Job Share response to hol request

[Stargazer75]

I'm fairly new to my jobshare with another lady (I've been there 1 year). She's older, single and no DC.
She loves her cruises and goes on around 3 a year, I cover the days she is absent.

As yet, she hasn't booked any days off this year, but as I have a husband, grandchild, elderly Mum etc, occasionally I book things in advance as have a busy life outside of work.

The other day I asked my jobshare if she could please cover 2 days for me in September as I would like to book annual leave.

She went all red in the face and said 'I just don't know if I'll be available, I don't know when I'm going on my cruises yet'. I could tell she was very annoyed at me asking! She asked if I needed to actually book something such as travel or accommodation etc? I don't personally think its any of her business what I plan to do on annual leave and I think 7 months notice is pretty decent. In the end, in a huff, she just said 'well, you may as well go ahead and book then and I'll let you know closer to'.

My DH needs to book his annual leave to coincide - and we were hoping to visit friends in London who would also book annual leave, but obviously if she changes her mind closer to it will mess everything up 😬

I guess she's pretty much saying 'I'll cover if I don't book a cruise' in effect saying her holiday plans trump mine (unless I'm getting it wrong)

I put my holiday form in to HR, but how would you address this going forward?

I'm not just going to sit back each year, wait for her to book the days she wants, then have the crumbs that are left.

Anyone else jobshare and how do you navigate?

Don't think that was the point. She had only herself to consider. She doesn't have children or a husband to work around.

Very simple. You book the leave before she does.

Don't think that was the point. She had only herself to consider. She doesn't have children or a husband to work around.

It doesn't matter. Maybe she has elderly parents to consider, or friends she wants to co-ordinate leave with, or animals she needs to find care for.

You wanting to book days well in advance is not unreasonable, your colleague wanting to wait until nearer the time before agreeing to overtime is not unreasonable. What is unreasonable is the system of booking holidays that means you can only book days off if one of your colleagues agrees to cover your shifts.
Where I work only one person from the department can be off at any one time. We can book holiday up until 12 months ahead on a first come first serve basis. The manager sorts our work rota out 4 weeks ahead, if he can see someone is on holiday he will ask other colleagues if they can come in and work those days at that point, if no-one agrees we work on short staff numbers which can be a struggle so sometimes the manager will help out too.
I think you need to highlight this problem with your line manager or HR department. If they refuse to alter the system I would start considering looking for a change of job.

I think you need to formally confirm the expectations with your line manager, if you are on leave then is the expectation that she doesn’t book the same week/covers the extra days. Given you have now booked the week, she can’t now decide she wants it and it’s unreasonable to have to wait around until someone finally decides when they are taking their cruise. You are being a bit judgy judgy about the fact she is single, doesn’t have DC etc. that’s irrelevant and she has the right to ask for school holidays or she we she wants. However she is rude to grill you for details, all you need to know is can I have that week or is she taking it. If the rules are clear then it’s first come first served surely.

They're not less entitled to them than someone who loves cruises though.

You're really reaching there and sound insecure. Makes me wonder if you've ever encountered real contempt if you think OP's post is "dripping with it." "Fecund and vibrant..." Come on. Resilience is a useful life skill.

‘ 'I just don't know if I'll be available, I don't know when I'm going on my cruises yet'. ‘

• *Your response: OK, well avoid those dates because I’m sending my holiday days to HR. Let me know when you do decide on holiday days and I shall cover for you. I’ve had this sort of issue with a colleague before, she was a budding actor and toom days off for auditions. She got very shirty when I booked time off as she acted as though I was potentially taking her big break away from her. The only way to deal is to be direct, calm and clear.

I totally understand why she is annoyed.
Not everyone wants to plan holidays 7 months in advance and be bounded by co-workers odd 2 days blocking a range of two weeks options.
I suppose she took the job share position to get more flexibility and now is getting less.

I understand that you want to plan your holidays in advance and there is nothing wrong with that either. However, your "she could plan her cruises around" sounds very unpleasant.

The issue here is your job share setup, which holds your two preferences against each other. If the agreement would allow 1 week a year with both of you away, it wouldn't be an issue.

How many ranges of 2 weeks does it block? 2, out of all the options in the next year. The only circumstances where the op never blocks any leave for her colleague is where the op never plans leave ahead - now THAT would be very unfair. This is just normal- people book leave and others have to plan around it. The colleague has the remaining 10 months of the year minus 2 days to book leave, it doesn’t get much better than that. Why on earth are people saying the colleague should at all times have 100% of the year available to book? Thats what you’re saying if the op booking 2 whole days is too restrictive.

If she's asking you to cover HER time off, then she's got zero excuse to get funny with you.

Personally, I'd shrug and leave it to HR to sort out. Maybe get in there now with a message such as, "thanks for approving my time off for Xdate. I mentioned it to my job share and it got a bit strange... She seemed to be implying that if she later decided to book time off herself, for the same date, that her time off would trump mine and I'd have to cancel... Can you confirm to me what the system is for approving time off, and what would happen in the case that both of us requested the same days off?"

But even if you do nothing but shrug, I'd definitely be less accommodating over covering her holidays in the future!

FYI: Her being single, childless and liking cruises is irrelevant. Everyone is allowed time off, regardless of personal circumstances. Your insinuation that your time off is more important/well-earned than hers, somewhat undoes your otherwise perfectly valid complaint.

Hold on, you are a grandmother not young kids yourself. So you are saying your own husband and elderly mother are more important than hers? Or she's so much older than you her parents couldn't still be living? If the second I'd think she can't be as flexible as you because she'll have to match her friends, whereas you have your husband to hand and other family help, no childcare of your own.
So I've changed my mind.
Still think it's not legal to cover back all your own holiday but different hours though.

@Stargazer75 you are entitled to plan ahead and request the leave.

You have followed the correct process and neither of the other job shares have commitments. So you have submitted your form to HR.

For this absence I suggest you put it in your calendar and cc in both colleagues so it is their calendars.

Going forward just follow the same process, if she gets huffy ignore her. All 3 of you have the right to request and take leave.

The only time I would expect more consideration are key holiday periods e.g. Christmas/New Year, Easter etc.

I know you may not have meant to but judging her lifestyle is not a nice or fair thing to do. Just because you have DC does not give you a right to school holidays etc. You do however have the right to book leave in advance.

This is bonkers, your employer has a role with 100 per cent cover when holidays are a legal entitlement. Her personal circumstances are irrelevant, the only relevant point is that she hasn't booked any leave so it's free for you to book. I'd be taking all of this up with my line manager or seeking a new employer that isn't taking the piss.

OP seems happy with the arrangement of overtime to cover the other and presumably so is her colleague as she’s worked there longer.

Dont really why the OP is getting attacked for trying to paint the picture of colleague. I’m single and have no commitments, tend to take my leave when I fancy but I also know whilst I’m not in a job share I have to factor others into when I take. Also can’t be off and need to cover my LM when he’s off. Some people in my team have booked all their annual leave others haven’t and that’s okay.

OP in theory should have booked all her leave and not even asked her colleague just let their LM manager it. At least this way the colleague can say yes or no. She could also think about when she is going on a cruise. Don’t think anyone books a cruise a few weeks before they go, so surely she’s already thinking about it.

I really don't understand how this works. If a full time member of staff is off, management have to find cover or manage without them, but if you are off you have to sort it yourself, and from one person. I'd speak to management about it as it seems discriminatory. For one thing doesn't it totally defeat the object of job share if you often have to be available the other days in case someone is off? many part time workers have commitments one the days they don't work, eg childcare, so how would it work for them?

OP seems happy with the arrangement of overtime to cover the other and presumably so is her colleague as she’s worked there longer.

That doesn't make it legal.

Dont really why the OP is getting attacked for trying to paint the picture of colleague.

Because she's assuming that single = no commitments when that's very rarely (if ever) the case.

No she's referring to the fact this woman is throwing her weight around like her plans are more important than anyone else. She sounds really selfish!! OP is just trying to juggle her commitments already and can't take on this lady's attitude being noncommittal to covering leave on top of everything else. Are you a spinster and take easy offence because of people's attitude outside of here towards your lifestyle?

But she hasn’t got dates so you’re not. Book it and if it’s agreed fine. I’m assuming your job share doesn’t have to agree your a/l, it’s nice to give a heads up but just ignore the huffiness as that is neither here nor there.

I did a job share years ago which did work well at first but then broke down because I covered hers but she increasingly didn’t want to cover mine. And the reasons were ridiculous. It came to a natural end after about 3 years and I was glad. You are giving her plenty of notice and yes she is being far too precious about it. I would go so far as saying entitled, perhaps due to her age, but perhaps she is just plain selfish. Hope it turns out ok and if you got in first then HR should be involved if she does decide on the same dates afterwards
Good luck!

I would go so far as saying entitled, perhaps due to her age

MN ageism strikes again. And we were doing so well the last few weeks. How old is she, BTW? because all OP has said is 'older.' She might be in her 40s.

I wonder if it’s simply that your job share has got very used to being able to have the annual leave rota all her own way (perhaps the other job share / previous person in your role was happy to just fit around her) and now doesn’t like it because someone new has come in with their own needs.

I’ve seen this happen quite a bit with people who have been in jobs for a while resenting new people coming in and taking what they see as “their” entitlements. Still remember the epic strops one woman had when someone joined the team who also had school-aged children and suddenly the first woman had to negotiate about school holiday leave (rest of us didn’t have kids at that stage and generally preferred to avoid the school holidays, so she’d been able to take her pick)

I fully agree the OP should book the holiday dates she needs. However I think you are being spiteful and misogynistic in your contemptible and personal attack on @Picklestop. Sneeringly asking if she is a 'spinster' is way out of order, shows a hugely old fashioned mindset and shows your own bias against women who have not married.

surely if it was just one person doing the job then the 4/5weeks of holiday would have no cover or the business would need to find it.

it shouldn’t be your job to negotiate your annual leave/swap.

request your holiday when you need it and let your boss manage it from there

I don't get why you have to provide cover for each other. If you weren't job sharing, you would just negotiate the time off with your line manager/ HR. She sounds a pain. Just keep doing what you are doing an book off the time that works for you.