HELP, NEED SOME NON BIASED ADVICE AS I AM TO CROSS TO THINK STRAIGHT

[Blondehelen]

I will try to summarise but am very cross so maybe long! (sorry)
I am a nurse manager in the NHS. The rule is no holiday is allowed for the 2 weeks of Christmas and New Year.
About a month ago a staff member came to me and said her sil had offered for her and her family to go to spend Christmas and New Year in Canada, all expensed. Said she hadn't been to sil for 15 years and she was the only member of her family who couldn't get time off.
I said to her that if she asked her colleagues and they didn't mind I would give her extra shifts leading up to the time so enable her to have the time off. I asked her to feed back to me.
Last week she came in and told me flights were booked from the 18th - 3rd Jan. I was cross then because she had only asked three colleagues and had not checked with me about dates. Anyway after a lot of fussing sorted out the time.

Today I have found out via a third party she has lied and her flights aren't booked. I don't even know now if she is planning on going at all, or if it is a ploy to get time off. Am cross with myself for being gullible

What do I do now? i want to ask to see her tickets but don't know if I am allowed and can't get hold of HR, and don't want to tell my boss yet because she wanted to discipline her for booking her flights without checking first and will fly off the handle

Sorry, thought it might be long

bump

please

oh well, never mind

Hi Blonde - in that situation I would suggest you talk on a 1:1 with said staff member. This calls for absolute honesty - tell her what you have heard. (It may not be true?). Explain the situation it puts you in (people should understand consequences of their actions). Allow her to respond and update her and then ask her how you should move forward with this with regard to honesty/openness in your working relationship. Plus - write it all down - but get her to write a summary of the conversation and send a copy to you (within a set time period - ideally 24hrs). This will mean you can truly see how she has interrpreted the conversation. It might start off uncomfortable but you are entitled to manage your team and standards are standards... Let us know how you get on.

Plus - arrange this meeting with her quickly and reinforce that the conversation is to ensure that there is a positive working environment in the team....

thank you. I am going to have to bite the bullet aren't I!

I'm shocked that no holiday at all is allowed over Christmas and New Year, is that a department rule or a hospital one?

DH and I both work in the NHS, and need to know quite a long time in advance of Christmas what the rotas will be, so that we can organise childcare. Dh's manager only publishes the rota two weeks before Christmas, leaving me no time at all to arrange time off if he's working.

As for your particular situation, I think ILN's approach is reasonable. You are entitled to expect honesty from your staff, particularly as this woman's colleagues will be doing extra over Christmas to cover her shifts.

You need to arrange a meeting with her, as soon as possible, and tell her what you have heard. Ask her for her side of the story, and ask for confirmation of the flights. If she cannot produce it, then she should be rostered to work over Christmas, as usual, and if she doesn't turn up, follow whatever disciplinary procedures you have to follow.

I have had to ask the junior doctors that I mange for proof of all the courses etc that they were planning to go on, when I discovered they were systematically swinging the lead! (I gave one Dr time off to go on a course, and hadn't told him I was teaching on that course- I was naturally surprised when he wasn't there!)