Colleague keeps making remarks about me taking annual leave

[Motylog]

A colleague asked why I had come into the office today, and I explained that I wanted to tie up a few loose ends before my annual leave tomorrow and Monday.

Another colleague jokingly said, “You’re not allowed annual leave.” This is not the first time they have made comments like this. They previously said something similar during a team meeting, at which point a manager immediately stepped in and clarified that all staff are entitled to take their annual leave.

This evening, I sent a brief handover email, mainly as a precaution as there are unlikely to be many calls while I am away. The same colleague responded to the email with a sad emoji.

At the moment, I feel quite low in this role and have really been needing this break. The repeated comments and reactions make me feel as though my time off is not being respected, which I find difficult. I am not a workhorse.

You are probably overthinking

it must be a fairly important role if you need to do handover notes for just two days off?! 😁(did i read that correctly?!)

but they are probably just saying it to be nice and make you feel valued

my colleagues do the sad face thing when I go out of office but in real life everything is fine

Thats how I interpreted it.
When my work colleagues use to be on AL who make the days much easier and happier id be miserable without them 😂

It's a joke. We say it a lot and I also say it/have had it said to me by clients & suppliers.

They are just pulling your leg, probably just for the sake of it
Or they’re having a dig at you.
It may not mean anything at all.

It’s the same as when someone leaves work five minutes early and colleagues ask if they are having a half-day.

I think you’re being over sensitive, probably because you’re feeling low in the job as you say.
No judgement from me, I’m similar! I need to catch myself sometimes and get my head back into gear.

People have said "You're not allowed to go on leave" to me before, and I have taken it exactly as it was meant, which is "You are indispensable and we're up shit creek without a paddle when you're not here".

It is a compliment, not an insult.

To me this would be a joke and a compliment but we can’t tell what tone there is to the comment. On the face of it you are being over sensitive.

You are taking it the wrong way.

In a previous workplace of mine, it was normal to send colleagues a meeting request for the whole time you would be on annual leave so that it would appear in their calendars as a reminder that that person was on AL.

A colleague and I used to delight in "declining" each others invites (before actually re-adding it in the calendar), to pretend to "refuse" each others leave. It's just standard, lame, bit funny office banter.

This. It’s just what you say. It means ‘you’ll be missed as the work you do is important/ good. Very weird to take this as them literally not thinking you should take annual leave

They’re joking surely. They don’t mean it. Why are you so affected by it? FGS.

I worked with two fuckers that moaned they had heap of AL to use by JAN'limited carry over' they were in competition as to had the most.
It would start about Oct,one was a miserable teuchter bastard with no life.
The other was a gossip merchant and was scared he missed anything and was away to dodge time with his wife.

We had a bully in my last office who never used their annual leave until they were forced to or lose it. They’d regularly comment on who was off and would go through the manager’s diary to see who was taking their leave and when. Pig of a woman who was never challenged.

Honestly, I think you're being very sensitive. I have got next Friday and Tuesday booked off to extend the BH weekend, my colleague said the same jokey comment 'you're not allowed to take AL' - it was meant in a jokey way that I will be missed for a few days...