Holiday requests and 'priority'

[lastnightIwenttoManderley]

Hi All,

I'm married to a teacher so, although no children as yet, we're tied to school holidays. I put in a request for holiday at work, having checked the holiday calendar to see if anyone else already had it booked.

I get a response from one of my directors saying 'oh, well that's half term so I will need that off to look after the kids'. This director is well aware of my husband's job and the tone of her email very much implied that 'I have kids so I get priority'. I wouldn't mind if she'd booked it first, fair game (unless she had booked every single half term and holiday!) but it's also annoying as I need director (i.e. her) sign off for my holiday!

I work in a very male dominated industry and none of my female colleagues bar this one (who is new) have children so this is slightly new territory for us as a company. I'd be interested to hear how other companies manage and whether people with kids automatically get priority regardless of the circumstances of others?

Should be first come first served IMO. Equal priority

First come first served, although for half term a bit of checking out other peoples plans and divvying up on a "I had last, you can have this one" basis.

Should be first come first served. Although at my pace my boss gets priority on Easter, half terms and august. We are a small team and she's the only one who has kids. Others complain but it suits me. I'd rather holiday out of school holidays anyway.

I agree Bumply - first come first served but if others need the dates to cover childcare / other commitments etc then a discussion needs to take place regarding fairness & who had it last time etc.

Can you not both be off at the same time? Or agree that she's off this half term but you'll need Easter / next half term off therefore she's plenty of notice to sort childcare? Presumably she does this anyway in some way as there are a lot of school holidays to cover.

I own the business and intended to take summer half term off, however, I hadn't yet put it on the board. One of my staff then asked for this time off I confirmed her holiday request and sucked it up my fault for not putting it on the board.

but you want holidays with your other half, so you need school holidays too, does she know that?
and can't you both be off?

Maybe email back with "Oh, sorry, as it wasnt marked off the board, I assumed it would be first come first served. Please could you let me know which of school holidays would suit for me to take a week off?" Amd seewhat she responds.

when I worked in a huge organisation, it was never first come first served Im sorry to say. It went in order of seniority, then within each 'rank' it was according to length of service with the company (I had priority over a particular colleague because I started the day before him), then if two colleagues had equal claim (ie same grade and started on the same day) someone with children would get priority over someone without. Also, if a junior member of staff had leave agreed but at a later date a more senior person decided they wanted that leave, the junior person had their permission for leave revoked, and the senior person got it instead.

So to be honest, what you've described sounds fairly standard to me, although it is very very annoying if you are at the bottom of the heap.

You know you're stuffed, OP. She's the boss so she gets first choice.
Presumably you don't both want to away 13 weeks/yr, at least.
I find at my employer that EVERYONE goes on holiday in August regardless of having kids or not; the workplace nursery has an enforced shutdown for 2 weeks in August whether you like it or not. It's very frustrating if you want to come to work in August & there are no colleagues to confer with. URK.