Colleague taking holiday

[WorkWalk]

Our holiday year end finishes at the end of March. I work as part of a two person team, which means that we can’t both be off at the same time as the other has to pick up the work.

My dear colleague who I actually like very much has left it so they haven’t used any of their annual leave. It now transpires that they will be taking three and a half out of the next four weeks off plus two weeks carried over to Easter in About pril.

We work in the public sector and the colleague has used flexi leave so far this year.

I’m very frustrated that it has been left to the last minute to use all the holiday and I am annoyed that for the next two months I can’t take holiday for most of the time and that I’m
going to be doing the work of two people for the next month.

Plus I’m moving house in the next few weeks and could do without this!

AIBU to think my colleague could/should have managed their holidays better? I hope I’m not being a non team player.

Public sector and annual leave is a pita. It is absolutely impossible to get hold of anyone this time of year.

Anyway, in this case the time of year is irrelevant (as is annual leave periods) as she would do this anyway. As others have said it is poor management and most places would not allow it.

I agree with a pp though, is there a big year- end task that needs doing that she is keen to avoid?

Well I’ve found out today that we do have a policy that special permission is needed for holidays of more than two weeks. So the colleague has gotten around this by coming into the office for a day then going off again! I actually have to marvel at the foresight.

We are allowed to roll over 5 days to be used in April. We can take two flexi days per month.

My manager is totally avoiding me. I definitely need to have a word though. Thank you all.

I don’t think she’s work avoiding. She just wanted to be off when the weather is a bit better and it’s lighter.

YANBU I am in a similar position OP. Colleague works opposite ends to the week to me and we do have other team members. We don’t have flexi time as such. But we are required to be flexible and swap days hours to attend occasional training, team meetings and to attend various occasional events across the year maybe two or three Saturdays and three evenings. The latter should be shared equally but said colleague nearly always has a complicated excuse due to X, Y and Z why she can’t be flexible. We all have children and families but again said colleague asks to swap her days and is allowed to stock pile AL whilst whenever I have asked to swap days much less frequently than her and for an equally valid if not more valid reason I am always told no and to take AL. The last time this happened before Christmas said colleague was allowed to do this and I wasn’t I raised and boss denied this was happening and said the same rules were applied to all. I don’t want to be an arsey trouble maker but similarly I don’t want to be made into a mug and receive less favourable treatment and at the end of the year have her bragging she’s now going off for X weeks at time (with the rest of us picking up the slack and having all our AL restricted).

Perhaps when they do the yearly staff feedback add that the policy isnt working and why.

What are the chances that your colleague will take that one day off sick? Not exactly helpful to you as they wont have time to do much on that one day, answer any questions you might have etc. It will be more of a doss day.

A week in between would be more practical.

Was she saving it up for planned holiday or just didn't get round to taking it?
Before kids my husband and I avoided taking leave during school holidays and Christmas leaving it to those with children and also making our holidays cheaper.
Now I'm a sahm and my husband took 3 weeks at Christmas. We moved at the start of last year and had a list of outdoor Jobs needed doing and wanted to not leave me with 3 crazies for 6 week school holidays. At his work people regularly book long periods for travel overseas, 1 big family holidays a year etc. They just have to book it in advance and it's generally first in best dressed situation. Everyone books early and has to wait for mgt approval which sometime takes months.
Can you ask her in future if she could give more notice. if its been approved it's managements fault.

Your supposed to be a team, even though it is her holiday entitlement, if this was her plan she should of mentioned it to you before booking to take such a lot of time off in one go. It is respectful to do so.
Company I work for does not allow more than 2 weeks off at any one time without special permission. In fact the previous company to this was same.
Maybe go speak to a boss to see if any one can help on odd occasion if needed.

I thought your colleague was taking the piss and not the lovely disorganised person she was pretending to be but your last update confirmed it. Disorganised, but manages to hogg most of the bank holidays? Disorganised, but manages to find a loophole to cover her having almost a month off? Shes playing you OP

Maybe she left them for a particular purpose. She might be taking a long holiday abroad to see family, or it might be a special birthday or anniversary and she has planned an extra long holiday. Last year both me and my husband turned 50 and we were married 30 years, so took a 4 week holiday to celebrate. Stop looking at like she did it just to annoy you. Or are you secretly pissed that you didn't think off saving your's all together and having a large break.

I would hate to work in the UK - your sick leave and annual leave are so draconian.

I'm currently on 3 weeks leave. I always take minimum 3 weeks, prefer 5 weeks if I can get the time. Took 3 months off (long service leave) when I got my puppy.

Your manager is responsible for arranging backfill for long absences. I personally prefer someone to be away for a chunk of time that can be backfilled, than to cover a second role for a couple of weeks.

Your colleague is selfish. She’s not at all disorganised. She’s an astute planner to ensure she gets what she wants.

Thing is @Julz1969 I bet when you and your dh decided on a long holiday you did so well in advance, got permission well in advance, told colleagues and sorted it out so it wasn’t a surprise or a burden on people... which is not the case for the op.

Op definitely sounds like she is taking the piss by having one day off to reset her holiday 2 week thing - I would talk to hr/manager and ask that going forwards, there needs to be at least a fortnight/time equal to length of holiday between holidays unless there are special circumstances (eg your own wedding and honeymoon, two e ents close together would be fine if booked and agreed/planned in advance. Using up leave at the end of the year would not)

Very cowardly of your manager to avoid you.

Were you hoping to have extra time off for moving or Easter that has now been scuppered? I can understand especially with moving that dates change and get delayed so it’s difficult to book a long time in advance but did they at least know it was happening and that you would be needing time off to move so could have foreseen there would be a problem?

Your colleague is no more ditzy. She has been planning for months and months to do this.

Your manager is very weak to have allowed this and to be a a riding you.

I think you should email your manager laying out exactly:
how long your colleague is away.
The lack of planning and notification.
The work load that you will have to shoulder.
Your concerns regarding shouldering this load alone.
Ask her what supports SHE is putting in place to support you.

OP, you are being a mug here.

Your colleague is not your friend and she's a pretty shit colleague to drop you in it like this.

Decent colleagues don't do this.

Your colleague is doing as she is entitled to do. Your manager, however, should have dealt with it before it got this far. In the first instance, how was your colleague able to rack up so much overtime they've not had to use annual leave in the past year? And secondly, around about October/ November your manager should have reminded your colleague that if she left all her leave till the last minute it would be incredibly difficult to manage as well as.unfair on co-workers.

Everywhere I've worked there has been an overriding principle of holidays not coming in the way of business need. There may also be limits to length/timing of leave stated in the contract, but just because someone is within those limits doesn't mean they are automatically entitled to take holiday as they like. It should still be approved by the manager. And it sounds like they've done a shit job. They could still turn round and cancel some of the leave if they've got the gumption to do so.

(And this also to me just shows the limits of flexi working. People just use it to build up extra holiday, even when there is no business need for them to be working the extra hours when they do.)

k1233

It totally depends on what job you do. There are many jobs where it would be pretty much impossible to bring someone in to cover for a month.

OP has there always been sufficient work to justify building up 7hours plus a month of flex leave?

When I worked in finance it was found people were purposely hanging around the office. Coming in early and having breakfast etc to build flex when there wasnt enough work to do. As a consequence flex building was stopped until the business need was there for people to go above their hours.

If there is so much work you are both collating that volume of flex every month for that volume of time I would question whether you need an additional staff member in your team

You should explain this to your/their line manager. They should not have allowed this to happen. It’s not on to cover someone else’s work for nearly two months, exhausting.

Have you spoken to your manager yet @WorkWalk?

Hi @Dizzywizz - yes I spoke to her and she has promised to keep an eye on this next year. How this helps me over the next few weeks I don’t know.

You've had your leave where she covered for you and now she's having hers. Nothing wrong with maximising leave round bank holidays either. The only thing I do agree with is rolling over 10 days leave every year. Surely this means she isn't actually taking her basic leave of 28 days which is a legal requirement I believe.