Take a few afternoons off for life admin

[Davidpuddyy]

I want to take 4 half days off for life admin:

buying a house so need to see solicitors and banks.
need to speak to the sons schools about stuff
general life admin that I need to sort

i took 2.5 days off during Easter a total of 5.5 days since the start of the year.

Am I being lazy - I don’t want to run about trying to fit things in and then come back to a a dozen messages on the teams chat wondering where i am.

They’ve only done 4 replies, and it was a sarcy comment not a changing story.

No one cares what their colleagues are doing with their annual leave. As long as it's planned and not causing workload issues, but that's standard for leave.

Of course this isn’t BU. It’s your annual leave, you use it for anything you need.
so what if people get pissy about you using it, it’s down to your line manager to authorise it (well that’s how it works for me, shouldn’t really assume it’s the same for everyone) and if they do then it’s fine.
I’ve taken 5 days so far this year, 3 of them used for fun stuff and 2 for really boring but necessary life admin things.

Yes, and they changed. What is your issue?

You can use your annual leave however you want. Who is suggesting you can't.

I made a simple comment to read OPs posts because you hadn’t read the OPs posts properly… it’s you that’s taken issue with it. But this is a discussion forum so we carry on talking…

Because as I said they were posting while I was writing. I have no idea why this is such a big issue to you but you’re boring me.

Annual leave is to do what you wish. I wouldn’t waste it on life admin though as I do things like that on lunch breaks. But it’s up to you!

chill out 😂

Not at all, I take a day off here and there throughout the year when kids are in school and DH is working just to do some life admin, maybe treat myself to a nice lunch as a reward. As long as it’s within your leave allowances and you’ve given notice then why not. I don’t explain to work why I’m taking time off.

Why do you want to take 4 half days instead of 2 full days?

Do you work somewhere that you have to give a reason to take your holiday entitlement?

Why are you needing to ask?

So what? You can't live your life trying to please others.

That is what I thought but it’s going to take at least 2 hours, so I thought I’d take the afternoon off

I do this quite frequently. I thought most people do? I also often take the day off when the kids first go back to school at the start of term. I spend the day either on the sofa watching Netflix or doing something nice like going to a spa.

So what? It’s your annual leave. Take it however you want. This is such a non-dilemma.

What the hell is life admin. work?

Why half days? Why not take 2/3 full days? I think that’s less disruptive.

If it's annual leave what's the issue? And why say "you caught me"?

All of the admin tasks to do with home (bills, children, the pets etc etc.) that are a chore when working full time too. OP is going through a house purchase, so there’s additional admin to get through right now.

No, you're not being lazy, you're trying to make sure things are done correctly, very important when buying a house. And it's your annual leave, you can spend it how you like.

In my case I’m selling a house which was left partly to me in a will but needs selling as the other beneficiaries want the cash, I’ve had a lot of meetings with solicitors (scheduled in during my lunch breaks or after work mostly) and then sorting out an estate agent - luckily the solicitor has done most of the work from then on in but I had to be at the house to meet the various estate agents and unfortunately it’s 2 hours away from me so not something that could be done in my lunch hour. I took the time that day to really maximise all the stuff that needed doing while I was there and met the solicitor for an in person meeting but yes I’ve had to take actual leave for it.
Most other personal admin stuff I can do in my lunch breaks or in the evenings and I try and save my leave for mostly fun stuff because I still have a dc at school and there are looooong holidays to fill but there are times where I have to accept that leave needs to be used for boring but essential things. It sucks really!

You’re not being lazy and you don’t need to justify it. Use one afternoon to watch telly in bed if you feel like it!

Can't understand why anybody would need to ask this, it's standard use of annual leave.

Yeah, I guess workplace culture factors into this. I've worked at one place where I don't think they'd have liked it. Everywhere else they've not really cared when people took their leave, though, as long as sufficient notice was given. Hopefully workplaces are getting a bit more relaxed about this sort of thing.