cover's contract has also been extended as a result.
Now her secondment is almost up, and she's asked to take a 6 month sabbatical - which she has openly admitted is in order to keep her job (in my team) as a safety net, but that she doesn't actually want to come back to. She's hoping that when she comes back next year, another role in the team she was seconded to will have opened up so she can slot back into it (it's a largely seasonal role).
The person who is covering her role would love a permanent contract, but can only have her contract extended for 6 months, even though my direct report has no intention of coming back to the role.
I can't stop her taking a sabbatical and I can understand her desire for job security, but the person who is covering for her is annoyed. Is my direct report being cheeky?