DSister and discrimination at work

[LupiPie]

DSister has just started a new job, about 2 months ago.

She put in her first request on Friday for 1 day of annual leave, as she has a wedding to attend of an old friend she is very close to.

It's been discovered by her that the office policy is a two step approval process.

Firstly, it's approved by the line manager, which it was straight away.

But then there is a list of all those with children under 16 in the department. She must then go around and approve it with them and make sure it doesn't fall anywhere that they'd need the time off because of child related events/inconvenient timing in their lives.

I'm baffled, and really don't know what to say.

Surely this is discrimination against those without children? Can they do this?

I'm struggling to find anything online for her

Thank you

I doubt it would count as discrimination, because not having children isn't a protected characteristic.

It's a bag of shite, though, and completely unfair. I would challenge it with HR and/or start looking for another job.

Wow. No idea what to say. As someone with DC that sounds one of the most ridiculous holiday policies I have ever heard of.

She did ask another colleague and apparently it's because people with kids can't just drop them, they're harder to work around, etc etc

Although a little bit redeeming is the fact that a colleague with no children but a carer to her Mum gets the same holiday check benefit as the people with kids

I suppose DSister only has her horse to work around responsibility wise, but I still think it's distasteful!

Is this a written policy produced by the HR lead?

Aside from being massively inefficient, it is just a recipe for building resentment within a team structure.

I’d ask to see the specific annual leave policy- I’d eat my hat if seeking approval for your teams is part of the official process!

*seeking approval from you peers, not teams!

The explanation her colleague has given is illogical. If the parent needs holiday, they'll surely book it as soon as they know about it, first-come, first served, so the manager would know already if someone was off that day.

If your sister goes round and checks it's OK, that doesn't stop a short-notice problem coming up for the parent after your sister has done her check.

That's a very odd one! I wonder if it was one of those things that made sense long ago in a tiny team eg. 5 people, as a way of making sure things were balanced out, but is utterly bizarre in a larger team.

Put up a notice?

What an odd system - it's first come first served where I am.

Talk about weak management. They've just abdicated all the fuss and any issues to the team to fight out amongst themselves rather than actually manage it as part of their remit.

That is shoddy.

The way you've describe the process makes no sense. Surely it's the other way around, ie. she is expected to discuss it with other members of staff first to check if they were intending to take that day off too, and then the manager makes the decision, however, if the request from the other staff is because of childcare responsibility, but they might give them preference.

If her manager has approved t he date, then surely it's that, approved.

What an odd and ridiculous policy, for all the reasons everyone has already mentioned.

Not unlawful discrimination though, as being childless isn't a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

Where I work, we check to see if anyone has already booked holiday first. Then it is first to ask is allowed to book their holiday.

I don't understand - so if there's a team of 17 in total, surely one or even two people having conflicting days off won't matter? What happens during the school holidays when people book in time off? Is it done on a priority sliding scale, those with zero alternate child care options/ those with younger kids?

It's complete madness! Surely the manager has a calender of holiday requests and then cover/leave is granted arranged around that? It's not down to staff to sort it out! A team of 4-6 may check amongst themselves or swap shifts but anything above that is unworkable.

The general consensus on here recently (similar situation) was that it's the manager's job to check staff resource balancing and ensure sufficient cover, then approve holidays according to who asked first, or to make the judgement call as to whether they could manage if several team members were on holiday at the same time. It isn't the responsibility of the team.

No way would I expect my team to do all that negotiation and horse trading of dates. It's a distraction, it's divisive and not reliable. It ends up descending into chaos.