Employer making me feel guilty for time off

[lele2221]

Every time before I am due to go on leave my employer always pulls a face like it's an inconvenience. And now there are more people on my team they all seem awkward around me when I mention I am due to go off. So I know they moan about me having time off. I work Term Time so I am not paid for most of the holidays plus no one does any of my work while I am off. I feel really bad on the run up to finishing that when they do ask me about being off I hate talking about it. Anyone else have this.

And may I add while I am off all I do is feel guilty for being off because of the way they make me feel!

You can only feel guilty if you let yourself feel guilty. Book it, smile and happily skip out of the office without a look back.

What do you do that can be left for six weeks with no one even having to glance at it?

How much AL do you get on top of the term time working?

My colleague who reports to me gets a bit funny when I go on leave and talks about "all the work"! I ignore it as I pick up her work when she's off. So I'm guessing they think you're off enough without taming more time off.

My work is meant to be picked up while I am off but no one does. I work for a food distribution company. So I receive queries from customers and suppliers. They are meant to pick the urgent bits up but they never do. I hate going off and also hate coming back because I know I will be coming back to a mountain for work. I need to just go off without feeling bad. And it's always crazy busy when I have been off funny enough.....

I think you need to talk to your manager and point out that you are legally entitled to your holidays. Set up an out office reply on your email and phone giving the contact details of the people who are meant to pick up the urgent bits when you are out. Something like:

I am currently on Annual Leave until xx/xx/24. I will reply to any queries on my return in date order. For urgent queries please contact joebloggsatfood.com.

And then ignore the comments

I have my out of office set to say please contact blah blah in my absence. It's just the uncomfortable feeling they give me when discussing my impending holidays. Thanks for everyone's advice though. Just wanting to rant.

Are other staff members made to feel equally awkward when it is their turn to have holiday?

Nothing anyone can do really - they are entitled to feel annoyed by your contract and the impact on the team, you’re entitled to skip out without giving it a second thought. Was your term time working approved some time ago?

Came here to say the exact same thing. You're entitled to time off, if your term time working is the actual problem then they're entitled to feel annoyed but it's not issue to resolve.

Work is an exchange of labour for money. Nothing more. You can bet your arse they wouldn't feel guilty about firing you if it was necessary for the business.

I've been Term Time since I started the job 7 years ago. It just seems the past 12 months I get the feeling they are not happy. But again no one does my work so I don't get why they are so unhappy about it. I just need to learn not to care really but I do. I don't leave any work or pass anything over to do while I am away.

I always have this on my mind as I know they would not be bothered about getting rid of anyone

I wouldn't feel guilty at all but I might worry about being made redundant or managed out some other way.

When I got comments about shorter working hours I simply said ...part time hours means part time money, it's a choice.

I don't worry about being made redundant but I do about being managed out. Even though I am good at my job and I always do overtime to catch up that I am never paid for.

How complex is your job? Have you thought about suggesting they make it a job share with someone working reverse term time?

It's not too complex. And to be honest I would be happy to reduce my hours even more as I fine I end up working overtime so I am sure there would be enough hours to share with someone else part time.

@lele2221 Why not put a proposal together along the lines of

Lele - works 30 weeks a year.
Job Share Works 22.2 weeks as follows:

1. February Half Term 2 weeks
2. Easter 4 weeks
3. May Half Term 2 weeks
4. Summer 8 weeks
5. October Half Term 2 weeks
6. Christmas 4 weeks
7. 1.5 days floating for hand over etc.

Add in dates to illustrate better. Obviously the dates are agreed at the start of each year. Decide if you want annual leave to take when working or during you non-working weeks.

Point out the benefits e.g. continuity for colleagues and customers. An extra had during traditional leave periods.

The worst 5hey can say is no.

Set your out of office to say

'I am away until (date), please contact (x) in my absence. All emails received while I am away will be auto-deleted, please email again after (date) if the issue is not resolved.'

This is a really good idea. But they are the type of company who bombard their staff with work. But I love this idea

If your contract is for you to work term time then you are not taking holidays, you are just working to your contract.

You need to remind your colleagues that you are working your paid hours and cannot be expected to work for free outside of those hours. You need to remind your boss that you are contracted to work term time only and it must be someone else’s job to cover your work outside of your contracted hours.

If your colleagues are somehow jealous that you have a different contract that is on them

It’s really not your problem what they think and tell them it’s not annual leave but unpaid time and they can change their contract too with a big smile on your face.

Stop doing unpaid overtime as they aren’t grateful for it.
Out of office on or even ask IT dept to deactivate your email account so you don’t return to massive inbox. You can set it up so incoming emails get rerouted elsewhere.

in your out of office put something like your email will not be actioned so it’s on the customer to ask someone else in the company.

when people are on maternity the email is switched off as they would return to 1000s of emails that have been sent to all staff.

enjoy your time away and don’t feel guilty as there’s plenty of other stuff to feel guilty about 😂