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Original poster

Annual leave - help!

15 replies

sgtz · 07/08/2023 08:41

Struggling to get my head round this, can anyone shed some light?

We are assigned AL in hours, I’m part-time so it’s pro-rata. Currently have 6.5 hrs left to use. Need to make some time up from leaving early for sick child, plus GP appt that I couldn’t get outside work hours so 2.75 hrs - leaves 3.75 for a half day. Been told I can’t put through less than a half day… so how do I use the ‘odd’ hours left? I struggle to work extra to make up time due to childcare, only option really is to work through lunch. Is that reasonable, to have to make up the hrs to at least a half day to take? I thought it made more sense to use up the ‘odd’ hours to cover leaving early recently but doesn’t seem to be an option.

OP posts:
LadinLee · 07/08/2023 08:55

How did you manage to take 2.75 hrs for GP appointment if you can only take a half day, is that a half day for you?
Will they roll it over into next years leave for you if they don't allow a mechanism for anything other than a half day?

Original poster
sgtz · 07/08/2023 09:23

@LadinLee I haven’t been able to, that’s the issue. I need to retrospectively use it to cover child sickness last week, plus upcoming GP appt which totals 3.25 hrs. I wanted to use 2.75 hrs and work an extra 30 mins to make up the time, leaving me 3.75 hrs to use as a half day another time. Looks like I’m having to use 3.75 hrs now though, then I’ll have to work an extra hour to make the 2.75 into 3.75. My head hurts!

OP posts:
Aprilx · 07/08/2023 15:51

Was the total allowance you got for the year divisible by 3.75? If it isn't then you are never going to be able to achieve this so I would speak to HR. If the annual allowance was divisible by 3.75 then you need to go back and work out where you didn't take a multiple of 3.75. It is fairly normal for an organisation to only allow leave in terms of a full day or half day.

Original poster
sgtz · 07/08/2023 17:00

@Aprilx not divisible by 3.75, which is why it seems daft to not be able to take it in less than that increment. It seems like the only option is to work extra to ‘make up’ the odd hours to a half day. It’s just a struggle for me to ever do that unless I have a very rare day where I don’t have to do nursery drop off or pick up.

OP posts:
Ohmylovejune · 07/08/2023 17:06

It's madness and probably driven by some sort of diary technology!

Ask if you can leave x hours early one Friday to mop.up the small balance

Sisterpita · 07/08/2023 17:42

The logic is the odd hours usually roll over to the next leave year.

In your case I would ask to work the 2.75 hours and take 1/2 a day for the longer appointment.

Original poster
sgtz · 07/08/2023 18:53

@Ohmylovejune thats what I thought I was asking, mopping up the odd hours to cover the days I do have to leave early. Now I’m having to take a half day ‘officially’ on my A/L record as one afternoon when really it’s split over 2 days, so not sure what the difference is but am sure I’ll just get told ‘it’s policy’ if I question it. It’s just another thing in a long line of absolute nonsense ‘policies’ with nothing logical to back it up. Sorry, rant over!

OP posts:
Allwelcone · 07/08/2023 19:20

Op re your sick child emergency, surely they have to give you that as unpaid parental leave?
Its the law I thought. .ight free up some more holiday time.
Or was it a different scenario?

Original poster
sgtz · 07/08/2023 19:29

@Allwelcone I should have done that, would have saved a lot of hassle! I always forget about unpaid parental leave as we usually get a form of special leave for things like that, but I’ve been told I’ve used ‘too much’ of that anyway.

OP posts:
Lund · 07/08/2023 19:35

I work part time with leave allowance in hours. I also work different number of hours each day so usually end up with a odd hour or two. They either carry over to the new leave year, or if I'm already carrying over the max allowed, I finish early one day and they drop off my allowance. The early finish is not recorded anywhere - I just let my boss know I'm taking the time off.

Allwelcone · 07/08/2023 22:07

Well in that case I'd just do a great PR job on yourself and graciously tell them they can have it.

Aprilx · 08/08/2023 03:27

sgtz · 07/08/2023 19:29

@Allwelcone I should have done that, would have saved a lot of hassle! I always forget about unpaid parental leave as we usually get a form of special leave for things like that, but I’ve been told I’ve used ‘too much’ of that anyway.

Unpaid parental leave needs to be agreed in advance. You cannot utilise unpaid parental leave to cover an obviously unplanned child sickness. You and previous poster might be thinking of “dependants leave” which is the right to take time off in an emergency.

Phillipsson · 08/08/2023 03:36

this sounds unnecessarily complicated. is there guidance specifically for medical appointment leave? I have been able to take less than a half day for that for example, regardless of annual leave policy. How are short notice medical appointments covered? You can’t really book those in advance, but equally might not require the whole/half day off.

Toolittl · 08/08/2023 08:26

I used to work 18.5hrs and same would apply with me. My daily hours worked out at 3.42. Bank holiday weeks were a nightmare and manager would actually make me work the extra 18 minutes I "owed" that week at an extra 6 mins per day so my finish time on rota showed 17:06pm it would drive me nuts.
I used to occasionally book in half days in return just to annoy him as would always make it clear it caused him a headache working out the minutes 1hr 51mins was a half day.

Sisterpita · 08/08/2023 11:16

@Toolittl this is correct but I personally prefer to calculate in hours and minutes and deduct the contracted hours for each BH.

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