Embarrassed to request annual leave after being on long-term sick leave

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I was on sick leave due to poor mental health for 3 months this year. I’ve got 22 days of annual leave to try and take before 31 December, but I can’t bring myself to request it. I have to send an email to all my colleagues to request the dates and I’m embarrassed to, as I’ve only been back 2 months, and on reduced hours.

Sometimes I just think about letting it go. Other times I think I need a break, but then when I go onto the rota to look at requesting dates and I see how many sick days I’ve had this year my heart sinks and I can’t bring myself to do it

Speak to your manager about what to do and when it's best to take.
I found myself in the position of having 18 days to take over 3 months. My boss agreed to me carrying over 5 days to next year, to be taken by end of March and identified the best way of taking the rest of it with me.

Take it. 100%. I bet those colleagues would in your position.

Hell where I work people take a year maternity AND then add on the 30 days AL they accrued whilst off!

Book your leave!

I understand the feeling but better to arrange some time now than leave it and get squeezed in December. I'd arrange a week off and then discuss whether you need to save holiday for Christmas days off then see how much you can carry forward and can you get paid for any remaining. Or book extra week in January if you can
You'll probably benefit from additional holiday next year to avoid burnout

If you came back 2 months ago then it's 5 or 6 months between coming back and the end of the year. You cannot got for half a year not having a break.

Personally I'd take some days to make my weeks shorter til Christmas and use the rest soon and around Christmas.
Just because you've had sickness, it doesn't mean you shouldn't have breaks now, you need to heal and you need annual leave to refresh yourself

I accrued 28 days' annual leave 12 months' maternity leave. Damn right I took it, on top of my new year's annual leave.

I think the issue here is not that you have a lot of leave to take, it's the short timescale you have to fit it in before the end of the year. Therefore I'd agree with earlier advice suggesting to roll some of it forward to next year.

If you've been struggling with your mental health, you need your annual leave now more than ever.

Sorry that should say "during my 12 months' maternity leave"

I'd find it difficult to take that amount leave in such a short space of time without it affecting my workflow and being really disruptive to both myself and colleagues. 22 days is 4.5 weeks full time, it's one week out of every 3 off until Christmas. In your shoes I would probably use a normal amount for the period so probably 2 weeks at most, then I would talk to my manager about a mixture of rolling some forward & getting paid some back if possible. I'm a long term member of the team and I want to get my job done.

You are entitled to it, no one is questioning that, but it's the timing of having to use so much in a short timeframe that is disruptive.

You need to take it. There's no point pushing yourself back into illness and having to take more off in sick leave.

Can you spread it out into small chunks so you have regular breaks and so that your colleagues don't have a huge chunk.

But it's not their responsibility to pick up your work anyway, your manager needs to be getting in suitable replacements while you're on sick.

Hell where I work people take a year maternity AND then add on the 30 days AL they accrued whilst off!

This is standard, I did it with both my children. It's not just where you work.

The longer you leave it the bigger a problem if will become to use before the end of the year.

Just go in tomorrow, pick your days, prepare the email you would need to send, then while saying "fuck it" in your head, hit the send button.

Understandable. Work through
of you can. Currently working long hours because of colleague on constant sick leave.

Don't do this OP. And to whoever wrote this? You shouldn't have to do this. Are you in a Union (I know the answer to this). You don't have to suck it up. It is not the sick colleague's fault your company is too incompetent to arrange proper cover without exploiting the other employees.

Where i work? if you are on leave and you have holiday at the time? They credit it back to your annual leave account and you are expected to take it at another time. That is how it should be.

Don't feel guilty you've enough stress trying to keep on top of your MH.

Is there an option for carrying the days over until next year or accepting payment for the days if short staffing problems are the issue.

You're entitled to holidays regardless.

I’d definitely take the leave but if you feel so bad about it why not ask HR or your line manager if there is a ‘good/better’ time to take it or whether some of it could be rolled over to next year?

Definitely take that leave!

A year ago I had 6 weeks sick leave due to poor mental health which was created by the company I work for. I had annual leave booked that ended up being cancelled and put back into my allowance because I was on sick leave.

When I got back the first thing I did was review my annual leave and book it all in to ensure I would be having regular breaks for work so I didn’t let myself fall back down after all the work I put into myself and therapy.

You were off because you were ill, you needed that time to recover. It would be the same if you were off healing after an operation.

Please do book in your annual leave. And honestly, shame on those saying to just “plough through” because of experiences where they’ve had to cover sick leave. That is a failure of your employer, not the person recovering.

Take the leave, perhaps avoid anything after mid December when others may want time to prepare for Christmas. I doubt many want mid November.

If you work 5 days a week, could you take one day off a week ? That would have less of an impact on others and give you nice shorter weeks?
Also agree about a week in November- nobody wants to go away then.

I returned after sick leave and had lots of AL to use. I had 3 weeks of AL pre-booked over the time that I was absent. My manager said 'oh I think that's just gone now'. I said 'Hmm, I don't think it is.' She maintained that it was just tough luck but if I insisted she'd have to involve HR. I told her to go ahead. She then sent an email asking if I got to use the leave that had been booked and they said 'absolutely!'. We used it as part of my phased return to make up the hours.

Speak to HR about whether you can roll some of it forward to 2023 and how much.

Then have a word with your boss about your concerns and letting your colleagues down after being off - I'm sure if s/he is any good they will reassure you that it's your right to take your leave and they'd prefer you to take it, rather than burn out.

And also, no one on their deathbed ever wished they'd spent more time at work. Work will take what it can from you, so you should take back from it what you're entitled to in terms of leave and benefits. I'm assuming you were actually ill for that time and not swanning around on holiday, in which case you shouldn't feel guilty for taking what is owed to you.

Exactly this.

I am a manager and when someone is returning after long term sick or maternity, I make sure we have a discussion about annual leave & how they're going to use it, what they need from me to make it happen. Usually that involves rolling some into the next holiday year.

There is no point whatsoever in you skipping planning holiday, and ending up unexpectedly off due to ongoing stress...

I can understand how you feel there. It's not so much about the rights and the wrongs so much as potentially leaving colleagues resentful because they're picking up for you.

What about if you consider that you "took" 1/4 of your annual leave over the time you had left? So if you had 24 days total annual leave then you consider 6 days taken then. You then still have 22-6=16 days to take.

You've still then got plenty of leave to take until the end of the year, and if you then feel you need an extra couple of days on top you do have those 6 to take.

I don't think anyone would resent you taking holiday you're entitled to, but would that make you feel better about it?

Go and book a couple of weeks off now and then think about the rest of it later.

As you’ve been on long-term sick leave you should be allowed to carry forward more holiday than usual.

Have a look at the ACAS website for info.
www.acas.org.uk/checking-sick-pay/sick-pay-and-holiday-pay

I think your company and HR guy may have acted illegally. Your secretary was off sick, that’s between her and her GP/consultant, she legally accrued annual leave during that time she was unfit for work. Why would the company then punish her by managing her out of her role for expecting annual leave that the company says she is entitled to. Do you have a policy for taking back AL leave above the minimum required by law? Or does your company only allow the minimum amount of AL required?

Wow I didn't expect this to get so many responses

When I say that I'm on reduced hours, I'm currently back to full-time hours but the hours had slowly been ramping up over the past 2 months since being back (e.g. for the past month I've worked until 4pm instead of 5pm).

My manager had mentioned before that I need to book some holiday, and I said I would but I don't think he realises how guilty and conflicted I feel about booking it. I might mention it to him next week and see what he says.