Assigned Annual Leave

[MidnightBlue28]

Hi

This might not seem like an issue, but it is to me (and yes I am probably being very precious).

I had my annual leave entitlement emailed to me yesterday. On the bottom of the message it said: You may be allocated holiday if you have not put in a request before the 30th September 2019.

While I understand and appreciate the benefits of taking holiday, and if I need to I might take the odd day here and there, I have never been one for taking time off just to lounge about (I travel like a very bad wine!).

We get Bank Holidays and Christmas to Jan 2nd off and for me that’s more than enough (unless, as I said I need an odd day or two for something).

I can’t recall anything in my initial contract about this (we are all awaiting new contracts at present), so what would be the legal position if I refused their allocation?

You want to take your holiday at another time or you don’t want to take it at all?

I can’t recall anything in my initial contract about this (we are all awaiting new contracts at present), so what would be the legal position if I refused their allocation?

So you don’t want to take the holiday at all and would rather come into work?

They can force you to take holiday or alternatively, you could tell them you’d rather work it and see what they say. If I were your boss though I’d send you home and make you take it to avoid any risk you’d come back to me and claim you’d been denied the right to take it.

More fool you though, you get paid for them so why not take them.

They are obliged in law to give you a certain amount of holiday, and they aren't allowed to pay you in lieu. So yes you would have to take the allocated holiday.

They can force you to take your holiday and at a specified time if they wish. It’s considered to be in your best interests, health wise, to have time off from work to recooperate and relax.

Do you ask to be paid for any holiday that you don't use, OP?

I've sent someone home before now that came into work on an allocated holiday -it's not good for your mental health to be at work all the time

Your employer has a responsibility to be mindful of your welfare. Not taking your holiday entitlement isn't good for your mental health.

What kind of work are you in? I know that in some professions, employers insist on employees taking x number of consecutive days off as it helps to highlight any fraudulent practice (not that I'm suggesting for a second that your employer is thinking that of you!).

In my experience, yes you are obliged to take holidays each year or lose them. Saying you don't want to take them, leaves them in a poor position. You could decide , a few years down the track, that you want all of those untaken holidays, throwing their planning into disarray. Or you could decide to put in a complaint that they didn't let you have them.

If you love work so much, why not take the holidays and spend the time volunteering for a worthy cause ?

I am an administrator for a charity.

I don’t want or ask to be paid it; I am happy to lose it (as I did last year - we now have new management). I am much happier to just to work.

If they are sensible they will not only allocate it to you but will send you home if you turn up anyway.

It is very well-documented that annual leave is vital for mental health, physical health, general wellbeing, and improves productivity and performance at work.

If you don’t want to laze around or don’t want to/can’t afford some kind of active holiday, spend the time volunteering as pp suggested. That way you’re still busy and people who are vulnerable or in need in some way will also benefit.

Thank you all for the viewpoints, I will take onboard what you have said.

You legally have to have a minimum number of annual leave days (or hours, if your workplace calculates leave in hours). If your workplace gives leave over and above the legal minimum, then they can allow you to waive that leave at their discretion, but they can't circumvent the law, which states that you must be given 5.6 weeks annual leave (28 days for 5 day per week workers, or 210 hours for 37.5 hour per week workers).

An example is that in the NHS, we can 'sell back' our annual leave to our employer if we don't want to take it, but we can only sell back leave that is in excess of the legal minimum. We can't sell back our statutory entitlement, which must be taken as leave.

Why don't you want to take your leave, OP? It's quite unusual. I get 30 days with TOIL on top and I'd happily take some more!

Is there some reason you want to be in the office?

Is there some reason I want to be in the office? Yes. You’ve made me think about it and, being brutally honest, I think it is down to ‘imposter syndrome’.

I have been bullied in two previous roles; told I wasn’t good enough and insulted. I have anxiety and a disability, and feel I need to work twice as hard to keep up. I keep waiting for everything to go wrong, no matter how different this employer is, no matter how many times they tell me how pleased they are with me and my work.

My issues, not theirs, and only I can do something about it. Thank you for making me look at this a different way.