AIBU To Take 2 days Annual Leave for dog getting neutered

[ML5]

Getting our dog neutered next week so have to take Annual Leave for when he goes in & also the next day when he’s at home.
What are your thoughts on this?

What the fuck? Annual leave is taken for any reason and doesn’t need to be approved or even notified as to why. I never tell my boss why I’ve taken a day off, I just request it.

if you want to take annual leave to spend the day in bed, neuter your dog etc etc it makes no odds to anyone but you and on this occasion, your dog!

Do you ask your line reports why they are taking the annual leave they are legally entitled to? I sincerely hope not. It is nothing to do with you.

Or are you the manager from the thread a few weeks back who denied the request because the OP wasn't getting home until 10pm on Sunday?

No one has ever asked me why I’m taking leave, unless it naturally comes up in conversation. You don’t need to justify yourself to your manager or colleague, and anyone who makes judgements, particularly managers, are a bit of a liability and require training. Are there any other issues in your workplace?

But how would the manager know? I approve holidays of my team without giving them the third degree about why.

Not unreasonable, it's important for the dog and they need looking after.

Tell her you just fancy it. Your AL is yours to do as you please. Why on earth are you getting yourself ties in knots about someone you work withs opinion

Why would a manager need to know the reason for annual leave?

If your colleague takes issue with you taking time off for this they are just weird.

You’re entitled to paid leave and can take it for whatever reason you like. I don’t understand why you are asking the question tbh.

I suppose the manager might want to know about why because it is quite short notice. If the shifts were going be hard to cover lots of other people were off already then they might take the reason for the annual leave into consideration as to whether to grant it or not.. but generally annual leave is for whatever you like and if it’s not difficult to cover your work, then the manager shouldn’t be concerned about why. Probably, from a business point of view, they shouldn’t be interested in why anyway and should just not grant it if the shifts are going be difficult to cover no matter what reason you want to have the leave but that feels a bit mean to me.

Annual leave is for whatever you want it for.

I’m a manager and I never ask my team what they’re taking time off for. It often comes up in conversation though, but I honestly am not bothered what they are doing! I might ask if they’re going somewhere nice if they take a week or more but that’s all.

I would also take leave to look after my dog.

But people only have a finite amount of AL and the OP doesn't seem to be suggesting they're going to take extra leave for this, just that they'll use some of their AL allowance to look after their dog. What difference does it make if staff use their allowance to go on holiday, paint the house, look after pets, sit on the sofa watching trashy TV? As long as it meets the usual criteria for AL being approved (not leaving the place short-staffed etc) then I don't see why it's anything to do with the employer.

If anything, it's better that the OP takes the time off to focus on looking after her pet instead of doing a half-arsed job and/or trying to leave early because they're distracted.

Exactly. It wouldn’t matter if she was taking a week off to scratch her bum!

It isn't a ridiculous use of AL you have a life outside of work and you have a pet who us having an operation and needs looked after, isn't AL yours to take as and when you need. I don't know what that poster was talking about.

But annual leave is there as part of your contract - it's not for your manager to determine whether or not your reason for taking it is 'good enough'. Fancying a couple of days binge-watching Netflix and eating chocolate is 'good enough'.