Am I took fussy/is annual leave a deal breaker for you

[Ladyoftheapple]

New to a new role. Smaller team, I work part-time, my husband works full-time. In my old job, I could pretty much pick the weeks I wanted off and they would be approved the majority of the time.
In this new job, one person can be off per week so it's limited. I love having two weeks off over the school summer holidays so that I can have that time with my husband and children but it's looking like I'll be lucky if I get a full week approved!
I'm struggling with this more than I thought and actually I am feeling like the quality time with my small children is more important. However, I have family members telling me that I need to suck it up, "I'm lucky to have a good job and I should want to get somewhere in life" 😳

I wouldn't be happy working somewhere that my leave was limited that much, my children would be my priority.

Absolute deal breaker for me I’m afraid. Your children only grow up once and there will always be jobs out there even if it means starting back at a lower rung on the ladder so to speak. I’m very fortunate in my current role but if I ever left (I won’t because I’m very lucky) my main priority would be what time can I get with my children. I say no to overtime when I don’t want to do it and it’s never an issue either.

Total deal breaker for me but then I'm very fortunate to be able to work as I want...ie we're financially well enough and I could leave tomorrow if I wanted.
I had option for more hours but refused as it didn't fit with my time off.

I don't have children but always have to take 2 weeks off in August as partner does in his contract. I wouldn't feel happy if I was told to let people with children have the priority time off though either.

Even when my DS was small I never had 2 weeks off at a time. But I've been in a small team where the parents with young children expected priority for all the holidays and the bank holiday weeks.

Would a team mate swap with you?

It is a legal requirement in Germany that employees have at least one 2-full-weeks holiday per year (obvs you don't have to take it and obvs companys can place restrictions on when etc)

Most people I know take 3 weeks in summer

As someone who managed a large team with only a few parents in it I always prioritised them often having to point out to the younger staff they would be better off going on holiday during term time.

They may not have wanted to go on holiday during term time, though. You can’t say that only parents can take time off over July / August or at Christmas. What if someone had a partner who was a teacher, or wanted to go on holiday with family members with school age children. Or want to attend an event on specific dates.

I’ve not had more than three days off in a row for many years and it is really hard. I would absolutely love a week off and am looking at ways to make it happen. Having annual leave isn’t a deal breaker for me obviously as I can and do manage without it but it is very hard with kids and I feel we’ve missed a lot of opportunities to travel. If two weeks annual leave is what you want can you ask in writing?

This. It’s first come first served on our team. I prefer taking holidays in term time, but if I did need time off during school holidays I’d be pretty pissed off to be told I couldn’t have the dates unless none of the parents wanted them.

I'm in a small team and it's 2 off on holiday at the same time. Anymore and we struggle. Can be slightly annoying as everyone except 2 have school aged kids. I always take the first 3 weeks in July off as in Scotland kids break up end of June. I always submit them soon as I can. I almost never got them this July as we got a new manager in when we all put our summer holiday requests in and she approved 2 others even though I was first to send them over, I did express I wasn't happy as we all generally take the same summer holidays every year. So she went back checked and I had submitted mine days before everyone else. So she had to go back to the 2 others and advise them only 1 of them could take the holidays. Luckily 1 of them moved theirs because their husband couldn't get those weeks. It is annoying and tbh I would have probably taken the other 3 weeks off instead but I knew I had submitted them first because it was like a minute after the email came out lol. We have a holiday tracker I manage for the team for 12 months so we can see when and how many people are off. On extreme cases my manager will allow an extra half day with 2 people off. My DD has to have 4 teeth extracted for her braces and they are doing it over 2 appointments so I asked for half days because 2 people were off and I know she will be in pain but my manager without even saying a word approved straight away xx

Deal breaker, you children are little for such a short time and to fully relax and have a break IMO you need two weeks. The fact that you can't have Easter either shows how inflexible and uncompromising they appear 😒 .If you have school aged children it is not like you can take them out of school officially.
Hope you get it sorted.

I tend to be off at least 2 out of Easter/ half terms/ Christmas plus 2 weeks in summer and not doing that would be a deal breaker for me.

Deal breaker for me.

As someone who managed a large team with only a few parents in it I always prioritised them

We don't do that as we have people whose partners work in schools and universities and want the same time off, and it's just a valid reason as kids imo.

You say your team is small (less than 10), but the issue seems to be that only one person can be off in any given week. That's incredibly restrictive.

Without knowing what you do, that's always going to cause issues around summer/school holidays/bank holidays etc. Even for those without children.

I would hate that sort of restriction (and I'm part of a small team that needs to ensure some sort of work cover year round).

Would be a deal breaker for me too. I would look elsewhere.

I wouldn't like this but then I don't think I have ever been refused my annual leave. Only a few of us in the team have kids so I guess that helps with holiday time.

Is this NHS? Our holiday rules are draconian. We have to request the entire year in January for the next AL year. No scope for.. oh I need to take a day here or I fancy a cheeky week there.
On the plus side, if you’ve been there more than 10 years the allowance is generous, particularly if you work part time at the end of the week so don’t have to use your bank holiday allowance.
It’s one of the reasons I stay in my job as AL is VERY important to me!
You need to decide if you can make it work… can you thrash out a week that’s popular by compromise or drawing straws with colleagues?

I work for a large company but a small team. We are not allowed month end off (a full week) so that narrows down leave by 12 weeks, we get about 6 audits a year for a full week each time, no time off allowed so that’s another 6 weeks so leave reduced by 18 weeks, not allowed the week off before Christmas, the week in between or the week after New Year (apart from the mandatory 3 days) so that 21 weeks leave is reduced by, so that’s 31 weeks for us all to squeeze our leave in. I have been here nearly 10 years and it changed after 3 years but is getting worse.

and these restrictions only apply to the department I work in, the rest of the site can book when they want. We also have to work bank holidays but told we can book them off if we want, but we can’t as they always fall on month end.

Exactly. Grossly unfair, for various reasons. Surprised you didn't get complaints about that policy.

It would be a deal breaker for me too. I use some annual leave in every school holiday and three weeks in the summer holidays. Luckily we can take our leave whenever we please.

Because those with kids should always get first refusal? I don't think so

For sought after days I get first refusal above my team, kids or not. That's life.

When i worked in reception at a drs surgery I used to put all my annual leave in as soon as we were allowed in January then book holidays etc .I had colleagues complaining when they tried to book a July holiday off in May that they couldn't.Early bird catches the worm.

Lots of posters talking about getting in as soon as leave year starts - first come first served isn’t a fair system! I’ve always asked my staff to all indicate what they want to take at popular times (school holidays, Christmas). If I can accommodate all requests, great. If not someone who had all the prime dates last year might not get the same this year. I’ve told people submitting Christmas requests a year in advance to cool their jets and wait until we can assess as a team around October.

That’s fair. My work closes down from Christmas Eve to 2nd January, but if we were open over Christmas I think taking turns would be reasonable.

I had two types of staff. The parents, 4 women who returned to work following children starting school. 70 to 80 younger people only 2 or 3 in long term relationships/married the rest early 20s....so it was easy to prioritise. And point out to the dumb asses that just because you always went on holiday in August when you were at school, it's perhaps not the best time when you ain't.