Can Employees dictate Holiday Entitlements?

[jojoh1979]

Hi,

New to the board and was wondering if you could give me some advice on a work issue.

I have been working for my company for 13 years as part of a small admin team. When I joined I worked full time along with another lady and since then we took on a new lady and all three of us covered the needs of the office in various ways.

After having my second child I went part time (bearing in mind there was 2 full time staff and myself part time). Well since then one lady retired and the other went on maternity leave and has since been made redundant so now the admin team consists of myself.

I took two weeks holiday abroad and additionally requested every mon/tue and thur off for the remainder of the school holidays to which my manager agreed to.

On return to my job after the holiday I was called in and told that it "wasn't working" and he never even agreed to this.

I made arrangements to come in on the Mondays as a gesture of good will and now on my return to normal school days have been told that I am not allowed to take my holidays in one lot like I have done this July/Aug and I need to make arrangements for summer 2014.

I am so angry right now as I feel that my loyalty to the company is obviously not recognised. I have not been given any gratitude financially or even verbally for my dedicated 13 years of service and the fact I have taken on the two ladies who lefts responsibilities on top of my own job and now to be told this.

Been as the admin department only consists of myself I don't feel they can tell me when I can and cannot take my holidays, as I cannot help the fact that they kind of "dropped me in it" so to speak as there is nobody to do my job when I am not here anymore, can anyone advise me on this please?

Hi. To be honest I think that although you've worked for them for 13 years, you do need to be reasonable in not expecting your leave to be able to be increased during school holiday times....unless they are a company which has natural lulls over those times. Part time and term time only is the holy grail of jobs for many mums and unless it was set up as a term time only job, I don't think they're being unreasonable in their demands. It doesn't sound as if they're saying you can't take a long holiday during the summer, just that you can't then take extra days and work very reduced hours during the entire summer. Sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear.

Nope you can request holiday but it will nearly always state in your contract that it is with line manager approval only
It's not great but at least you have a year to plan or next summer
Fwiw I work in retail and Christmas is basically off limits for hols despite everyone else having loads of time off and nursery being shut
It's not ideal but it is par the course

Hi, Yeah unfortunately I can see this after looking in my terms of employment.

Just feels I have been given a rough deal here as before the retirement/redundancy there was cover in the admin department but now it has been reduced to "JUST ME"

They're now basically telling me I cant take holidays over the summer break for any more than my actual holiday abroad.

I can't help the fact that the kids have so many weeks off in the summer, my parents help out as much as they can and childcare would cost me £50 a day which is more than my days wage is and we all know how unrealistic working tax credits payments don't we?

I don't think they are being unreasonable taking a years worth of holiday allowance in a six week period is an awful lot at once.
They have given you the heads up next summer you will be allowed two weeks and that will be it.
Yes childcare over the summer is not cheap, but you have to balance that cost against working all year.

Yeah I know, I did pre-warn them two months in advance and didn't take the "whole" 7 weeks off school it was days here and here so as to not leave them in the lurch and not to have to reply on grandparents all the time.

My argument now is going to be that been as I have taken on 2 additional persons workloads in the last six months and have not received any financial benefit for this, if they are willing to look at my salary and pay me a more respectable amount so as when it comes to next years school holidays I should be financially in a better place to be able to afford some kind of registered childcare over the holidays.

That's not really an "argument" though, more of a request isn't it, and it's a separate issue, as is the question of whether your workload is manageable or not on a day to day basis.

I think a year's warning gives you plenty of time to make childcare arrangements, and if you are the only person in the department it is obviously going to be more difficult to cover your post, meaning it was never going to be likely you were going to be able to take loads of time off in a short space of time.

Thanks everyone, going to have a long hard think of my options here. Just feel very taken for granted by the managers, my colleagues are all in agreement that I need to have a proper discussion over everything so I need to get my head round the issues I need to raise.

Nobody else would allow you to do this, 13 years or 25 years service.

Rather depends if the needs of the company were met . tbh if you are pt , taking 3 days each week off for 4-6 weeks seems to be very limiting in terms of productivity. I think you would be better off arguing that the maternity should be covered or you need extra resources than expecting this then you can arrange with another person to job share to cover extra time off in school holidays. Even if childcare means you earn relatively little over the holiday weeks, it is usually worth it on balance over the year. What will you do for other holidays now you have used up so much of your al ?

Yes I do work part time hours over 5 days, 30 hours which enables me to pick my kids up 3 afternoons a week and I am grateful for that.

But when then have reduced the admin team from 3 people (2 full and me part) now down to just me I cannot help this fact but feel extremely "put on".

My company was struggling but now the work has increased in the fact we have taken on new contracts in excess of £8 million since the redundancies were made a few months ago so the workload especially for me has increased.

I have barely taken any days off over the other school holidays thanks to the help of my parents and even been working on bank holidays (we do not get extra for this).

When I have taken these days off on the other school holidays, I can tell that my boss is not happy about this fact and even when I am not in the office I have been on the phone sorting out work associated problems on my own time and phone bill.

I have not been un reasonable in the fact I asked for the holidays two months in advance verbally and boss agreed to this and then to tell me he never remembers even approving them in the first place too (I know better to get in writing next time).

Sorry to be venting and probably boring you all but I have been genuinely upset about this today. My work colleagues who actually work with me day to day and know what I am doing for the company have been very sympathetic and cannot believe that he has said this to me the reply when I told them this was "what does he expect, he got rid of everybody else, what are you meant to do?"

"But when then have reduced the admin team from 3 people (2 full and me part) now down to just me I cannot help this fact but feel extremely "put on".

My company was struggling but now the work has increased in the fact we have taken on new contracts in excess of £8 million since the redundancies were made a few months ago so the workload especially for me has increased."

But that's nothing to do with holiday requests. You are doing what so many people do. People who have genuine reasons to feel aggrieved at work often have a tendency to allow that to cloud their view of everything their employer does. Then when the employer does anything the person doesn't like, the person views it as completely unreasonable, unfair etc when taken on its own, the decision is objectively perfectly reasonable, albeit disappointing for the employee in question.

It sounds like you have genuine valid reasons to be unhappy with things at work, in terms of your workload, but focus your energy on resolving those concerns, not on getting upset about something else which is entirely separate and objectively perfectly reasonable.