Employer doesn't want me travelling at Christmas

[covid4christmas]

My employer doesn't want me travelling at Christmas in case my return gets delayed- Neither country have travel restrictions, I'm fully vaccinated. Both countries are managing fairly well with covid, working on boosters and have high vaccine coverage.

I'm going to tell them to do one and go anyway, assuming the situation stays relatively the same as it is currently, but am I being OTT by being annoyed by this?

I follow all their covid protocols and I don't see how they can pre-emptively 'ban' me from travelling. The irony is my job can be done 100% remotely, but they won't let anyone. Wouldn't even let me do my job remotely last week when I had to isolate despite feeling absolutely fine and lost all my pay instead and a massive backlog of work created for them!

Christ, id be looking for a new job.

Yanbu!

It’s annoying, yes. My workplace required us to ask permission from the head of personnel before each trip last year. This is a job where people go abroad 3-4 times a month due to freelance engagements on the side of the main company.

This year we’re free to come and go but we better not be delayed on the way back. All of us have made a dozen contingency plans on how we’d get back should a border closure happen suddenly, because we can’t not show up on the planned day.

They can’t physically ban you from travel, but if you’re not back as planned then they can get cross.

I really hate when people get mad at you for things that haven’t happened yet.

Go. They don’t own you. If you can’t get back, deal with it then, it’s your choice entirely. Zero to do with them.

I do not think they can stop you from travelling while on leave.

But I do think it would be reasonable of them to say that you should bear the risks relating to any delay in your return or enforced quarantine on return should your destination be redesignated as a red zone country ie you should not expect them to pay you for any time you have to take off as a result of your deciding to travel in the middle of a pandemic.

….also just out of interest, why were you required to isolate last week if you are fully vaccinated and felt perfectly fine?

Well I take it you don't save lives and it's corporate bullshit? Unless it's NHS etc you can do from home.

What a pathetic situation!

@ugzbugz not all non nhs jobs are 'corporate bullshit' though are they? Also education, construction, manufacturing, food production and preparation, logistics and delivery, retail, the entire public transport network, highways, police and armed forces, hospitality, entertainment performance and production, architecture and planning etc.. DD has a new job which looks corporate on the face of it but still requires regular site visits and f2f meetings to resolve issues or large infrastructure won't get built...
OP, the boss concerned here can do no more than express a preference I think. And be grumpy when you get back.

@Weihnachtsmarkt

….also just out of interest, why were you required to isolate last week if you are fully vaccinated and felt perfectly fine?

She may have had covid but be well and perfectly capable of working from home.

They can’t physically ban you from travel, but if you’re not back as planned then they can get cross.

Yeah well as an employee, I'd be fucking cross if I was completely able to do do my job remotely but my employer wouldn't allow me when I had to isolate, and I lost pay as a result. What a shit show this organisation are.

It’s literally nothing to do with them.

I wouldn’t even think of telling my employer that I’m travelling in my own time.

Also I’d 100% be looking for a new job, this company sound terrible.

I work for a government agency, they ask people to "think carefully" about overseas travel and make it clear that if you have to isolate on return or get stranded, you will not receive pay for this time. We cannot work from home so its not an option sadly. My colleague was hoping to go to OZ to see family for first time since 2018 but now is worried in case travel rules change when there.

My workplace required us to ask permission from the head of personnel before each trip last year.

Overstepping the mark much? Your employer has no right to ask you where you're going for your holidays and as for asking permission like a child - just no. You would be absolutely right to tell them to do one.

Outrageous behaviour and can't believe previous posters are trying to justify it.

@MLMshouldbeillegal

My workplace required us to ask permission from the head of personnel before each trip last year.

Overstepping the mark much? Your employer has no right to ask you where you're going for your holidays and as for asking permission like a child - just no. You would be absolutely right to tell them to do one.

Outrageous behaviour and can't believe previous posters are trying to justify it.

They do have the right.

1. It’s legal where I live
2. We travel regularly, the company as a whole, and they couldn’t take someone if they’d recently been in X banned countries, so of course they’re going to monitor where the employees go. Otherwise the whole business gets screwed when Y and Z person can’t join the tour and end up disrupting everybody’s plans as a result.

Absolutely none of their business. This is laughable. As if they have the authority to know what you're doing with your A/L

When swine flu happened, my then employer insisted that anyone going abroad had to have 10 days holiday in hand, just in case they had to quarantine, or be prepared to take unpaid leave.

@MintJulia this is fair enough though, 2 weeks additional leave can't be expected to be picked up by your employer. I work for the civil service and I guarantee the public would be up in arms at the cost to the tax payer of paying for quarantine that was at the individuals choice.

Will they be paying you extra in order to compensate you for these new requirements of your role?

Why did you have to isolate recently?

It is my employers policy that if travelling abroad you tell them, in order that they can have a contingency plan in place should you either get stuck abroad or require to isolate on return. This was introduced last year and hasn't been cancelled.

It wasn't about asking permission it was so they could have a plan b incase rules changed last minute and isolation was required.