Always on annual leave

[Abitboring]

I have a relatively new hire (but not direct report) who has been in the job since January. She took annual leave in February, April, May and June. Always about a week and always a 'holiday', so not family stuff etc. It made her training slow and difficult as there was only one full month she worked in her first five months of employment. There's been a bit of 'sorry, just got back from annual leave' as an excuse for one thing or another. It also made me wonder whether she's going to do this every year now and will effectively work part time a few months in a row.

I wouldn't mind as much if she was fully competent in her role, but she isn't. I find her a slow worker and I need to remind her about a lot of things, which I feel I shouldn't have to do if she just kept a list or something to remind herself what needs done when and how.

AIBU to be annoyed?

Erm thinking someone has to run annual leave by you when you aren’t their line manager…

I would kindly ask you to leave them alone. I'm not who you think I am.

I’m hardly going to brick their house lmao, more internally find it awkward.

how can you be so sure though? What you’ve posted is eerily familiar.

I’ve RTFT. YABU.

Maybe your colleague isn’t forgetting though. Maybe they’re not failing to do things, they’re just not doing things your way. When new people join they often come with new ideas and approaches and expecting them to produce work that’s a carbon copy of an existing employee’s work is a missed opportunity. But, that’s for their manager, not for you…
It also sounds like you probably deserve a holiday of your own. They may develop a new appreciation of things when they spend a week covering your work.

Yeah it could be.

My DH is a great worker but he had just changed jobs and his new start date aligned with our long awaited IVF (done in another country, can't change dates as it based on your body and cycle) so had to take time straight off work RIGHT after starting. It had been in the works long before that job was though.

Company where completely fine with it, they still happily employee him 5 years later.

I hope the message is getting home, OP. You are trying to make the best of a bad situation and nobody is saying, "well done". People aren't grateful, they just take you for a mug.
Stop trying to solve other peoples' poor organisation and subsequent messes. Cover your backside and let the managers take the rap / sort it out.

Could be that iit was all approved at her taking the job-your manager should be conversing with you about it though if youre the only cover

has she had her review yet?

Also, drop her in it before she drops you in it. For some reason, people tend to believe the first version of events that they hear. It takes a lot before they will re-assess.

Our leave system has a box you can fill in to say why you are off. Nobody uses it. Leave is holiday. Annoying people are those who use all their leave at once or at the end of the leave year because they haven’t taken most of it. People who stagger their leave through the year - probably using most at times that are trad holiday times - are normal and doing it the expected way at our workplace. If this member of staff isn’t a good worker that’s a different issue as is if leave is being authorised at inconvenient times.

It’s not playing the system to take annual leave. I love it when new starter’s get it all booked in-as legally you have to take twenty days it’s annoying for them to take it all at once at the end of the year because they did not want to book it. Also it’s your bosses job to make sure work is covered not hers.
From what you are saying you are annoyed that she is not picking things up and is slow. So have gripped on this annual leave thing as something to get annoyed about rather than treating like every other performance issue.

You said yourself there’s an online calendar that holiday goes on as soon as the boss has approved so why do you not just check the calendar each Friday before leaving so you know what days in the next week/month you need to cover her work??

@Abitboring
If you are having more work on your plate than can be completed in the hours than you are paid to work ,that is a problem to address with your supervisor. You are paid for your time and services. You are not being paid to monitor the time and effort of your peers. If this person were a direct report to you, you would have reason to be concerned. She is not, and the organization paying her salary does not seemed to be concerned.

Not so different. Managers anticipate what will need doing and then they look at available workforce. Tasks/cover is arranged...by managers, AL is requested by personal, either approved or declined....by managers. Yes personal might sometimes have a discussion with each other eg if there's only a couple of people able to perform certain duties they won't be granted AL together...by the manager. They might put in different requests as they understand one will get declined but on the whole....its sorted by management!

@JudgeRudy do you ever get asked to work double your normal load then?

And so again if she’s negotiated additional leave with your employer and it dues by work for the business then take that up with your employer. It’s not the employee’s fault. You are directing your ire in the wrong place.

@Thegoodthieves I also said that my manager often doesn't approve my leave in the system until after I am back from said leave. I know it's an issue as well. So even the calendar gives me no certainty that it's up to date.

Honestly, just the thought of adding one more thing to track each week overwhelmes me. I guess I'm burning out.

FFS I merely answered your question as to why I wouldn't know exactly how much leave she has, as you were so sure I should absolutely know much much she got. You deflected well here, eh?

Calm down dear. Not deflecting. Just pointing out that however you try and frame this, you are wrong to direct your anger/frustration at the employee.

The employer agrees how much leave and when to take it and whether it can be taken during training etc. If you are not happy with any of their policies or how they are being employed take it up with your management. It’s odd to be angry with the employee who is simply taking leave to which they are entitled, which has been approved by their manager, and where they have followed the relevant procedures and policies.

I think you're getting an unfairly hard time OP.

I've worked in small teams within big businesses, where there are tasks that have to be done and the team organises who does what among themselves. If someone is sick or on leave, the tasks due that week get absorbed by the rest of the team. There's no manager saying Susie do the year end performance report, Mary reconcile the purchase orders. Or whatever. It just gets done. There's no 'cover' person, extra to the normal team. Everyone just has to work harder while they're off.

To be honest OP, it sounds like the problem is 100% your manager. They're 'approving' leave but not officially approving it, so it's not visible on the holiday planner. You can't plan your workload if you suddenly discover it's doubled next week with 24hrs notice.

On top of doing all your tasks, you're training, and checking her work, and covering her completely when she's off - far more frequently than would be usual in your workplace.

She's not there to be trained, and presumably is getting closer to saying 'oh I screwed up because Abitboring didn't train me on that'. I'd take @senua advice and get your side in first, before her poor performance is suddenly your problem.

It's no wonder you're tearing your hair out.

@FeigningConcern I didn't try to frame anything any way by saying I wouldn't know how much leave she got as it's negotiable. You were pointing out it should be in the staff handbook, but you werent able to own your oversight.

Can I give you a small piece of advice here @Abitboring - just don't react to the more vicious posters? Some people here seem to get a kick out of being as nasty as possible, and it's not worth rising to their bait.

Having said that, it's kind of coming across that you dislike this new hire, and I hope you are being more patient with her F2F because you seem somewhat prickly. I understand that you are under a lot of pressure.

No employee can always be on annual leave because it's limited. Your problem here is your manager, who should be ensuring that you get fair and equal access to annual leave, and that each of you is available to cover the other. In my team, for peak holiday periods, everyone has to submit a request to the team manager, not their direct line manager, who has oversight and the information available to ensure that cover is always provided. In practice this has meant that things usually do work out and leave is seldom denied.

I think the ideas you've had about creating a training manual etc and encouraging her to take ownership of her work are all good, and should help. If she doesn't cut the mustard, then you may well have need of the manual again in the near future. I'd also suggest that you set up a training schedule, formalising arrangements for say 3 months at a time, and then you can see from the outset whether or not she is going to be available - reducing your frustration and meaning you can plan ahead more effectively.

Kindly, I also think you need to take some time out for you, because it sounds to me that you are under stress and that your mental wellbeing is suffering. Does your employer offer any EAP/counselling support? If so I'd encourage you to use it and either way, I think you would benefit from a chat with your GP.

It's that old chestnut of putting on your own oxygen mask before trying to help other people. You need to look after you - because, trust me, no-one else will. Best wishes.

You are focussing in on an irrelevant detail. Umm who is defecting now! 😂

Yes, I worked additional hours during the covid outbreak. I didn't want to but people were dying and at risk. This wasn't my usual role. It was in a prison and a few days before Xmas. Most that had AL booked for Xmas kept it. It was my choice to work. We used agency staff or went without. People died. I caught Covid eventually and was very sick. Oh forgot to mention, there was a mini riot too so yes, I know what it's like to be understaffed and overworked. These were exceptional times and management did their best.
You are not talking about Acts of God or States of Emergency. You're talking about a business with poor management concentrating on profits at the expense of staff wellbeing. You are getting annoyed at the wrong people. If you're regularly expected to double your workload you need to speak with management, HR or your union....or leave.