AIBU to be sick of my manager continuing to pester me about taking holidays?

[LeaderBee]

Normally wouldn't be so much of an issue but i'm planning on getting a pet but the breeders will only have them available at specific times of the year and is dependent on when mum is pregnant, gives birth and then an 8 week waiting time to release them to me.

Manager is pestering me to take holidays "around the time" that it MAY be available, but until the breeder gets in touch with me to confirm babies have even been born, I can't really commit to a date.

If i book the time off and it lines up, fine, but if it doesn't then i've used holiday i didn't need to take, then, because someone else has holiday planned, I wouldn't be able to book time off again until much later in the month, meaning i wouldn't be able to pick them up for a further 2-3 weeks after they were initially available.

It's really beginning to bug me because I feel like i'm being pressured to take holidays that might not line up with when I need to take time off to take care and bond with a new animal.

How annoying that they want notice to cover your work.

thats it, all i need is confirmation that its been born because then I can plan my leave around the usual 8 weeks release date.

bit extreme from just one post, dont you think?

Indeed. But in the meantime if others get in and book that time off first what do you expect your manager to do about it?

Surely your breeder knows the due date..

Well yes but is the mother currently pregnant? If so, when are you thinking you’ll need to take your leave? Because if it’s likely to mean the time off you want is during school holidays, if you don’t book it now you’ll probably be turned down.

can you not book the time now then change the dates when you’ve got 8 weeks notice?

I think you're being unreasonable just because you are buying whatever the pet is from a breeder. I can't think of many pets where "adopt, don't shop" doesn't apply.

Well they would, if the animal was already pregnant. Bit trickier otherwise.

What does your company policy say about booking leave? Follow it's instructions around booking leave.

we are all assuming it’s a cat or dog. In that case, 9 weeks gestation followed by 8 weeks until can come home with OP. So if the mother was getting pregnant now, the OP would be looking to bring her new pet home first week of October. Fine. Except if the dog/cat takes another one to two weeks to get pregnant, the OP would be looking to take time off over the end of October, start of November. Which is school holidays and if she’s likely to want those dates, 8 weeks might not be enough time to be the first to book in.

Similarly if the cat/dog is already pregnant and there’s a chance the OP might need time off over the school summer holidays, this needs booking asap. Also if she works with lots of people who have dcs first starting school, early to mid September might be hard to get if you don’t book it asap.

OP - how easy is it to change leave dates at your work? If they are flexible with changing leave and there’s a chance you might need time off that covers the October half term or summer holidays, book it now and then change it later once dates are confirmed. I think at most work places, it would be easier to book off October half term then change to the week before than leaving it until the last minute and trying to get those dates.

YABU not to get a rescue.

8 weeks is young to get either a puppy or kiiten which suggests its not a very reputable breeder. Have you checked? I know its not the topic of the thread but i am seeing so many people caught out by backyard breeders and ending up with sick puppies and kittens.

I understand @LeaderBee what you are saying but try to think of this from the managers point of view here. Also - how much notice do you have to give? How many people are in the team and have to be considered here? Do you have to cover someone and does someone need to be available to cover you.

I work for the nhs

I like manage 6 people and I have to match up with my manager who has another manager she buddies with and my equivalent on her team does the same.

When the new holiday year is bookable - so every January for the following March to April, we always ask people for their preferences in the first week of January for annual leave for the year and we have a holiday meeting and look at it all and work out what can be authorised and try to be as accommodating as possible. We have all worked for the nhs for a while and they are generous with leave (a full timer with max entitlement gets 33 days)

I usually know when I want the bulk of my leave off as I have to work round school holidays, my kids childminder being off and my partner.

What we say is that if people don’t submit their preferences in the January then it can’t be taken into account with the initial planning and then basically people are left with what is left available as we can’t all be off at the same time. We are also required to give 6 weeks notice unless it’s the odd day or an emergency.

Once we have looked at it all and it’s then authorised it goes on the holiday charts in our offices and onto the system so that everyone is aware.

The Holiday is then reviewed by us quarterly (the system runs reports) and so during the first 3 months of April, May and June - we are expected to have taken/ or have booked a quarter of our leave allowance, by the end of the second quarter - we’re expected to have taken or booked half our entitlement. If someone refuses to take or book leave this is escalated my manager who has a conversation with them as to why they aren’t booking leave - this has only happened a couple of times as to be fair we all generally know when we want to be off.

This is to avoid getting to January and people having 3-4 weeks to cram in which can cause a huge problem.

I think you just need to think of the whole team really that’s the issue.

I’m a manager, this wouldn’t phase me at all purely because if an employee was hesitant about booking leave, it would only be them that lost out if they got to the crucial time and I wasn’t able to authorise it because of insufficient staffing. Not putting some leave in at all potentially risks a colleague getting in their first but it might work differently in your organisation.

It sounds like OP completely understands that leaving it a bit late means she will have to work around colleagues who have already booked their leave and is OK with that. OP said if others have already booked leave, she may need to leave with the breeder for another 2-3 weeks, in which case OP, YANBU. This wouldn’t be an issue where I work as long as you weren’t demanding other people cancel their leave to accommodate you - which it doesn’t sound like you are!

As your manager I wouldn’t be happy with this either. My staff know that we can only have so many people off at the same time and requests are just that, requests. Also if they don’t have a certain percentage of holidays booked after four months we start allocating them so we can spread them out accordingly and not get to the end of the year with loads of people trying to fit in the days they have left.

The danger is too that if you want 2 weeks off together especially over the summer someone might have eg
first week of August off
then someone might have 3rd and 4th week off
leaving only 2 week in the middle

I think you need conformation of the breeder
is the animal pregant yet and if this hasn’t actually happened it’s all pie in the sky

Thanks, thats exactly right.

My reason with wanting to get as much time as possible with my newpet when it is young is thst it is not a dog or a cat, it is an exotic animal that probably no more than a couple of hundred people in the UK own and that bonding time is crucial.

The breeder has let me know that mum is pregnant anf due to birth any day now so im hoping to get some clarification very soon.

I will obviously let my manager know as soon as i can but these animals are seasonal breeders and are only in heat for a couple of weeks of the year.

So what arrangements have you got for looking after this pet after your leave is over?

so 8 weeks from now would mean you are booking prime holiday season of first 2 weeks of August.

In you case, why wouldn’t you just book that tomorrow even if the pet hasn’t been born? Particularly if your work would let you change your exact dates once booked (presuming your new dates are free).

You know you’ll definitely need the 2nd week of august (assume being a week overdue is about the limit you could expect). Why wouldn’t you risk a colleague getting in first with their request if it’s so important to be at home with your new pet that week?

Basically OP you aren’t being clear, either it’s really important you are at home with this new pet for the first 2 weeks (so you probably could do with reserving the time), or it’s ok if someone else goes to work tomorrow, books the first two weeks of August off and you can’t have any leave until your new pet is 10 weeks old.

in the school holidays and high demand leave periods, it’s usually easier to cancel leave that book it in. I don’t understand why if this is important, you wouldn’t just book roughly the dates then move them a bit when new pet is born.

Is it a skunk?

Tell your manager that if you miss out, you miss out and you can't book it yet.
If it's a sugar glider, please get two. If an owl, have you got the full set up? (I still don't agree with keeping them) I did wonder if it was a parrot of some sort, I've got a cockateil. @CaesarAugusta if it is a bird there's YouTube channels dedicated to keeping them company, that you leave on when you go out.

IME no ones job gets covered when you go on leave cos you come back to a full inbox even if you use an out of office redirection!!! But then IME unless something significant is planned, taking leave is no real issue even at short notice.

So I suspect it depends where you work and what you do.

Are you customer facing? Would you role need cover? If yes to either, then c8weeks notice is typically required. Sorry but the breeder can give you a relatively accurate window.

Is it a panda?