Excessive a/l

[NigellaSeed]

I have one of them "good problems"

I'm returning to work from mat leave- I was full time and now I'm part time - I've accrued over 250hrs of a/l - it's probably just under my actual working hours until march 22. Is this right? If I book it all off I won't really be back at work except for a few days? Can I ask them to pay me the extra that I don't need?

I don't know if I should ask HR yet..

Bump

I would return as full time, take the annual leave which will then be about 6 weeks I assume. So take 6 weeks full pay then start your part time hrs after this. But you will have to arrange all that with HR.

What's your part time hours/days?

Is this quite common then? And people book off weeks so they return later? I didn't know any of this and I'm guessing it's too late for me, as I started at the beginning of June but due to them not updating my system I wasn't able to start booking my leave until now - so this is why I've only just realised I have so much.

I've started booking leave from now until march and honestly my schedule looks ridiculous I'm only in 3 days a week and with this leave on top- I'm gonna be on leave more than at work. Which is as I say a nice problem - but how will I ever retrain in my role and get back into the swing of things? :S

16 hrs. And it was I think about 270 hours a/l.

I was suspended on full pay before I went on mat leave and they carried over some hours, about 30 I think, plus what I earned on leave, plus this year's leave.

Is that right? It seems too much.

Does the 250hrs include your PT entitlement for the year we are in?

Most people use their accrued annual leave to get paid for the month before they return. Considering the last 3 months maternity leave is unpaid it makes sense to use annual leave for this period or some of it.

73 earned. 183 credited. 37 carried over

So 270hrs leave, and you work a 16hr week. So that's about 17 weeks leave.

Very generous!

I'd use one day every week to bring me down to a 2day week for the next 4 months, then put in some full weeks / fortnight's, then keep a week or two in reserve for emergency days.

Oh I had no idea. How do people know to do this?

I used my accrued a/l to work parttime but paid full time for nearly a whole year after returning. It let me return to work and get the adult interaction I wanted but still spend lots of time with ds and reduce nusery fees.

First step is to ask hr what options they are willing to consider then decide, they might or might not buy back, depending on your work pattern /business needs they might not agree to using them in certain ways.

My dp accumulated a lot of leave last year due to lockdown. It had to be used by January but because December was so busy , so leave was allowed , so they just paid him for it instead.

Okay I think I need to speak to HR then because I don't think I could ever re learn my job working one day here, one day there. I've tried booking days off once a week and then some random fortnight's and I've still got 75 hrs and honestly my schedule is just silly.

Ive had a few issues returning to work and everything seemed like it was now getting on track - but this is just another thing I didn't know about. :(

Hopefully they will pay me for some of it then- thanks. Honestly I don't know why I don't know these things (like booking a month off before you return) but I guess you don't know what you don't know

Some places will pay you for it so won’t (or might pay for some but not all) - defo have a chat with HR.

This should really have been covered before you went off on mat leave! Sorry that is not helpful now. I would talk to your line manager and then HR and come up with a plan. What do you want ideally - money, to go back off for a longer period, reduce hours for longer? Carry some forward? Not that they will necessarily be able to offer all those but just to have a think. How long were you off for? Have you now paid up for a nursery place?

And don’t feel bad - where was your line manager in agreeing your return date?

Thanks that's really kind of you.

If I had know id be in this position, I would of taken off a couple of months before I came back, but as I'm now a month into my return re-training I would say ideally I would like most of it as money and use some for extra holiday.

I didn't really get told anything before I left as I was suspended on full pay due to covid back in march 2020, and had my baby in June, but I was always quite eager to know what would happen on my return before I left and they said I'd just get a call before I was due back - but actually it was me calling them in the end as they never contacted me.

"Your line manager should of" has actually come up on just about every thread I've started about my mat leave/return to work issues. :l

HR said they don't buy it back but that my manager could apply for exceptional carry over in march next year. So not sure if I feel comfortable waiting until march if there's no guarantees.

It's tricky cos I'm not sure my employer would be happy with me working practically 5 days a month til April - but not sure what else to do.

I feel really stupid now for not realizing I should of booked off a couple of months before I came back - I had read on the gov website that I would accrue a/l throughout my leave - I just clicked if have too much to spread out without causing a problem. I'm an idiot :l

Sorry - it just didn't click