Refused holiday

[Sam41]

Hi I work in retail and over the Xmas period we are not supposed to have holiday unless it's a special holiday etc........which must be put in writing to the store manager.

I put a letter in the beginning of January over 11 months notice- and my request was turned down - I put a second letter in for reconsideration which again was rejected. Due to being busiest time of year-

I am asking for 3 days off over a two wk period as I work part time.

Other staff have had Xmas off in years gone by : ie family holiday to oz, Florida etc. just depends what your manager is like.

I have never asked for Xmas off and this was supposed to be a special family break for my children as they are at an age to remember, financially ok, Xmas pressie,

Any ideas I am being unreasonable to put in greiance??

Either way none of you guys work in my store and haven't witnessed the past holiday or the understanding of a GOOD manager, it is the Store Managers discretion, a good manager could have come up with other ways I could have helped out in a way of making it fair for other staff ie: working late nights, extra day, loose pay as we are always looking for ways not to go over budget, it does not say written in OUR retail contracts that we can't request holiday, it says the manager must consider it, which my manager hasn't cause if she had of she would be aware of the days I work and they would not effect the business, I could understand if I worked full time, or I was at a higher rank where the business needed my expertise but that isn't the case- I could even reduce my days down to one and the manager would still say no - this is stubborn! The company I work for is well respected and in all my 20 yrs service the managers have been great, understanding, think it's just money saving! Plus stubborn. Like I said the manager could be moved on in 6months and the next manager could be fine with the request it's luck of the draw. I am a very good employee and I have good work ethics but this attitude is really making me see that no you are a number and the company doesn't care what you do and 100% attendance for 10 years counts for not a lot!!

Thanks for interesting comments

Well which is it? Either there is a policy somewhere saying you are not allowed holiday over Christmas, as you indicate in your first post, or the policy says your manager must consider holiday requests.

I'm not sure how the fact that your request hasn't been agreed automatically means she hasn't considered it, but presumably you've spoken to her, explained that you don't feel your days would affect the business and discussed it with her?

Completely agree with flowery, just because the manager hasn't agreed with you it doesn't mean they haven't considered it. You say a 'good' manager would find a way to let you take the holiday but the business probably considers a good manager to be one who applies company policy and creates profit.

The manager may have knowledge of upcoming payroll budget cuts or other factors which mean that they aren't able to agree to your request.