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???

Did HR know your manager had authorised it? I'd send an email to your manager, copy in HR and point out the leave was authorised.

Those saying it was predictable..
Should every family with a school aged child too young to spend the day home alone have booked Wed and Thursday last week off incase the school was shut?
If school announces late they can't staff a class, it's not the parents fault.
OP: see what HR have the actual problem with. Sounds like you went down the right channels to try and get it to work for everyone.

You asked for leave and it was approved. Bounce it back at whoever complained.

OP I remember something similarish happened to me years ago. MIL got a cancellation for a neurologist appointment in another city . Her walk was starting to go but she was in denial and refused a wheelchair so any trip out and about was a two person job as you needed to drop her at the door and then park etc etc etc obviously the appointment was important so I booked an early finish 12pm from work and even though it was quiet at work and it wasn't refused my boss got cranky over the lack of notice.

😂I’ve said it multiple times now. I’ve explained it in very clear terms. You’re choosing to pretend you don’t get it. There’s nothing more I can say. They don’t like that she requested leave at the last minute so they’ve asked her not to do that. It’s that simple.

Every family with a school aged child could have done one of the many reasonable options (and almost all of them did). They could’ve spoken to other friends/family/school parents to see if they could be on stand by, have one parent book annual leave, give their employer a heads up that they might request it at the last minute, take unpaid leave, book alternative childcare… there were lots of options.

It’s not that simple, stop being condescending and acting like you’re smarter than the rest of us.

You don’t know that because the OP hasn’t given us all the facts about her contract, so you have zero clue what the policy is or why HR are pissed off.

m but feel free to say nothing else because you’re adding nothing to the debate at this point.

I don't see why you needed Friday off as you had holiday Thursday

Er maybe because slavery was abolished in this country in the 1800's ????

It still doesn’t matter. The manager allowed it. The system allowed it. The manager needs better training to turn down requests if they can’t be made at short notice. But thats also your conjecture too. I’ve always been allowed to request leave whenever the hell I want - it’s up to the manager to approve or not and if notice wasn’t sufficient that manager should have said no.

This is 100% a management issue IF it even is an issue and not just an uppity HR officer.

You’re right, I stupidly assumed that the OP was the truth. We have absolutely no idea what OP’s employer are annoyed about because she might be lying when she told us.

You never asked for support you asked AIBU so people are entitled to say yes.

FWIW if you spoke to your line manager and they approved it then I think the HR involvement is crappy.

How are people not getting this? @Sqqueeeeeeee could not have been clearer.

Having a paid job is not slavery and your comment is both ridiculous and incredibly offensive to the victims of modern day slavery. Having to go to work after a day off with your children is not slavery.

I don't understand why it's an issue. Whoever has the authority to approve the leave approved it; once that's done, preferences for notice etc don't matter.

This just cements my feeling that HR are evil and you should never trust them.

If you discussed with you manager beforehand and they approved it I don’t see what’s the problem.

She hasn’t stated what is in her contract. She said they’re annoyed that she booked and had time off. She said ‘yes it may have been short notice’ - that doesn’t say ‘they’re annoyed purely because it’s short notice’.

And being rude doesn’t elevate you above others by the way.

Some companies as part of the ts & cs give a certain amount of 'duvet days' which are annual leave you can book off at the last minute because you are knackered. It's a good policy because if someone is knackered and cba they may as well not be in work mooching about getting paid for doing nothing much. However they do normally stipulate that you cant do this is there's an important deadline or that you cant cancel something /someone vital. But many companies do not have this option and will need x amount of notice prior to annual leave being booked.

Presumably you got into work to find an email saying "we gave you the annual leave without notice last week as a one off, please follow procedure in future". It's no big deal. The thursday you needed off, the friday you didn't. It's nothing to do with them that you have a second job.

This comment is disgusting. I hope MN remove it.

So offensive. And also VERY untrue. I've dealt with two modern slavery cases in the past 6 months.

1. Then her boss shouldn't have approved it
2. The school changed the plan on the morning of the strike so even less time to sort something.
3. People don't need any reason to take an approved day off - exhausted or not.

I have read it and I disagree (how do you not get that?). It STILL doesn’t matter if she’s not supposed to book leave short notice. She asked the manager who should be able to check the policy and say ‘nope, not enough notice’. The manager did not and approved instead. It is a management issue.

I actually do work in HR and the fact that the employee asked a senior member of staff and didn’t get reminded of a policy that we don’t even know if exists and just approved would mean a discussion with the manager. Not the employee.

I've been told to book leave and cancel it at the last minute if the school is open.

It's annoying to both me and my management line, but they understand. I would e mail your HR with how they wish you to play it in future.

My last workplace sound a bit like yours though. I was a keyworker throughout lockdown and also had the school open/shut/half open/open until they're not open to navigate and they weren't supportive at all. I was part of the great resignation.

I don't think YABU at all but you do seem very stressed about it.

I would be emailing HR. Something along the lines of; "Dear.. Having had time to process our conversation, I would like to clarify that this time off was approved by... I hope this clears it up. I look forward to hearing from you with confirmation that this is now resolved and has been removed from my record. "

Some very unpleasant comments on here in my opinion. OP YANBU. You asked for annual leave and it was approved by your manager. In my mind that’s the end of the discussion - if leave was approved then HR have no business pulling you up on it. It’s clear it was short notice for legitimate reasons and if your manager had an issue with you taking the Friday as well as the Thur then they should have spoken up at the time and not approved it.

I would go back to whoever criticised you and ask them to put in writing what you should have done in the circumstances as its not clear exactly what they are unhappy about...e.g. are they saying you shouldn't have leave at all or you should have given more notice? Also ask them to refer to the policy if they are saying you did something wrong.

E.g. if your leave policy states you have to give twice as much notice as the time you want off (so you wanted 2 days so have to give 4 days notice) and you should have asked for emergency parental leave instead then, fine technically you were in the wrong and will know for next time.

Although you still want them to confirm that there isn't any paragraph about line managers discretion etc.

Really from their POV they should want you to take AL if possible because even though they don't pay you for the EPL it's still a day you're not working and you still have you're AL (i.e. more days youre not working) to take.

if the policy only says to give as much notice as possible, or there's anything about line manager discretion then go back to them and ask how you possibly could have given more notice before you knew yourself! Extra points if anywhere your company refers to itself as flexible or family friendly etc. - quote this.

It doesn't have to be aggressive -I used to be a trade union rep so got good at wording very nice and polite emails standing up for myself!

This is obviously only if you think your company are being unfair - if you accept you didn't follow the policy and are just annoyed at the situation (which is fair enough, it is annoying!) but you might just have to let it go.