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?

This is a good idea. I will discuss this as well.

OP, are you going to discuss business processes for leave, training etc with your manager? These are the real issues here.

This

This is a good suggestion. I could really work with this.

You need to tell your manager that the training is not going as you have to continually remind her of the processes. I wouldn't make a big deal of her annual leave, seeing as your manager approved it, and if prickly could take that as a criticism of him.

He's going to have to decide if she should fail her probation period, so you need to give him the info to make this call. You also need to let him know that you are doing all you can to support and train her, but she's not learning the processes in the time you'd expect - otherwise she can blame you on not training her in.

Re. not wanting to give her notes on the processes, I think you should reconsider.

Processes should be mapped (in case you all win the lottery). If she continues to fail to do the job properly when she has a written guide, she won't be able to claim that the training provided by you was the reason for her mistakes.

Re holidays, if at least one of needs to be in, let her know this and have a chat with about any leave she may have planned for the rest of the year - after you get your own leave approved.

Try and enjoy the weekend OP... And maybe look into booking some AL yourself?

We work to live after all. Your new colleague is doing nothing wrong. It just sounds like you don't like her and feel a bit resentful that she's having holidays... If I were you, I'd look into booking one yourself, then you can chat holidays with your new colleague and maybe find some common ground.

There’s 2 separate issues.

1. she’s not as efficient as you would like in the job yet, and not proactive in asking to learn more.

2. how annual leave is booked, approved and covered.

This thread is about 2).
On that issue, if you both have to cover each other’s annual leave, you both need to discuss with each other before an A/L request is put in. ‘Hey Mary, I’m going to book off w/c 3rd Aug, let me know if you aren’t going to be in.’ Or cc her to your leave request to your mutual manager. She does the same. Easy.

Yes, this would be needed.

But she’s told her boss, so isn’t it up to her boss to deal with this stuff? If things need covering while she’s away, then wouldn’t that be between her and her boss to arrange between them?

I’m not really understanding why her leave arrangements are anything to do with you, to be honest. You’re not her manager, so she doesn’t need to run her annual leave past you. If you invite her to a meeting and she replies and says “Sorry, I’m not around that week” then either the meeting happens without her or you say “OK, we’ll do it the week after.”

Yes, I am. I had a really busy few years and am ticked off of having to do my bosses job and effectively do the thinking of other people. I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to cancel a few things in August and take time off (and tell my new colleague that I will be off ;-)).

Then she needs to be performance managed out.....if she cannot perform the role to a competent level.

Annual leave is an entirely different thing

If she's away I'm the default person to cover. I have said that a few times already. My boss would expect me to cover.

Do it!! You're as entitled to take a holiday as anyone else. Don't let work grind you down - book that holiday and tell everyone in the office you're going 😅

I used to work in a big department (100+ people) and without fail every leave year the people who burnt through their leave allocation early in the year all went on the sick. You could set your watch by it. I'd be stunned if your new colleague doesn't do the same.

Escalate performance issues asap. Be detailed. Evidence their lack of effort e.g. not taking notes. The sooner those things are seen by management the sooner conversations can be had with the individual so they can improve.

I've also literally never worked in any team where people don't flag their leave. Not to ask permission but just in a good manners/capacity planning way. I guess it's odd to those not in a team but in your setup OP it'd absolutely be expected. Frankly is she can't do that it's another thing to escalate to management - they need to make it clear what your office behaviour expectations are as she's not getting it right now.

So if you're responsible for training her can you not have a meeting with her manager?
Explain the leave has been disruptive and is impacting her ability to learn the job?

Then you've done your bit! It's down to the manager to manage.

She is entitled to take her leave but I can understand it's annoying!

But raise the issue professionally & then just log instances when there is an issue to raise with her manager going forward.

We get around that one by not allowing people to take annual leave in their probationary period, unless an emergency, or something pre-arranged and raised at the interview stage.

Stop worrying and stop putting yourself out. As long as you are covering the problem then management won't resolve it. Make it their problem and it will get sorted. Stop playing nice.

As an aside - how do people's workplaces / you organise your AL?

Ours is from April to April. So we are about 1/3 of the way through. We have our big holiday soon but I still have a reasonable amount left so Christmas and unexpected stuff is covered up to next April.

I don't know if we have any official policy re how we take it - I just know that we can only carry over a certain amount each year.

I like to spread out my AL - and I have no idea what happens if we give notice and Annual Leave.

Sounds like a great plan. You deserve time off over summer like everyone else and people need to cover for you too.

If you can't beat' em, join' em!

As a manager, I understand the feeling of carrying the world on your shoulders. Here you are not a manager, don't have the managerial authority, trying to train 'slow quitter' new joiners, and having to manage up and sideways, whilst dealing with your specialist workload alone. You probably take pride in your customer service and work too. Your manager relies on you more than they realise.

Just want to say, I get why you are exhausted. I get every one of your posts. You have got good suggestions on this thread. Don't let the negative posters who are projecting get you down.

She's not responsible for training her though, OP said this isn't part of her job.
OP sounds like she's doing her boss's job, and is struggling. She needs to stay in her pay grade and let the boss do the rest.

Thanks. I don't take this lightly. I spend a few hours every week. I go through every piece of work they gave done with them and explain what to do differently and why. So far I did expect them to take notes and use these notes. Some things of thid work take a long time to click...I know they won't be able to do it properly the next few times still and I will need to tweak it.

At this stage my issues are, as explained, quite simple. 'Send me xyz every Monday please, tick this box every week, update this number'. I am or was really reluctant to start managing this via email, copying their boss etc. But I'm getting to this stage. I thought it may embarrass her and she'd pick it up soon anyway but I realise all talking doesn't help.

Ditto - and unless there are mitigating circumstances which she has only told her manager, I think she's already shown she's really not much of a team player and has a huge lack of consideration for her colleagues. I agree with you, @Abitboring, I don't think this is the way someone who is new to a company and needs to be trained for their job, and is supposedly working in a team with others, should be behaving in their first few months. But apparently, this isn't untoward behaviour according to the denizens of MN.

This is so kind I actually burst into tears. Thank you for saying this.

Her leave her choice.
The employer should have a training plan organised with dates and times.

If they are not organised she can use her leave as she sees fit.

Not up to you.
Not up to you if she is good enough or not either. I assume she has a probationary period.

Her manager who signs off her leave will decide that i assume.