Unfair?

[Poopin]

Will keep it short.

Work close our office between Christmas and New Year, you could not work if you wanted to because it is literally closed.

However, we have to use our holidays for the period in between.

So we get the standard number of days but can't use a certain number of them because they are set aside for Christmas when work isn't even open. It depends when it falls as well as to how many we're not allowed to use.

DH work is like that, I believe it’s fairly standard, though we did find it slightly frustrating before we had DC.

Speaking as somebody who has had to do a Christmas rota for the time in between Christmas and new year and all the associated politics I would have gladly closed the office if I could have!

@Poopin

How can people expect to be able to choose to work when there is no work to do?!

I think it's a bit different in our sector because lots of places do open between Christmas and New Year so if they chose to open, there would definitely still be work to do.

I've worked in multiple places doing the same job and a lot of them worked between Christmas and New Year, only this place and one other closed in between.

I think in this case though your work chooses to close, it wouldn't just be the employees wanting to work that had to go in, it would be the ones with keys to lock up/open etc, managers etc who wouldn't want to be there.

The only options would be take the holidays and get paid or take it unpaid to use holidays at another time, think the employees complaining just need to get over it, they chose to work somewhere that shuts at Christmas

It’s not unusual but I have never thought it fair.
Employees are forced to take leave, because their place of work is closed - those days should be given as additional closure days not taken out of leave allowance.

What about people who have no interest in Christmas and would like to take those days in the summer for example?

My husband's work is like that. Set holidays throughout the year and only 5 days to play with.

That's standard.

We close on 18th December and re-open on 4th January. Every year we have to save 10 days holiday for Christmas.

Not an issue. We still have 18 days left (13 days if you take off Easter & spring/summer/late summer bank holidays) to take as we please.

I think that is perfectly normal.

Employers can actually tell you when to take your annual leave rather than the other way around if they want too.
In my company if people haven't booked for annual leave and it's beginning to stack up I will just rota them on for annual leave when it suits me

Normal for me too, each year we have use 4/5 days annual leave (Xmas eve through to after NYD) and this year due to people not using holidays because of COVID we have to take the 4th Jan off first.
It's annoying because we are an accountants so for many of us December and January are our busiest months so we end up working anyway (and get the time as TOIL) but I do see why they do it and it does mean I get a bit of a break as I don't work 9-5 even if I do go in.

Additional closure days v holiday is moot though.

25 days plus 3 closure days
is the same as
28 days but you must take 3 between Christmas and New year.

It was standard in the company I worked for ~ 1990-2010

The arguments that used to go on about who could have what time off over Christmas were awful, when I last worked in an office. We couldn't shut during that time but lots of people wanted to go away, or had DC off school. Managers would say "sort it out between yourselves but we need x people in". I didn't mind going in as it was usually quiet and people were in a festive mood! But I do prefer not having to work that time so it's nice I don't now. Some people might complain at your work, but at least you don't need to have those arguments!