Have to work during my agreed AL

[Sillyquestion123]

I’ll start by saying I really like my workplace and we have a very generous AL which includes being off for two weeks in December.

When they announced this, HR requested that we should reschedule our AL if we had already requested it for those two weeks , so I did.

My workload varies massively as I have a portfolio of clients and they can come up with requests at any given time (so sometimes it’s hard to plan).

So I ended up working 3 previous days that I was supposed to be off, and I’ll definitely be working this coming two too.

so AIBU to feel annoyed? I’m still sort of old school in the sense that I can I’ll do things and I WFH, so the lines are even blurrier.

Unfortunately I won’t and AL won’t be rolled over to the next year (and it expires in December)

Well, you don’t work when you are on AL and your manager should be arranging cover.

You are legally allowed to carry over 5 days of AL into the next year.

Legally? My workplace don’t allow this.

Are you on your own AL this week and have the next two weeks off ( starting Mon 22 December ) mandated by the company?

I can see the client/companies position if that’s the case; three weeks of nothing being done is a stretch but it should have been your company who said no personal holidays concurrent with the Christmas break.

Mine doesn’t either hence I’m off now until Jan!

I have to agree it sounds like a terrible place to work OP!

But that doesn't help right now.
Whats your managers response when you remind them you're on AL?

'Derek/Janice - I'm currently on leave as the company mandated. Can you please clarify whether I am getting paid overtime for this work, or how I claim the hours back?

In writing.

It would appear the problem is that OP has no boundaries and refuses to stick up for her legal entitlements and her employer has cottoned on to this and is taking full advantage.

I actually didn’t know I could carry it over, I’ll look into that as I do feel they “played us” a little bit.

I’m in theory off two day this week (from today).

our manager said we had to be “aware” of our inbox the next two weeks

Call ACAS helpline. Your manager can't make you be aware of anything work-related when you are on AL.

AL rollover is a common exception made in my office. If you're cancelling leave for business reasons you shouldn't have any problem taking it in Jan or Feb instead. It can always be fudged if need be, just ask your manager on a phone call not in an email.

The rules are "strict" to stop people saving up huge amounts. Moving a bit by a week or three to accommodate your work should be - and 100% would be at my work - appreciated not punished

You tell them no, this is my paid annual leave and I won't be aware of my inbox. You need to learn to say this and not just accept unfair terms and conditions.

I guess they can because it’s technically not AL but the two weeks they decided to “close” the office. No AL entitlement is used during these two weeks

I guess they can because it’s technically not AL but the two weeks they decided to “close” the office. No AL entitlement is used during these two weeks

I work in payroll. I am not aware of a legal entitlement to carry over 5 days of annual leave.

There is a legal entitlement to be able to carry over up to 4 weeks of unused leave in certain circumstances eg. you have been on sick leave or maternity leave.

There is also a legal entitlement to carry over leave if your employer has not allowed you to take all of your leave for some reason. Again it is up to 4 weeks.

Ok so they have closed office for 2 weeks but you dont have yo use any of your annual leave and your being paid?

In which case, you need to get some clarity on what it means.

If it's working from home time, then you can request annual leave if you don't want to WFH.

Oh I think this is where people are confused, certainly I was. You said in your OP:

When they announced this, HR requested that we should reschedule our AL if we had already requested it for those two weeks , so I did.

So I assumed you meant that you had been told to take/save some of your AL so that they could close the office for that period. I have certainly worked for companies where your AL includes 3 company days which have to be taken in the days between Christmas and NY so the office can be closed.

However, from what you are saying now it sounds like the next two weeks are in addition to your AL, hence your manager does feel entitled to ask you to work. I suppose if you had insisted on using some of your AL for that period you would be within your rights to refuse to work, but it sounds like the situation wasn't made clear, especially if HR requested you reschedule existing leave requests.

I agree it sounds a bit like you have been played. Or at least it wasn't properly explained or you misunderstood

I assume you are finding this out through looking at your work email or messages to your work phone. Both of which should be firmly off during your annual leave!

Exactly! So I originally had requested some AL during the two week period to not have to work under any circumstances but then HR told us to cancel that AL as we had the new “mandate”.

Have you seen the many threads here about the state of the job market??
The way things are and with AI a massive threat to jobs you say yes sir no sir and do everything you can to appear to be indispensable

And when the next round of redundancies happens or jobs can be lost to AI management will remember who was non contact
That is the REAL world

I work in a business service role (bookkeeping, minute taking, business admin etc), self employed so don't have to book AL as an employee. However, if I know I have a holiday or scheduled time off coming up, I always make sure I regularly remind my clients of that.

2 months prior - email signature includes upcoming leave dates. Emails sent to clients that have regular (monthly/bi-monthly) meetings etc that could potentially fall in that time. I offer to bring forward, push back or hire a cover.

1 month prior - during weekly check ins, I remind of a/l and ask that all required work be sent in asap for completion to be guaranteed before my leave.

2 weeks before a/l I set a cut off date for any new work requests.

The week prior to my a/l is allocated specifically for work already set (with a little bit of discretion for emergencies).

Now that we have Christmas coming up, I've done a similar thing. Spoke to them all to advise my shut down dates, asked about their own shut down plans over Christmas and advised cut off dates for work requests.

If the clients success is tied to your own, what the hell would happen if you had an emergency operation tomorrow?? Your company doesn't seem to have a very good business continuity plan in place if you're struggling to have proper annual leave without it affecting their clients.

It's not AL and you've been told to keep an eye on the inbox. I actually think that's fair enough! If you have spare AL then ask HR to move it to next year as you didn't realise christmas didn't require you to save your AL.