To think management are being unreasonable?

[sunsetsatfour]

We’re encouraged to do a qualification by work and they do pay for it. It’s a lot when you work full down and your downtime if full of studying and after 2 years of it I’m drained.

I have 3 exams next week and management expects me to work the same day as my exam (before and after). I’ve requested to be allowed not to so I have some time to revise and they’ve said no.

I have no outstanding work that’s critical.

What was the reason given?

If I understand correctly and you asked to be excused from work on a working day then YABU.
Unless your employer is extremely generous, you are supposed to take annual leave or unpaid leave for exams/courses that aren't part of your role (or a requirement per contact).

If they have rejected your annual leave request then that's pretty lame indeed.

Could you just revise anyway? 🤷‍♀️

Depends how “big” the exams are tbh

Do they have a policy for this?

Ours always allowed study leave for employer paid qualifications. We got half a day per exam plus half a day study leave. All paid for, which was quite generous!

You do have a statutory right to request unpaid time off for relevant training (including study time) if the employer has over 250 employees though. There’s no limit to what you can request off, but they can reject it on certain grounds if it’s too disruptive.

I'm confused by your use of 'supposed to' here. This wouldn't be what you're supposed to do in my organisation.

I am civil service. They have paid for me to do a couple of qualifications. The difference may be in that they were expected for my role. Each of them came with a set amount of study leave I was allowed to take.

Check their policy on study leave and consider taking annual leave if you have enough?

My organisation has a study leave policy but my boss is an obstructive harridan who hates me so now I just end up taking leave for CPD etc. Ironically we work in the training department, it's just one more example of lip service and one of many reasons I'm praying I get another job before too long. She can take all the study leave she wants of course and get involved with God knows how many extracurricular committees. I shouldn't have to use my annual leave but it's the least confrontational way to do it, that way she doesn't even need to know what I'm doing.

For you though, is there any one else in the same position who is getting study leave? As if so that might strengthen your case.

Refusing an annual leave request would be unreasonable I think.

I work in accountancy so very familiar with exams/studying 🥲 and I find it very interesting the approach different firms take!

I was on a training contract so my top 10 firm paid for your first attempt courses and exams, I was given days off for courses and 2 days off per exam (one for the exam and one study day). As a result I would use all my annual leave and TOIL for studying the week (studying on evenings/weekends isn’t enough!).

On one of my courses I met someone whose firm gave them a week off for each exam on top of courses etc!

My current firm will pay for courses and exams but does not give any time off, so if juniors want to attend teaching/study courses they have to use annual leave/TOIL for that too.

Anyway, my point is there is no ‘normal’ when it comes to exam leave. Everything should have been clarified when you started studying or perhaps in a training handbook?

YANBU to request annual leave to study for exams. IMO exams should be the priority and work has to wait or be delegated to someone else..

Depends on how long the exam is I guess!

And to a lesser extent what time of day. Do you work from home? Will they even notice if you are studying with your laptop logged on?

Youll still be entitled to a lunch break I guess so will have a chance to rest.

Or as a pp said, you could take annual leave - I don’t think they could refuse that and be reasonable

Depends on your company policy I guess. I'm doing an qualification paid for by work but it's not a training contract, I don't have to do the qualification. I get a day off for each exam (even if the exam is first thing in the morning, I get the whole day), and a set number of study leave days a year for me to schedule when I like (with agreement from my manager, but only in the same way that annual leave is agreed). These days off are all paid.

Unless your employer is extremely generous, you are supposed to take annual leave or unpaid leave for exams/courses that aren't part of your role (or a requirement per contact)

There's no "supposed to". It's totally dependent on her company. It seems like her company policy is no, which is their prerogative. But it's not what's "supposed" to happen, any more than them allowing paid leave is "supposed" to happen.

If I am undertaking qualifications for my job I get paid leave. They would not expect me to go to work before and after an exam.

Your experience is exactly the same as our trainees. Considering the amount of cost in terms of lost fee earning income and the cost of the courses and exams, etc, it does get very expensive to an employer to put people through the training.

@sunsetsatfour do you have a training agreement? What does it say if so? To not give the day of the exam off at least is rubbish, especially as they're the ones encouraging you to do the exams.

We have some staff not on training agreements, but who are studying off their own backs. We've said to them they can take the exam days off (out of annual leave), but we have to prioritise work in relation to the other days they might want off so can't guarantee it. They then revise in the evening and at weekends plus any annual leave they are able to take.

When I was studying it was before they brought in the 28 day statutory minimum for annual leave (I'm old!), so I only used to get 3 weeks leave per year, plus BHs. I used to use nearly all my annual leave on studying then the enforced office close over Christmas! I didn't have an actual holiday for the entirety of my training contract.

It is brutal while working a full time job too, but the pain is worth it in the long term.

The amount of study needed for professional qualifications whilst working is huge. I had one day per module/exam when I did mine so had to use that for the actual exam. I wouldn't sign up for that again, I was so stressed and got bugger all down time because I was studying and revising during any holiday.

Could you 'work from home'?