Holiday grabbing colleagues

[Allshallbewell2021]

I work with a team of people and we can't all be on holiday at the same time. Last year two collleagues put in for holiday over Easter with no acknowledgment of the impact on me, I still have a school aged child and one colleague has kids grown up so doesn't have to take Easter holidays.
I have no problem with working it - I've taken a few days at the very end of the holidays when they have graciously returned; it's just the lack of courtesy, consideration or consultation. Or even thanks, just snooze you lose, screw you and your Easter.
It just feels shitty and I feel disrespected - but I can't decide the value of saying anything as these two clearly don't give a crap so what would I achieve. But it's really eating me up. I don't mind the work at all, everyone has a right to a holiday -
I just feel disrespected.
Any way - thanks for the opportunity to vent!

Agree with this,
First come 1st served in my workplace but that doesn't include Christmas, new year and Easter.
These have to be agreed and fairly distributed amongst everyone who wants the time off, kids or no kids. If there's conflicts then manager will look at who had that time off last year and they won't get it this year.

Speak to your manager about implementing a fairer system

Get your holiday request for the entire year in as soon as the diary opens. If other people do this too and everyone asks for the same dates then the Manager needs to come up with a solution - names in a hat, people get half the time requested each of there's two of you, person that's been there the longest gets first choice, one gets Easter, one gets Christmas etc.

people want easter off so they can take advantage of the public holidays and needing to use less holidays. Or they want easter off to go on holiday with others who have easter off. or whatever.
If you need the breaks can I suggest you sit down and work out how far in advance you can book holidays and book your childcare in advance. I have children and I can't imagine someone else saying mmmm I would really like easter off but I won't book it just incase the other staff remember puts her hand up closer to the time and wants it. People have different childcare arrangments - for all others know you have childcare sorted during breaks or have family taking your child on holiday...people are not mind readers.

This used to be a problem in my job in the past. Every year the same few people used to dive in and book all their holiday across the school holidays as soon as leave bookings for the year opened, leaving very limited options for others. Most of us had school aged children and of course even those without children do sometimes want popular weeks for other reasons so it really wasn't fair. One year, one of my colleages was off sick when the diary opened ( it was pre electronic systems so you had to physically write your requests in the diary) and absolutely all the school holidays were booked so he got no time off with his kids for an entire year, whereas some people had their whole entitlement in peak holiday times. As the official policy of the wider organisation was first come first served and the then Head of Dept was one of the worst culprits we had no real comeback but it caused a lot of ill feeling.
When the HoD left and I got the job I decided it had to change. We had a departmental meeting and agreed a voluntary code of conduct which even the habitual pre bookers grudgingly agreed was fair. We agreed that everyone should be entitled to an equal share of the school holiday weeks and that any not fully booked after a particular date were then up for grabs by anyone. Nobody would take Christmas off in consecutive years, nobody would take more than 2 weeks off in the school summer holidays unless exceptional circumstances and so on. We also talked about what we regularly wanted and why. For example there is a big competition for one of my DC's hobbies every October half term and I would happily forgo ever having Feb half term off in favour of getting more than my fair share of Octobers. The skiers in the dept were pleased with that as they all wanted February. Getting everything out in the open was a bit uncomfortable initially, but longer term departmental harmony was much improved as most of us were getting most of what we wanted as opposed to a few getting everything they wanted and some getting none. And people started talking about it eg one guy telling us all his sister was getting married in India so he really needed 3 and a half weeks to travel there in the Summer but he was willing to work both Christmas and New Year instead. Nobody objected. In the old system he would have just booked it and everyone would have moaned behind his back. We weren't a big department so it really helped. I retired some years ago but I believe the same rules are still being followed now. I think it was one of my biggest achievements as HoD actually as the knock on effects were huge. First come first served is easy for managers but it doesn't promote workplace harmony.

Every year the same few people used to dive in and book all their holiday across the school holidays as soon as leave bookings for the year opened, leaving very limited options for others.

Alternatively, same few people were simply organised, made themselves aware of the holiday booking system & did exactly what they needed to do on time rather than missing the boat.

I honestly don’t think it’s fair to make out they did anything wrong whatsoever when that was the rules around booking leave.

Maybe they have family with children they spend time with
Maybe they are married to a teacher

Where I used to work it was a physical list with all the weeks listed and another list of staff that were on the same leave calendar. The staff list had about 15 names on it and they were in order of length of service. It would go round once for everyone to book their two weeks and then again for another week and then it was a free for all. New starters very rarely got time in the summer. This was the 1990s.

Dh always books his holidays for the year as soon as they open. I'm a teacher so I can only have holidays in school holidays. Have you considered if any of their families might need school holidays? Or maybe they have a long standing holiday with friends?
Maybe they are trying to get as long a holiday as possible so booking the week of Bank holidays?
They have done nothing wrong and if your that fussed book yours before them?

She's gone.

I imagine she's not that popular at work given the sarcasm dripping from her when she talks about her colleagues 'graciously returning' from their holidays.

Perhaps she thought she'd get more sympathy here?

The entitlement! Expecting everyone to check in with her first!

    Or is this a troll as it's so ridiculous?

I had a team leader who used to take people's holiday out of the system if he or his favourites wanted that week . Dab hand at swapping Bank Holidays about if the weather was poor too . Luckily I used to take a screenshot when I booked so there was no way they could claim I never booked them . I always said I was going away because I knew that if I said I was staying at home the pressure would be put on me to come in to work to cover ' staff shortage ' or swap my holiday .

Another trick people used was say they worked mon wed and Fri , they would then only book tue and thur off so only using two day's annual leave . They got weeks doing this . This was years ago when peoples hours were set in stone .

Except that when you are the HoD (as I stated further down my post) and thus have control of when the next year's diary opens you have a certain advantage!He and his pals always seemed to get in first. Every year. Strange that. Clearly just testament to their superior organisational skills though.🙄
In fact the worst of them was hopelessly disorganised and regularly used to book prime slots to make sure he had the option and then cancel at short notice when it was too late for anyone else to use them. No. Not against the rules, but bloody selfish and inconsiderate and not something that promoted a pleasant atmosphere at work.

But their A/L would have been pro-rated so this isn't really any different from a full time worker booking 5 days to have a week off.

Re using days to make up weeks . I know that management put a stop to it . People reckoned they got a couple of extra weeks holiday by doing it . This was many years ago .

No I am here. One of these colleagues is my boss and I think in small teams you should as a manager demonstrate fairness. Clearly some people have similar experiences. Our actions have an impact on others is all I'm saying. Just a thank you for holding the fort is all I would have appreciated. I'm not talking about rights I'm talking about courtesy. I never treat my colleagues with contempt - how can you work in teams with that attitude? Also some of us can't book in advance as our partners have unpredictable work schedules.
It's useful to hear how the majority think.

Management's attitude sounds bonkers to me. I say this as someone who has always worked full-time. People who work part time get proportionately less annual leave, so although they only need (in your example) to book 2 days off to get a week, they have fewer days overall to book off, so it doesn't work out as 'extra' leave. Any employee gets a given number of days' leave.

If you use a bank holiday to make up a week with fewer days, then you have an odd day to use at some other time - but you don't then have the bank holiday itself as an odd day in addition to weeks you have booked at other times.

When I worked in an office where there were lots of people battling for school holidays, that period was embargoed and people had to submit their requests separately - the manager would then try to juggle the requests as best she could, having conversations with people to agree compromises and so on.

Thank you for your post MrsAvocet - I wish my manager had even a bit of your integrity.

'First come, first served' is not a win for everyone in a group; but that is a really strong mentality on this thread.

Thanks Pussbilled, nice to have a polite answer rather than be called a Troll!

They’re not ‘disrespecting’ you, they choose to book the holiday that they wanted.

Why didn’t you book it?

*chose!

Because my family circumstances make my holidays far less predictable. I often don't know until February if my dh will be able to get away over Easter.
But you must mean I book ahead regardless dog in the manger style?

Do you ever thank your colleagues for holding the fort down when you are on holiday?

From your comment about not being able to book holidays on advance it appears you expect your colleagues to hold off on organising their lives and their holidays just because your partner has an unpredictable work schedule yet somehow you are portraying them as the selfish ones.

What if they have partners who need to book their holiday in advance, are they supposed to never know if they can have a holiday with their partner until the last minute just in case you want to book something off?

Get over yourself - and yes - book it 'dog in the manger' style if need be.

It could stop you needing to whinge on Mumsnet - it's called using your initiative. You seriously do not need to get angry and hoity toity about it.

Just crack on. Everyone else does too.

Many years ago I worked somewhere and when it came round to Summer we were sorting shifts and leave out, I wanted the bank holiday off as I was going to a festival. I was told no as this person has children so they get priority over time off in school holidays. I left there and then.

Their childcare is not down to me, why should I miss out on something that happens once, I was going to work all summer anyway as they had children so were taking most of it off and having all the early shifts.