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?

You asked her. She hasn't said she has anything definitely planned so can't do it, so it's free for you both. So you book it, and she has to plan her cruises round it. That's the point of having a holiday calendar in a work place. In the same way that if she had already booked something that week, you'd have to change yours, as she got in first.

I'm the single person. I booked ahead, because I was usually coordinating with other people. I also sorted out the on-call calendar so people could plan ahead. If they had leave booked, I'd take it into consideration. If they didn't, it was up to them to book their leave round the rota or find someone to swap.

why are you asking for cover for your annual leave? Surely that is for your manager to organise?

If this escalates OP, just ask the boss what they would do if you were off for six weeks after an operation or similar.

Whatever they answer, that’s what they do in this situation. It’s madness to expect one person to cover every single absence another person has.

Surely you work fewer hours because you don’t want to/aren’t available to work FT. I know people with three or four different part time roles. They wouldn’t be able to cover at all. It’s all a bit bonkers

I think she's huffy because you always book so far in advance before she has had chance to think about her own holidays so that when she comes to plan her own annual leave she is having to plan it around your days off. She feels you are bagsying days and dates way in advance which feels unfair to her. She would like to be able to have free reign of dates for her holidays but you are effectively forcing her hand to book them round you. It feels inconsiderate to her. Now do you understand?

Get in there l first and book the time off.

So you work 1.5 days of a FTE. I assume your job share partner covers the afternoons + 2 whole days. So they're the 3.5.

It's not possible for you to cover her without being overtime (because that's the definition of the arrangement). So your boss expects you to work 130% of your contracted hours as overtime to cover partner holidays? It's completely unreasonable.

I think it also has implications for your pay. If it is 100% expected that you cover all of your job share partner's holidays, then those are part of your 'normal' hours and should be included for the calculation of holiday pay.

So assuming you get 1.5/5 * 28 of annual leave days = 8.4 days, you should then add on the extra entitlement you get from working 19.6 more days (partner's leave).

While I understand your complaint - it does sound annoying, your issue here is your employer.

Why is it your responsibility to make sure there is cover for your annual leave? Is it? Or have you just always done this so it's expected?

I'd be raising this with HR/your boss, asking what is the procedure for booking annual leave if your normal cover isn't sure what days they can/can't cover yet and won't commit.

Does your contact state that overtime to cover annual leave is mandatory?

Wtf? 😂😂

My holidays are currently booked 9-12 months in advance - it's a bit rude to call it "entitled", if I didn't do it I wouldn't be able to coordinate me, my husband, school holidays, exam results, reasonably priced flights, etc etc.

Surely it's more entitled to hold days and weeks "open" just in case you want to book a holiday.

So I work 3 half days

Lady 2 - 3 half days

lady 3 - 4 half days

If one of us is off on annual leave, the other 2 are expected to cover and be paid overtime.

I just accepted this at interview, is this illegal then are you saying? I assumed job shares covered each others annual leave.

I do see what people are saying though, in that I'm effectively not getting any annual leave as I'm doing extra covering others - but what then happens if lady 3 is on holiday as there would be nobody there to cover?

And, equally, her cruise dates can't revolve around your family issues.

This is a job for HR.

She feels you are bagsying days and dates way in advance which feels unfair to her
That's my situation. I don't book things long in advance but there is a lot going in my personal life and holidays come afterwards.

My colleague is the opposite and has all her dates for the year in January.

That's why we've come up to a compromise. If it's a family holiday of a life time, she asks and unless we are very unlucky that I happen to also have a family event of a life time that same week (which yet has never happened), this is booked long in advance and too bad if I then want to plan something that week later in the year.

Otherwise, we do 3 months in advance, no longer.

There have been occasions of a day or up to 3 that we both wanted at the same time and as long as my boss is around, it's been approved.

Flexibility, communication, compromises is the only way to make such situation work.

Many places require booking more than 3 months in advance though.

Why are people finding this so difficult to understand? Or is it a case of the single, no DC people reading that line and getting their knickers in a twist?

This isn't about each person's obligations outside of work, this is about a very simple annual leave request. Any company I have ever worked for operates AL on a first come first served basis. OP has booked AL, other colleague now needs to just ensure she does not book anything to crossover this request. Simple.

I would speak to management, explain this arrangement can only work with both parties communicating and helping eachother. If colleague wants any AL/sickness covered in future then they need to seriously reconsider their response to any future requests.

Out of 52 weeks in the year I'm pretty sure it can't be hard if you dint have to fit it in school holidays.

Many holidays need to be booked 6-9-12 months ahead. Nit my problem if that irks someone else.

I think it is unreasonable that just because you're in a job share that you both cover each others absences. If it wasn't a job share then surely cover would have to be provided in your absence. We have a cover system at work for holidays where we partner someone and cover their absences when they are away. Thought has been put into the pairings so for example they don't pair up people with school aged children. It works really well and there isn't any overlap. We only had one instance last year where I overlapped with my cover for 2 days and my line manager stepped in. I think given that your potential clash is only a couple of days (and you don't even know if it is yet) then you should easily be able to find someone in advance to cover or put plans in place to ensure only basic cover is required.

Was she annoyed, or was she simply caught on the hop at plans 7months in advance? I'd read as the latter.

Anyway, if you put in your request, she can't then book those days off.

P.S September is a very popular time to go on holiday for those of us with no DC... Warm enough, no kids around.

It isn't up to you to cover other staff annual leave. You might be asked to not be on leave at the same time.

From what you've said, it's something like:
You have 10 days leave a year. You take them, hooray. Your colleague covers, she is 10 working days up on contracted hours.

Your colleague has 10 days leave, she's effectively taking the days she covered you for. You cover for her now.

Youve both taken 10 days leave and worked 10extra days. So net result is no annual leave has been taken.

It is up to the employer to manage annual leave. So you take your 10 days, they either offer up overtime to other employees or hire temp cover.

I've overthought this now. I don't think I've got it right. I do know that your employer doesn't have it right though!

This doesn’t seem right. Fair enough only one person can be off at a time (should be first come first served) but they shouldn’t expect you to cover annual leave. I’d say the same back to her when she attempts to book her leave.

I think you're right in that this is how she perceives it - but the early bird catches the worm- isn't that the saying.
I need to book in advance to work around elderly Mum, DH, GC. That's how some people's lives have to operate. I don't have the luxury of spontanaity. I'm hardly booking all the summer holidays though, it's a couple of days here and there to make plans.

Why do you keep going on about your family, and how she can be more "spontaneous"?

Sure, you've booked your time off and she's not happy about it. But you keep dragging in your family situation, as though that trumps her somehow.

This. Your husband, grandchild and mum are irrelevant OP

Yes, I did think about saying the same to her when she comes to book her holiday. 'Not sure, might have something on that week' 😂

It's the weirdest jobshare arrangement I've ever heard of. What would happen if your colleague were off sick unexpectedly and you already had arrangements to do other things on your non-working days?

Exactly this - and add to that that if you do cover the 5 days for lady one, and 5 days for lady 2, the fact you're working for 10 extra days a year increases your statutory 5.6 weeks annual leave entitlement in real terms. And their entitelment increases for covering each other and you. So you all get more leave, and have to cover more leave, so you earn more leave, and have to cover more leave. It would never end - it's an impossible sum to calculate how much leave you need if you're all covering each other on top of your normal hours!