furious with boss over annual leave

[goodgrief54]

I am so annoyed. I have been offered the chance of a free holiday next year and said to my boss I want to go any time for two weeks in school summer holidays but need book asap or will lose opportunity. . She has turned round and said as she wants to go away some time at start of July and she needs to check with family she is staying with when they will be off that I cannot book anything. She has no school age kids and can go any of the other 50 weeks of the year!! I know legally I have no rights but surely this is beyond reasonable! !!

"flowery no - being the boss does not entitle you to stop other people (who are related to you only in that they report to you at work) from organising their time a year in advance."

Well, in most workplaces, the boss decides whether to authorise holiday requests, by taking into account business requirements etc etc. so yes actually, it does entitle you to refuse to agree requests so early on. No employee is entitled to take holiday on days of their choosing, which by definition means that yes bosses are entitled to either refuse holiday requests altogether, or refuse to consider them so early.

As you think the boss is not entitled to refuse to agree this request, I'd love to hear what you think the OP should do about that.

Oh, and just to say, I absolutely agree that wanting to keep a large block of time free just in case for her own holiday is not a good reason for not agreeing the OPs request, and is not the behaviour of a good manager. It doesn't sound like there is any good reason the manager can't allow the OP to book later in the summer.

But there are tons of good reasons why a boss would not agree requests this far out, and plenty of good bosses who wouldn't be in a position to agree a request at any given time, and they would all be 100% entitled to do so, as long as the correct notice of refusal was given.

As a senior manager with lots of holiday requests to deal with I think she is being completely unreasonable. Do you have staff guidelines on annual leave? Surely they need to fit around business requirements, not the managers whim for her own potential leave.
Do you have a HR department you can query this with?

Agree with shopgirl1. Plus , different people cover my leave to toes who I manage so we aren't even in the same 'pot'.

*those

Similar situation in my place. I'm having to wait to see if I get days off in November so I can sit next professional exam. Can't register for classes until I know I have the exam day. Have a deadline if end of week to register.

Boss knows this yet still is hanging on.