To say No to holiday request

[mumto3boysHE]

I run a small family business and have recently expanded enough to take on another member of staff. I could do with some advice please.

This new employee has just finished her 3 months probation. She's doing fine and I can see potential so am generally happy with her so far.

Her holidays are pro rata'd for this year and she has taken all of them already apart from 3 days booked for Christmas which is the same for everyone as we tend to shut down that week.

Now is the start of our busy season, the next 3 months can be a bit manic. In the past we've agreed holidays out of this season and our former employee had always been fine with taking holidays earlier or later in the year.

This year, because we have more staff, I agreed holidays during this period on the basis of only one off at a time and I've had to decline the odd day here and there for this employee because someone else was already off.

She's had 3 days off this week (holiday) and has just messaged me to ask for 2 weeks off unpaid at the end of July.

I get the UNPAID bit, but I have my part timer off at the same time so 2 days a week I'll be 2 people down.

AIBU to say no? And can you help me with some better wording please, rather than just saying absolutely not!

'Unfortunately not, that' why we have a policy of only one person off at a time. That goes for paid or unpaid'.

Your rules but you will find it hard to keep good staff with policies like this.

No you aren't being U asking as the policy was made clear to them. Explain someone else I had already booked it.

I am sorry I cannot agree to you having 2 weeks unpaid in July.
July is part of our busy period and I have a policy of only allowing one member of staff off at a time during busy times. As there is already a member of staff away during the weeks you requested this will not be possible.

Dear Cheeky Staff Member,

Unfortunately we already have staff off on W,X,Y and Z of july. Our policy of only one member of staff being off at one point applies to both paid and unpaid leave.
2 weeks would be available on (next available 2 week period). If you would like these dates, please let me know.

Regards

Boss

YANBU. Just say something like ‘Unfortunately, due to required staffing levels, we can’t accommodate your request.’

She probably knows she’s being unreasonable, I’ve never worked anywhere that you can just take an extra fortnight off during the busy periods just because you’ve offered to take it unpaid.

Your rules but you will find it hard to keep good staff with policies like this.

OP might not have a business if she has no staff working in it because they're all off on holiday!

Perfectly acceptable to have these policies!
OP I think you just have to tell her that its not doable!

Or:

Dear member of staff.
The reason I recruited an extra person was because we need the person at work. Allowing 2 weeks unpaid to someone who has only been here 3 months would somewhat defeat the object.

You absolutely are not unreasonable. I work for a family business and although we are bigger now there can only be a certain number off at a time. Once that limit is reached it doesn’t matter whether it’s paid or unpaid.

An employee is no use if they aren’t there when you need them to be. In fact my boss has just rescinded a job offer on the basis that the person was being taken on to help with a busy period when we are short staffed and they had holiday booked at the time they were needed most.

As another poster said you are free to do this, but it might have an adverse impact on the willingness of good employees to stay. Also, when you expect some extra goodwill or hope an employee to go the extra mile, their attitude might well be why should they, as these things need to be a two way street.

Also re what pp said about struggling to keep staff - these are the rules of most workplaces I’ve been in. Businesses require staff and if everyone just took time off exactly when they wanted half of businesses would end up shutting down for weeks during the summer/school holidays/over Christmas.

So she’s either picked up / spotted a bargain last minute holiday, or she’s always had the holiday booked.

I’d try and stand your ground on this one, but in a kind way - explaining the situation with someone already off etc, and offer her the next dates she could take 2 weeks.

I expect you will soon find out if it was already booked or not.

If it was already booked, she was in the wrong to not tell you when she was offered the position, but you are probably just going to have to suck it up and deal with it sadly and perhaps (not sure on the legality of this one) give her a written warning as it will technically be unauthorised absence.

If it’s not already been booked, 100% stick to your guns as you need to set a precedent now.

I work in an industry where the whole of the staff are not allowed holiday January-March. It's just accepted. I don't think it will stop the OP finding good employees. I would just explain the policy as you have here OP.

I'm guessing she's fairly young? How much would it mess you about if she just goes anyway and leaves you with disciplinary options?

But how about
'Dear CF, as you are aware in previous years due to the business need we have not been able to allow any holiday during this period and it has only been possible this year on the understanding that only 1 person is off at any one time. Unfortunately x has already booked these days off so I am unable to approve your request as it will leave the business short.

I did this years ago for the same reason and the colleague in question then raised a grievance against me and my ultimate boss said I had to agree the holiday, then had a go at me when we had insufficient staff during that period.

Just one other option, if you don't have to pay her is it possible to get a temp in for the fortnight?

Was July a typo? Only the last two working weeks of July starts Monday surely? So yanbu to decline based on short notice alone!

Could you work around having one week off as a compromise? If she’s good it would be great to do what you can to accommodate her.

If you can’t, you can’t though.

But this employee hasn't had the chance to build up goodwill yet. They've only just started!

In my workplace an employee with that little amount of service would be dismissed for unauthorised absence.

YANBU and PPs have given good suggestions.

I do think it’s rubbish to make people use up annual leave at a time when the business is closed eg Christmas in this case, as they don’t have the option to work then.

I’ve been at my firm for years and they would have issue giving me two weeks unpaid time off unless there were seriously extenuating circumstances. Especially with barely any notice and at a busy time of year.
That would also be the case at anywhere I’ve ever worked in the corporate world.

Would you not enquire why she needed it off first? If it’s not an emergency and you can’t accommodate it then you can’t accommodate it. Could you look at giving her a week depending on the issue? If it’s just a last min holiday then yes go ahead and Decline. If these are your policies then fine your justified in your action but can you offer any flexibility? Flexibility works both ways...you might need her help in the future

I would use the terms in the unpaid parental leave policy...

"Due to business needs I cannot accommodate more than one staff member being on leave on any given working day for the months of x y z"

**I do think it’s rubbish to make people use up annual leave at a time when the business is closed eg Christmas in this case, as they don’t have the option to work then.

This

Really Anne? That’s how pretty much every workplace works. I’m in construction and it’s not as bad as it used to be. It’s now only 2 weeks at Christmas. It used to be a week at Easter as well & the local factories used to have a compulsory summer shutdown too.

Why have you allowed her to book and take all her allowance so early on?
Theres no way she's going to manage to work until the end of the holiday year, assuming it's either Jan or April with only 3 days off at xmas.
I dont agree to the 2 week unpaid request either, as the whole point of a holiday calculation is you as a business has banked on having a productive person for the remaining time, so she may be unpaid but you lose 2 weeks productivity.
Now your business is expanding you need set policies in place surrounding annual leave expectations and special leave, unpaid leave etc.
If you dont have policies in place, your employee hasn't really done anything wrong, as there's no guidelines to follow.
But the manager in me would think she's CF and it wouldn't bother me if she left s I'd think there would be more cf requests to come, as she's unable to plan her holidays properly and used up her allowance even though she anticipated a 2 week holiday.

Has she requested it as parental leave? Eg to cover childcare in holidays? Only mentioning as she does have the right to take so many weeks per year . You are still allowed to refuse the timing if she hasn’t followed the rules in terms of notice and if it causes serious disruption to your business. But ultimately she will have the right to take it at some point.
you might need to give the disruption as a strong reason for refusal to protect yourself. If this is the reason maybe you could offer a compromise in writing eg only the 3 other days per week that it doesn’t disrupt you as much.
If she is a good employee and there is a genuine reason then a compromise would show you as a good employer but not a walk over.

If not and she is just grabbing some late holiday deal somewhere she maybe isn’t invested in her job in which case you need to respond as others have suggested above