Want a holiday but 16 year old can’t get leave

[Irishmama100]

So my 16 year old has a retail job, 8 hour contract and has been refused leave for when we went to go on our summer holiday. Can’t leave them at home on their for 11 nights

1)I am unreasonable - I should just scrap the idea and no one in the family gets a holiday.
2) I am not being unreasonable - I Should just book it anyway and they can quit and get another job

In this case. If your child is happy to quit, then do. But make it clear you can't do that as an adult in a job. (Unless you are treated unfairly)

Take them on holiday. The future is bleak for our kids. They will be working for a lot longer than most of us, pension age will likely rise again. It's quite a depressing thought.

Take the joys in life when you can!

I've worked since I was 15. I've had 4 holidays since then... I'm 32 now.

Take the holiday and enjoy time with your family.

OP this is bonkers.

You are facilitating allowing a corporation to be dicks to a 16 year old and letting that dictate YOUR summer holidays. This isn’t so much instilling a good work ethic as it is creating a doormat.

No 16 year old, 8 hour a week employee is so essential that a business would collapse in their absence. Your daughter is a child who relies on you for lifts to work.

Book the holiday. Email the company and say you are taking your DD on holiday with you as holidays are planned around the adult earners leave in your family and she cannot work in your absence anyway. Say DD has no choice, you’re sorry but that’s how it is, and if it will result in her termination please let you know so you can avoid her being subjected to unpleasantness.

The have a fabulous holiday!

Switch shifts with who? When I was casual weekend retail staff so were all the other part-timers. We all worked Saturday / Sunday because it was the busiest time. Full-timers worked 5 days including the weekend and had their days off in the week.

You can't swap with someone who works the same hours as you.

I'd get them to apply for a new job now and say they can't work X due to pre booked holiday. It's not quitting as such as another job has been found first. You may tell me you're super rural now and not many jobs available locally, but this is what I think I'd suggest to my DC.

This happened to me at 17. I only worked 4 hours a week in Topshop. I just quit and found another job when I was back.

Agree! Whatever you don’t get involved by speaking to their manager.

@Onehappymam

Same.
To add insult to injury the bosses friends daughter started work and got a higher wage.
Looking back I'm surprised no one in my family spoke to me about this.

@CheeseWisely op mentioned that the manager does not like staff switching shifts and that's what I was referring too.

Haven't read the full thread, don't know how readily available jobs are where you are. But I would let the 16yo decide... whether they keep the job and stay behind home alone or quit and get another job when they get back

😂 I quit a job to go on holiday as a teen, I have a good work ethic and earn way more than most people at 31. Quitting a teen job for family time isn’t going to make a difference.

But what about the other 10 days?

Good for you @PoppyCherryDog, I just think the attitude throughout this thread that the employers must obviously be monsters, rather than simply running a business with minimum staff requirements a bit bizarre.

If someone of any age is employed to work 8 hours a week covering the busiest period, then it follows that their 8 hours a week does 'matter' and they would be missed, or the employer would save themselves the money and hassle and not bother.

Like I said, the OP's DC can obviously quit, so could we all if we don't get what we want.

You've got three choices:

1. You go on holiday without the 16 year old.
2. You go on holiday at a different time with the 16 year old and suck up the extra cost.
3. Your child tells their employer that they will be leaving if they can't get leave, and puts their notice in. Then they work with you till they can get one of the many jobs going in retail, hospitality etc.

You don't seem to want any of those, so you need to sit down with your child and decide which one is the least worst option. Personally, I'd go for no. 3 every time.

My just turned 17yr old has just quit his job at Boots for similar reasons.
We are also rural and I have to drive him as no public transport or safe cycle routes.
He had to book all his year's holiday by the end of April and nothing in December. He competes in a sport representing the UK in December every year, they know this and wouldn't make an exception. They've also been absolutely appalling in so many other ways, disability discrimination from the manager, payroll cockups, late notice shift changes etc so we decided between us that enough is enough.
Go on holiday, you'll regret it if you don't

Can you book the holiday so that their shifts are at the very beginning and end? Then they can head out to meet you the day after their shift and might have to come back a day or so early but still will have the bulk of the holiday with you.

I would definitely go. An employer can manage without a 16 year old for 8 hours and if they can't it's bad time management. I understand you want to instil a good work ethic into your child but the employer is being ridiculous. Just go and help you DC find a new job if necessary when you get back.

This.
It will teach DS how to communicate his needs to an exmployer and it may teach him something about conflict resolution. And when it´s time to leave (depending on the response of the employer)...

I think I'd call the employer's bluff - if one person can't be spared for 11 days, they can't lose them permanently. Book the holiday, child hands in their notice at the appropriate moment explaining why, employer has second thoughts about whether it's better to grant them leave or go through recruitment to replace them.

It might work out, it might not, but that's the route I'd take for a Saturday job that's ultimately not that important.

They wouldn't employ them if they didn't need them. It's nothing to do with the number of hours they work or what age they are.

Retail needs people physically there. Holiday has to be tightly managed. It's just not as simple as 'just managing without them' and it's insulting to both the employee and the employer to say that.

They're 16, on an 8 hour contract and could easily work for your business during the summer.
It's a no brainer surely?!!!

Surely it's the teens decision to make, not yours. If they are old enough to get a job, then they are old enough to decide how to handle that job - unless you insist they contribute to household expenses which would be unreasonable if they are in education.

I wouldn't worry about their CV. At 16 they already have experience working for their DPs business and with retail, that's all brilliant and more than most, unless they are aiming to leave school and work in retail.

This

Talk about creating problem for yourselves. Its a non situation tbh

They work 8 hours per week! So probably 8 hours on a Saturday. So they might miss two days at worst.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago with a weekend job (8 hours) for a shop. The manager refused me annual leave. So I handed in my notice, saying it was with regret, but I needed that days holiday and cc’d her manager on the notice.
Within a day my leave had been approved and I had withdrawn my notice.
Quite often you have lazy supervisors who enjoy the power flex of being able to turn down leave coupled with the fact they can’t be arsed to tinker with the rota.

It's a good life lesson to work out what's more important. A family holiday saving £1500 or a one day a week job with an inflexible manager.

Your child can apologise that they're not in charge of dates, offer to swap shifts or take unpaid leave and make it the managers problem.