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 now work somewhere with unlimited holiday! So I don’t think I could ever go back to limited holiday and I certainly couldn’t cope with a week at a time!

there are heaps of jobs out there with way better holiday options so I’d be looking for something else op!

Deal breaker for me. I can accept some restriction (we have a busy month where annual leave isn't allowed) but it would be a childcare nightmare if i couldn't guarantee to take pretty much all my annual leave during school holidays.

How does this work? Presumably you have to get your work done and probably end up working longer hours sometimes.

But what if you were banking on taking a certain week off then you had a deadline to meet?

@Bjorkdidit yes that’s essentially it!

we can take time off when we want, its expected that we all know what work we have on and that we manage it in such a way that it gets done and we hit deadlines etc !

some weeks I know it’s quieter and I can get my work done in 4 days and I take a Friday off and pull my daughter out of nursery and we go do something nice together for the day!

other weeks I work late to get stuff finished

i managed to take a month off last year by planning really well and managing to get stuff handed over and in order before I could go!

How many days do you tend to take 9ff over a year? Are your days off monitored?

That would be a deal breaker for me.

its not number of days being monitored - more that your work is being completed properly and your not taking the absolute piss i suppose !! we have had people disappear off for holidays and not hand over stuff or manage work properly - and then they will be pulled up on that - this kind of way of working probably isn’t for everyone.

you do have to know yourself that if you want a particular week off and someone else is off already and that it won’t work for you to be off too - then you better not take it off!

I think last year I took around 8 full weeks off and then lots of random days where I worked a 4 day week here and there.

i think it works the same as any other workplace for holiday really? Like if you want a particular time off you make sure your work is handed over to someone else or is being covered somehow ( whatever the system is?)

What do you mean by 'work handed over to a colleague'?

If I asked a colleague to do my work for me so I could not go to work, they'd laugh and tell me to fuck off.

@Bjorkdidit well what do you normally do when your on holiday? Your work just doesn't get done ?

we are a team and we help each other out with sharing our work ! It’s not really asking someone to do my work - more that there’s a point of contact - someone else on team on my out of office - isn’t that normal? Someone who can answer queries instead of me?

if there’s projects we are working on then make sure that it’s all covered and nothing further needed from me?

isn’t that just normal when you go on any annual leave?

No my work doesn't get done while I'm not there, I wish.

I have my clients to service and unless something is a dire emergency anything that comes in just sits there until I return.

Colleagues have more than enough to do themselves so wouldn't have time to do my work for me and even if they did, they'd not do it.

Only time routine work is reallocated is if someone is on maternity or long term sick and that's a straw that breaks the camels back situation but temps aren't possible as it's very specialist.

🤷‍♀️ guess that kinda of leave wouldn’t work for you then !

That's fucking outrageous, and I'd have reported you.

It's not for you to decide parents come first. Holiday days are everyone's entitlement and everyone deserves a choice of when to take them.

I think it's common in the NHS etc, but would be an absolute deal breaker for me. If you have to take time off when they are in school, you can't go anywhere and you are looking for childcare for even more days in the school holidays.

It's only me and my manager where I work and we can't take leave at the same time. It's been Ok so far as neither of us has school-aged children to factor in. It can get hairy around Xmas time though.
In previous roles I got 2 weeks off because there was a larger staff team and people could cover.

I think it depends on your role. I now work to live in a fairly low paid role that is flexible and works around my family. Spending quality time with my DC is a priority and we are limited by schools on when we can do that. If my role didn't allow me to take time off during school holidags and I could find another role that did, I would.

Check with HR. If you were told you could take two consecutive weeks you should be able to. It would have been a factor in your deciding to take the job.
She wasn't told that she could though. The answer wasn't clear.

I haven't been here long but when I discussed this prior to interview etc, and i explained I liked my two full weeks off in the summer, I was told "it should be okay"
Why didn't you explore this a bit more at the interview stage? If it is really important to you and they have been quite non committal you should have pushed for clarity.

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. Wow!!! I would have reported you to HR for doing that. Why should only parents get the good holiday time?

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

First come, first served isn't always a good policy either. I wanted a week off at the end of August for a birthday. Somebody has already booked it, It was signed off in October 2023! They hadn't planned a holiday then, they just booked it.

I suppose it depends what level you work at and what’s normal in your industry and at your level.

It’s not tied to education or salary and really solely to industry.

Leisure, retail, hospitality I would expect time off to be a constant struggle. Same for NHS staff right up to consultant level.

However, in mine and my husband’s roles we have autonomy and can take holidays whenever - so I wouldn’t choose a job with these restrictions nor would I stay in one - because I wouldn’t have to. If I worked in one of the industries I’ve listed above though, I’d just know it’s part and parcel so I would.

I don’t know if I’m doing a good job of getting across what I mean!

I wouldn't be annoyed about not having 2 weeks in the summer but I would at least expect a week.

I think you need to find out when the holiday requests were made and whether if you missed people entering them at the start of the year they could make an exception for you as you weren't there so unable to do that.
I imagine in the interview they couldn't really confirm anything specific and I doubt they could have said that the other staff members also have children so the holidays are worked around everyone.

I think this is pretty standard however of only one person off at a time and it's the same where my husband works. We are usually those people that try to book well in advance to get the dates we want (I work term time only so also want him to be home for a family holiday during these times).

Not being allowed one full week during the school summer holidays would be a complete deal breaker for me.

I would expected to be allowed a fortnight every other year as well (fair enough if not everyone with kids can get 2 weeks every year as that might be impossible; my DH can only get it biannually at his current employer).

How long have you been there?

I would personally wait til the end of your probation and then quit at that point explaining the reason.

"Wow!!! I would have reported you to HR for doing that. Why should only parents get the good holiday time?"

That literally makes no sense @notacooldad

Why would any child free person choose to pay 2-3 times the price for their holiday just to go when everyone else is going?

Summer hols is not a "good" holiday time at all'

Annual leave is important to me and I like 2 weeks in the summer. Never been a problem.
I don't consider school holidays because my kids are grown up. I prefer to go in July, I don't care that it's school holidays here. I like to go away for my birthday and make sure I book in as soon as I can. Would move jobs if it became an issue.

It would be a dealbreaker for me. Once I got an offer for a job where 8 (separate) weeks were off limits for time off. I was single and child free then and even then it put me off- if I’m giving up my life to a company, I expect to be able to get time off when I want/ need ( with very few exceptions).

@LostittoBostik
*That literally makes no sense *
Why would any child free person choose to pay 2-3 times the price for their holiday just to go when everyone else is going?
Summer hols is not a "good" holiday time at all.
It can be, depending on what you are doing, who you are seeing and where you are going!

So you are saying that because I am child free I can never have leave to go to, for example the Edinburgh Fringe in August?

Why are you assuming that I am going to pay 2 to 3 times the price of a holiday to go when everyone else is going? Are you assuming that I am going to Spain, Florida or France for example? There are other countries that I go to in Europe each summer that is still reasonably priced to get to and has great accommodation and lovely weather. Why shouldn't I be allowed to book time off to go and meet my friends there in the summer break just because someone has kids. It should be shared out fairly.

So I go back to my question, why should I, as an employee, not be granted annual leave in July and August just because I don't have kids at school.
Hope this makes sense.

Deal breaker here, I spent years in jobs stressed about AL it's a nightmare. I never take 2 weeks off at once but have never had leave declined and a lot of the time in the summer having 2 people off at once isn't the end of the world. Trouble is often places like that also have high sick leave so always someone off with that too. Is it too late to say you pre-booked something before you joined?

If you have friends or family working in schools then it’s the only time you can go on holiday with them. If you have family with school aged children it’s the only time you can go on holiday with them.

If you want to have time off when it’s likely to be hot weather in the UK then that’s July/August. If you want to go to festivals or events in those months then you might need the time off for those. It’s a popular time of the year for weddings too.

Lots of reasons why people without school aged kids might want time off during school holidays!