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?

"Asked to" and "made to" are not the same things, and trying to be accommodating to the wishes of your employer fairly normal.

This isn’t that. If it was it wouldn’t be asked as a question on here would it.

You’re right. There’s so much prejudice towards the childless and single people in society - it’s actually quite sinister and it constantly goes unchecked

What does a CF mean? Sorry, new to this

TheNavyDeer · Today 22:10

You’re right. There’s so much prejudice towards the childless and single people in society - it’s actually quite sinister and it constantly goes unchecked

There's prejudice against a lot of people in society and the one I personally am most often subjected to is ageism these days. That goes unchecked too.

However, the fact remains that families with children ARE the most restricted when it comes to annual leave, as soon as their children start school. That doesn't mean they get preferential treatment, but it's ok for them to express that they are more restricted because it's just a fact.

I'm really pissed off with the allocation of annual leave where I work. The whole team has to submit requests for out of term-time leave, and the team manager approves or doesn't approve it at short notice, making it virtually impossible to book anything months away when it's cheaper. We're also restricted to one week at a time in term-time, unless it's tagged onto a school holiday closure. I haven't fallen foul of it yet, but I am sure I will in time!

Cheeky fucker.
Though sometimes child free, which can get confusing...

Interesting. In my experience, women without children don’t seem to need to use their parental status as an identity - I’ve never heard anyone say ‘as a childfree’ or ‘I’m a childfree’.

Being subjected to ageism must be awful. I’m sorry you have to deal with that. In terms of school holidays, teachers are also restricted, it’s not just parents, and many teachers don’t have children. It’s interesting that the needs of teachers aren’t talked about where holidays are concerned.

My dad is a retired teacher and my mum worked in retail, and after I'd left home holidays were a real bone of contention in their house. My mum wouldn't fight for time off in the school hols because she knew others would get first dibs 'because they've got kids in school', despite my dad saying til he was blue in the face, 'Well, you've got a HUSBAND in school!'