Never allowed to take leave on a Friday

[Rorous]

There are 4 people in my team and one of whom doesn’t work Fridays. For this reason I am never allowed to take a Friday as annual leave and I find it absurd. Even when I request a week off I am being asked to work on a Friday! I’m wondering whether I am being unreasonable and should just simmer down, or kick up a fuss with my line manager… advice please?

Just to add, there are no meetings/pieces of work planned for these days. I’m just there “in case something happens” and I have never been called upon for anything urgent in my 3 years of working here.

That’s ridiculous.

That is insane, do you never go on a summer holiday????

That's ridiculous.

That's ridiculous and poor management. We have someone in our team who doesn't work Wednesdays and it's not an issue for the rest of us for annual leave.

Urgh! Favouratism at it's worse.

Ring in sick.

Yes how does that work if you want to take two weeks off for a holiday. It's ridiculous and non workable. I'd bring it up with your line manager.

Ridiculous, is no one else allowed Fridays off or is it just you?

That's what I was wondering.
Seems like very poor management to me.

No, that’s ridiculous! My old work used to be a bit like this with Saturdays but I think you were allowed up to 3 Saturdays off a year as part of annual leave. No Saturdays ever would be unacceptable.

It seems for whatever reason I am the only person who can cover her work (which is not true). I think I had one Friday off in the summer as I escalated it to her boss. Surely shouldn’t be this hard?!

… yes she is a terrible manager, I have several examples of this!

That's ridiculous! I'm actually the person who doesn't work Friday's in our team, but they allow one other person to be off (3 of us do broadly the same job). If it's really a case of someone needs to be in and it can't be covered fairly by all 3 of you, then that is one of those situations where part time working shouldn't be allowed, but I'm struggling to think of such a situation.

Insane

I’ve emailed HR to see if they can give me some advice. Thank you all for your responses - nice to know I’m not the only one who thinks this is madness!

Their poor planning and inability to fully resource the team isn't your problem.

Book Fridays off, when they ask you to cover them, point out the single point of failure within the team and that others need to be unskilled to cover this work, after all, you could leave the business, you could get hit by a bus and not be in the business tomorrow.

Why don't they just train the rest of the team so you can all cover her work 🤦🏻‍♀️

So what happens if you want to go abroad for two weeks? Seems absolutely ridiculous

That is ridiculous. I don't work Fridays and we have had occasions where my manager has put a notice up to say the office will be closed that day as colleagues have also booked annual leave that day.
If companies want a decent amount of cover, they should hire more staff - my manager also has this view!

That's really bad form. I wouldn't be happy to not be able to book a full week off. Also in my circle Friday weddings are very popular

What would they do if you were sick on a Friday?

There’s only 3 people on my team and one doesn’t work a Friday, both me and my other colleague are allowed to take AL on a Friday, or we would never get a week off.

Fuck that, it's ridiculous. What would happen if you were sick, or are you not allowed to get sick on Friday?

I'm a bit rusty on this area - but aren't there rules in some types of jobs for audit reasons where people are required to take 2 weeks off, to expose any fraudulent behaviour ?

That’s a ridiculous rule. They’re making is impossible for you to have an actual holiday. You can’t even take a long weekend.

I hope HR sort it.

What happens if she's sick while you're away?

That's absurd! You've done the right thing by emailing HR, I hope the situation is sorted out for you.