Using holidays at work to cover children's birthdays

[Felix125]

This keeps cropping up at work.

The boss tends to have a winge every now & then at so many people putting in holidays last minute due to children's birthdays.

His argument is that birthdays tend to fall on the same day each year and so we should be able to put holidays in well in advance.

My argument is - is not the actual birthday day which causes the problem, but the day of the party. And the day of the party can fall 2 weeks either side. This day can also be affected by other children's parties in and around the same day (as you don't want to clash with others) and having to cancel and re-book party events last minute. This is why parents need to be flexible as the party draws near.

But I always feel as though he just doesn't get it - or is it me being unreasonable....?

Suffice to say he doesn't have any children - so i don't think he sees it from my point of view. And can't see an issue with organising a party on a day that another party is planned for a child in the same class. "Make your party better, then no-one will turn up for the other one" - I don't see as a good way to do things.

I've literally never heard that this is an issue.

Obviously work is more important than a child's party! I'm not surprised the boss is fed up.

This has never been an issue where I work. Your kids birthdays do fall on the same day each year tbh

Do you weekends? Maybe that's why most others don't have this problem?

Never heard of this before, nor of people being unsure of the date of their own child's party and having to repeatedly cancel and rebook. I'd be as baffled as your boss is.

He has a business to run. Last minute requests for annual leave can be difficult to accommodate, regardless of the reason.

Depending on your job as long as you and he are both following the policy re: annual leave then I don't see any issue. Either you are booking leave within the required timescale or you are not. If numerous people are using children's birthday parties as reason for not following the policy then I think he probably has a point. FWIW I've never had to change the date of one of my children's birthday parties and would usually book them on a regular day off anyway.

I have never booked my DCs’ birthdays on a workday. I always plan their parties the weekend before or after. It’s only clashed with another kid’s birthday once, but it was no big deal. We’d only invited 5 kids, and they chose to come to my DS’s birthday because they were his close friends. The other boy had invited a bunch of other people and I expect he still had good turnout. You make planning kids’ parties sound like some elaborate game of strategy! It really isn’t…

If there are a few of you can you have an agreement between yourselves that you will try to cover each other's parties. The good thing is this period only lasts a few years and then it all calms down a bit.

Any last minute request is tricky for a manager

i have never heard of cancelling and re blooming parties up to the last minute - sounds very aggravating

The reason for the annual leave is irrelevant.
If there's not enough staff there's not enough staff! So leave won't be granted

Seriously ?

Birthdays TEND to fall on the same day each year? 😆

I agree the reason for the annual leave is irrelevant - if there isn't enough cover, that's that. No need for whinging on either side tbh. But it helps to have a guide in place if you have a team - i.e. if he states he needs x amount of people to cover the work per day as a minimum.

How last minute are you talking? I would expect a party to be arranged at least 1 month before. Also presumably this is weekend working, so not everyone will have the same experience.

This has to be a reverse.

It is a child's birthday party. Pick a day and stick to it.

How hard is it to arrange cover for presumably last minute Saturdays? And surely you're still booking your party I mat least a month early?

Surely you just book your party and that’s it? And you’d book it on a day you weren’t working?
or team up with other parents with a birthday approaching and do a joint one?
i don’t understand how multiple people in one workplace are having this issue?!

How last minute? I’d think if you plan a party it could be about six weeks ahead. If he complains that that is too short notice, then yes that is a bit difficult for planning a party but I guess you’ll just need to plan it more in advance and get invitations out early.

Presume it’s somewhere with weekend work.

Do you really mean "people" or just you?

How early are you supposed to outline holiday requests? Unless it's months in advance, boss is right, they're not something that needs to be last minute.

Surely the party is planned weeks in advance and not days? How much notice does the boss want?

How last minute are we talking? Surely you plan a child's party at least a month or so in advance? YABU book the leave in good time plan the party for the weekend

Also this has never cropped up as an issue even once in my entire working life.

When I worked weekends (pre kids) arranging weekend leave/cover was always hard. I sympathise with both sides here tbh.