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?

Yes, she did. From her OP:

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.

I’m trying to figure out how this works,
in the school holidays for example.
say you work 2 days and she works 3 days in the job share.
if she takes those 3 days in the school holidays, you have to work the whole week???@Stargazer75

maybe she was thinking of booking a cruise in September and doesn’t want to be limited with dates by your holiday.

But that's just working life. Plenty of people have some restrictions round leave, whether it's noleave at peak times, or there must always be at least 2 in the department at work or whatever. And it's just tough...

There are two sorts of people, those of us who book our holidays in advance (but I seem to have lost my mojo since I no longer need to factor in adult DS), and those who are perennially shocked that holidays are more expensive at the last minute and like to do things spontaneously.

I remember at work a number of years ago when DS was at school, they tried to implement a policy that you couldn't book a holiday until that calendar year. Some people were shocked that people would even do such a thing.

I tried to press the case that people should be allowed to book at least one holiday in the next year ( we are office workers so it's relatively easy to plan for), but was told it was unfair that people did that in case anyone fancied a last minute holiday in July or August.

Some people are planners and some are not, but it seems very unfair if the non planners can impact those who like to be organised in advance, and a couple of days in September is really nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Not the op, but that is exactly how it works in my workplace. It is not "compulsory" to cover, but you soon find your holiday won't be covered (and will therefore be denied) if you don't cover others.

Many smaller businesses that require 5 or 6 day cover work the 3 people covering one position pattern. The most cost effective (for employers) is either 2 x 12hr, 1 x16 or 1x12 and 2x16. A lot of the time only 4 hours per day. (So for instance I work 3x mornings). They do not then legally have to provide a break. The pattern is done so that each person covers 4hrs of their days off. (So I work Tue morning, never had to cover Tue afternoon, but cover either morning or afternoon on a Monday)

3 of my previous jobs in small businesses with a public facing position have followed this pattern.

This. This is exactly what I was going to say. But I’ll add that I have job shared twice in the past. My annual leave requests always went to my line manager and I’d tell my job share about them.

Also, it’s a job SHARE, her holidays don’t take priority. It doesn’t matter what any of your colleagues’ personal life is like, you’re entitled to the time off agreed in your contracts. She should be able to take that time off for her cruise if she wants and you can take off the time for your trip.

Her attitude is rubbish but I’d talk to HR about the cover situation as it sounds unfair.

Thanks for replying. Wow, I’ve never heard of this!

But the legality of it would mean that you aren’t made to do any extra shifts….you would just take holiday and if you don’t want to work extra, you wouldn’t. So in this case, you would book your time off in Sept and you wouldn’t be asking this lady to cover. The business would arrange cover nearer the time etc -it’s not your problem?!
they need to hire a temp or something. This is just so bizarre. In a full time position people wouldn’t be expected to find someone so you shouldn’t be discriminated against because you are part time. That is illegal.
so book the days off and stop worrying about what another employee wants to do!

I work in the civil service and our union have made it very clear it is not our responsibility to check who is off before asking for annual leave or to arrange cover.

But they couldn’t just repeatedly deny you holiday because legally you are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks.

yanbu. I also like to book my leave in advance. I don’t expect to book it all way ahead as I think the first-come-first-served expectation isn’t fair either. And I don’t expect to prebook lots of peak leave / school hols.
But I have colleagues who always say this “oh I don’t know what I’ll be doing then”. It makes booking specific accommodation / locations really difficult. Sometimes I don’t even care which non-peak week I book - I just want to get it in the diary!

Have a read about pronatalism in the workplace, and society in general, to understand people’s issue with the ‘no children or partner’ comment. It will probably also explain the co-worker’s response. Bias towards the childless, and single, is a very real thing in the world. That’s not a criticism, it’s just a fact.

As a manager I let people have holidays on a first come first served basis. The whole team know this and know the rules regarding holidays.

I generally only have one person off at a time so if the dates are taken then others need to look at alternative time. It’s not mine or my staffs issue if dates aren’t available.

I don’t expect my staff to cover others holidays (we make do) or I juggle the rest of the working team a bit. I don’t think it’s fair or legal to expect others to come in on their time off to cover others annual leave. People have lives away from work and asking them to give up that time is a big no no for me. I wouldn’t be happy doing it so why should the staff. If they are looking for overtime and have made that clear then yes I might consider it.

Really it’s up to HR or the manager to tell the colleague no you can’t have the dates as they’re already booked or if they do grant them then it’s up to them to get cover.

Could maybe your colleague not mean that I don’t know what I’ll be doing in x months so don’t know if I can cover rather than no you can’t have it incase I want to book something. I know if I was asked for a shift swap it asked to cover even in a couple months I wouldn’t have a clue if I could or not.

Exactly.

Job shares are primarily done by women.

It's a major problem if women feel that they can't take leave because their job share partner is doing so.

While being able to cover the job share partner is one of the benefits, it should not be taken as a condition of a job share. Treating job share annual leave conditions less favourably than non-job share conditions is a no go.

I honestly think the problem is the company doesn’t have enough people trained as back up for the role. If one person went off sick for 3months they’d be stuffed. If OP needed to take emergency leave as she had dependents, what happens then? Again this is a manager’s problem.

Stuffed as in they might struggle to get to current two others to cover.

Precisely. This is such a ridiculous
(and illegal) situation.

This is exactly what I was going to say. I work in a job share where we are both pt, so do not cover each other.

It's only 7 months in advance that's not an overly long time to book your annual leave in advance, I'd say most people book to go away further in advance than that and things like weddings and covering kids holidays etc would all need to be done in advance. There's an easy solution if that really is her problem to start deciding when she wants to go away earlier. In any other job it would be fine booking annual leave on a whim but if you're in a role where your colleague is expected to cover its not really fair to book things last minute.

What law do you imagine is being broken?

Making someone work hours over their contract in order to take their holiday entitlement

Who's being made to do this, rather than requested, and how do you know the terms agreed in the contract?

So just book it off then? I feel perhaps like this problem is being created by the two of you.

Op you are not BU xx

Ask the OP! She seems convinced this is the case and that it’s normal. Otherwise she would have just booked it off already.