Got "told off"- annual leave for teachers strike

[Skyblue81]

Feeling confused. AIBU??

Got 3 kids. Teachers were on strike last Weds & Thurs. School said it would remain open, but changed their minds Weds morning.

I worked from home on Weds with all 3 kids at home. It was exhausting, so I then put in for 2 days annual leave for Thursday (teachers strike) and Friday (to recover from my exhaustion).

Got back to work today to an HR call where I basically got told off for submitting and then taking leave!!!!! Yes OK I didn't give loads of notice, but then neither did my school.

Feeling really beaten-down by my workplace. I work hard, and have earned that annual leave. I took it to take care of my children, then have a recovery day. FFS it's not like I went on a bender to Ibiza!

AIBU???

Yes, everyone who thinks your insults weren’t you being “got at” is a puppet.

Jesus wept, you’re becoming tedious now. Can the pair of you take your pointless posturing and do one?

Also what on earth is your job that you can write screeds on Mumsnet all day?

I’m not a victim. Thanks. I’m not sure what your problem is, exactly. But stop trying to make it mine please. Thank you.

Good luck proving someone's not sick when they claim they are.

Unless of course they're stupid enough to parade when they've been up to on social medja...

You’re very much correct that it’s almost impossible to prove. In this particular case, a big indicator would be that OP requested annual leave and it was denied. Not much the employer could do about it but it could come back to bite OP so, given that she’s entitled to leave for caring for her children, it makes far more sense for her to just say that instead of pretending to be sick.

Sick. Days. Are. For. When. You’re. Sick.

Did you clap after every word when typing that? Sometimes desperate times paired with inflexible employers result in employees taking sick days.

My point was that you cannot chastise people for asking. Because if that is the company attitude then they can't be all that shocked if they notice an increase in sick leave.

My DP requested a week off recently to recharge his mental batteries. Correct notice, but during a period where they were told that holidays may not be approved. Despite this, manager approved the holiday. During a team meeting about 2 days before said annual leave his manager pointed out that DP's taking of holiday reflected badly and wasn't leading by example. Yet he himself approved the AL.

HR washed their hands of it, despite the evidence (meeting recorded), saying he should sort it out with his manager.

He promptly went off sick the next day because mentally that broke him. It was his final straw, despite having pointed out work related stresses in recent months and nothing getting done about it.

Telling people off for simply asking something through the correct channels, simply because they deem the notice too short, is short sighted at best. Not everything in the world comes with notice and unless an employee repeatedly requests last minute holiday there is no justification to tell people off for it.

Makes perfect sense to me. Statutory regulation says that if nothing stated to the contrary in the contract of employment, then employee needs to give double the amount of notice for each day taken plus one day. Employer may have their own policy covering notice, but line manager saw fit to grant it regardless of any breach. HR have intervened to remind OP that she didn’t follow protocol - obviously to discourage others from following suit. It’s a moot point because if leave had been refused they would have had to grant dependants or compassionate leave to cover the issue created by the closure.

I didn’t chastise anyone. Saying you’re sick when you’re not sick because you want to take time off to look after your kids when you’re entitled to take time off to look after your kids is just a completely pointless lie.

OP is supposed to give notice and didn’t. It’s not a big deal and I’m not suggesting she gets fired out of a cannon into the sun just that she should try to give more notice when she can.

We don’t know whether OP (or others in her team) do this repeatedly. Sounds like HR just wanted to nip it in the bud. It’s really a non-event.

The Op didn’t have to request annual leave - she could have taken dependants leave to sort out child care and gone into work on the Friday. There is statutory regulation for notice of annual leave - double the amount of notice for each day requested plus one day. It’s there for good reason - operational and payroll issues included. The OP obviously broke the protocols for notice and HR were simply reminding her that this was unacceptable. I agree that she was in a difficult situation, not of her own making, and for that reason the line manager approved the leave request, but dependants leave would have been more appropriate for Wednesday and Thursday and then back in work Friday.

Such a non event that HR felt the need to assert their authority and have words.

OP didn't give notice because with the best will in the world she couldn't give more notice. She asked and on this occasion she got. If OP wasn't aware of the dependents' leave then that is for her LM to explain. And failing that HR.

There is no nipping in the bud of anything if context and situation is entirely disregarded.

Fabrication. Can you show where I’ve offered ‘legal advice’?

Most of your posts have been deleted now. Don’t move onto me.

It was approved. Not denied.

Hi all

Please can we have a bit of peace and love?

🙄Yes. But if it had been denied and she’d then called in sick. Her having had her annual leave declined would have been a red flag she was lying about being sick.

Also, no one took sick leave. The OP took annual leave which was pre-approved and was then spoken to about it - pejoratively- by HR. Helpful posters have explained that this was an appropriate action from HR. But that the line manager probably didn’t need to escalate. You’ve basically failed to appreciate any contribution anyone’s made to the poster’s appeal for support. You’ve been quite alarming in your unprovoked attacks on me specifically. You’ve assumed and insulted all afternoon. While claiming to be at work. But no one has taken sick leave. Or advocated lying. I am unsure what has triggered you today. But please read the thread and stop calling new sign ups names while persisting in fabrication. Thank you.

But that didn’t happen. That’s fantasy. What if my cat was secretly a unicorn pretending to be a horse? That’s the kind of territory your entering here.

I’m more than happy to let things lie. A lot of posts have been deleted. That’s true.

Apparently not

I think they were probably being realistic that the OP would have just phoned in sick if it wasn't approved and they didn't fancy having to go through disciplinary action (and the almost inevitable 3 month sick note for 'stress' that would come in shortly afterwards).

Because you took annual leave on the Thursday to look after your kids you needed a recovery day on the Friday?

Why does this but make people so angry?I sometimes take annual leave when I'm exhausted. Isn't this a normal thing to do if you have enough days to spare?

Regardless of contracts, does nobody else have to follow an employee handbook?
Ours states 1 weeks notice for 1 day off, 1 months notice for 1 week off etc.

I know I'd probably get leave approved at short notice, but in the case of the Friday with no childcare emergency and just wanting to rest I'd probably also get a bollocking and referred to the employee handbook page x.