Employer annoyed about my holiday

[Sishirunak]

I booked to have a couple of days off next week, I booked this 3 weeks ago so well in advance. The HR Manager in the office at the time said it was approved. I'm in a private language school.
The director of studies didn't mention anything so I didn't know if she was aware. On Tuesday this week I told her that I'd had some days off approved for next week, and she just sighed and rolled her eyes, asking why she wasn't told.
I didn't really like the way she reacted, she was saying, "Did you even put a request in?"
I booked the holiday via the relevant person, I should have told the DoS immediately when booking it I guess so that is my fault, I assumed the information would have been passed on.
They've had a teacher leave without notice so I know they're a bit short at the minute. I feel bad about going but I've paid for tickets now and I am entitled to these days. Should I still go ahead?

I think that's a pretty unusual setup tbh. In most places, managers would approve annual leave and arrange cover if needed. You obviously work in a sector where that isn't the way it works for some reason, but it's pretty standard practice.

OP, if the process wasn't clarified for you, then it isn't really your fault. If HR approves leave and the DoS needs to know about it, then they really need to ensure that there is effective communication between the two of them. I would email both and ask them to clarify exactly what process they want you to follow in the future so that everyone is kept in the loop.

Why? She booked through HR who told her it was approved. If anything more was required, she should have been told.

Honestly I’d still take your leave. It’s just one of them things
Your manager shouldn’t of rolled their eyes or acted like that and you should of mentioned to her about your time off
Itll all be forgotten about by the time you’re back x

Ah, ok, that makes more sense and I can see how that would work! In my head I was thinking they had no idea who was going to turn up or not (obviously my comprehension wasn't on point this morning!).

It has everything to do with them! I ask my boss, then I use the HR process to officially book it. You don't just book without checking first!

(this isn't a dig at you OP - they should have made the process clear. And they also need to give you a contract)

You ask boss then go through the process with HR for recording and approval. I'd be really annoyed if my employee didn't think to tell me. It affects the service and as manager they can accept or decline depending on service needs. Entitlement is to with number of annual leave days.
You've obviously gone ahead and booked thinking it was ok. Next time you know. You don't book until manager says it's ok.

I'd do this. Seems a really odd process that it can be approved without your manager knowing.

They clearly have holes on their procedure.

when we book leave it’s done via the HR system which auto sends an email to the line manager who authorises the leave.

Then the leave is populated in the individual team calendars so everyone can see who’s away on any given day.

hope you have a lovely break.

Yanbu to go on holiday but surely it's a given you share plans with your line manager/team leader and not just HR?

I don’t understand why it’s to do with my manager or team leader. They cannot authorise the leave. They cannot decide how busy the work rota looks and make a decision. It’s not their decision to make. They won’t be privy to that information. Nor is it HR’s decision. It’s down to those who plan the work rota and know about how busy we will be at certain times or what work will be coming in.That’s nothing to do with what my manager has to do. It’s a separate department way above and distinct from my manager’s role. I work for a global company.

My manager/team leader wouldn’t want to know that and would wonder why you were telling them trivial information that has no bearing on anything at all. It would just be gossipy chit-chat. “Oh, I see from the rota you have a few days off this week. Are you doing anything fun?”

DoS is kind of your boss and HR are just admin though, so why wouldn't you run it by your actual boss who has to arrange your cover?

Fair enough if that's how it works in your organisation. It's just that what you describe is a very unusual model. I can see how it might work in certain settings such as call centres etc.

In most organisations, it would absolutely be the manager's decision, because workload management and planning for cover etc are usually an integral part of the management role. Clearly, that isn't their job in your organisation, but usually it would be, and in a private language school like the one that the OP works in, the manager would absolutely need to be involved in this. Hence her annoyance at the fact that nobody had told her. However, that isn't the OP's fault - its a problem with the authorisation process which bypasses the people who need to know.

I'd double check the process for next time. Our leave is approved /recorded via HR, but we're expected to have checked it with line manager before putting the request in.