Refusing to work notice period

[quakerapple]

A member of my team has handed in her notice today. She is required to work a 4 week notice period.
She has 5 days annual leave left and has requested to take them before she leaves, meaning she wouldnt work the full notice period.
I have refused this as we need her in, we are incredibly shortstaffed.
She will be paid the 6 days annual leave in her final pay.
We are NHS. is this unreasonable ?

That's not her problem. It's yours.

You are taking taxpayers' money to manage the team. Manage it!

There is a bigger problem here, if you say that just this one person having their entitled annual leave means you will be on your knees then there is a much bigger problem then one member of staff leaving. What happens if people are sick?

It is common for annual leave to be taken during notice period, but I would see it as I will likely to get more efficient work from this person in the 3 weeks they are here rather than the 4 weeks of them working and being really annoyed their annual leave was declined.

It's a shame the wider staff shortages seems to be your problem, this should not be how it works. One person leaving shouldn't bring so much pain to you and your team.

I agree with this.

Oh, sweetie, you have no idea how the NHS 'works' do you?

You can’t take leave at such short notice in the NHS.

This.

The fact you are on your knees is not her problem it’s yours and your managers

she is entitled to the holiday so I would let her have it rather than the expenses of paying her for her holidays

personally if I was her and you told me what you said you told her I would be going to the drs get signed off and not come back

What a condescending post. She can take sick leave.

op, don’t know if you’ve gone but you’re conflating two issues, short staffed isn’t this woman’s problem. It’s yours and those above you. You can’t make it her problem.

A dick note sounds like an apt description for pretty much every email I've ever received from an NHS manager, anywhere, when they've been forced to operate in the real world.

The attitude from OP in this thread is one of the main reasons I left and went freelance.

It’s not irrelevant at all!

’A member of my team has handed in her notice today. She is required to work a 4 week notice period. She has 5 days annual leave left and has requested to take them before she leaves, as she has already booked flight tickets somewhere before handing her notice in and without checking if she could have the time off first meaning she wouldn’t work the full notice period. I have refused this as we need her in, we are incredibly short-staffed. She will be paid the 6 days annual leave in her final pay. We are NHS. Is this unreasonable?*

I think this is a better representation of the situation.

Include that when you speak to HR.

Legally you cannot force her to work her notice, nor can you withhold any pay she is due if she doesn’t.

If you choose to be heavy handed then there’s every chance she could either go off sick or just point blank walk out. Your staffing shortages are not her issue. I would say it’s better to let her have the leave and still get three weeks of cover than risk having no cover at all.

She’s just wanting to take the annual leave she has left to essentially finish early. She’s not refusing to work and still be paid.

Frankly if your team is that short staffed that everything collapses if one person goes then you have a management issue.

You need to accept that this member of staff is leaving and that her loyalty is no longer with her current team.

The constant understaffing and pressure are likely to be part of why that person has decided to leave.

It is standard to ask to use remaining holiday leave to shorten your notice period so I don't think she is being unreasonable by requesting this.

With all due respect, it is not her fault you are short staffed or on your knees !

If I was her line manager I'd let her have her remaining holiday within the notice period as it's less to pay out at the end of her employment but it does depend on the organisation's HR policy.
If you are able to do this, do it as she's likely to take time off sick instead 🤔.

I have every sympathy with you as manager and the rest of the team. But in reality there’s no useful way to force her not to take the leave and be paid for it instead. I mean you can’t sack her… I think it’s fairly standard to take any unused leave and finish up early. I’d just accept that’s the long and short of it and refer up to senior management the wider problem of under staffing and staff turnover

You need to chill out.
I'm not surprised that this person is leaving if this is how management runs the team

How did you get this from the OP!!!???

But in reality what are they going to do - sack her? She’s already resigned…. It’s a reasonable request to use up annual leave rather than be paid for it. The understaffing is unfortunate but not her responsibility

Taking annual leave doesn't mean she's not working her notice period. I've always taken my leave during notice periods and so have other people I've worked with, it's a very normal thing to do.

You can treat it as any other request and refuse it if there isn't cover but like others have said, she may just think sod it and go off sick.

Will one week make that much difference if you'll be short-staffed and needing to recruit anyway? I understand the pressure, also work in a public service (although not the NHS) and unfortunately it's how it often is when people leave, especially if they only have a 4 week notice period.

That isn't her problem. That is an NHS problem. She is entitled to the time.

When I was younger, I was guilt-tripped into not taking holiday in a similar situation. My boss was one of the reasons I left, although I would never have admitted that. One of my greatest regrets is not telling him to shove it right there and then.

A normal company would let her do as she likes, however given this is NHS if she is patient facing and you have no alternative to get cover without putting pressure on other team members I would pay her to work the days while explaining this.

Well no, not really in June when she's already taken 2 weeks. Or was that last year's al? You're not clear. If It has accumulated since April she should be given the choice obvs.

I feel for you, but you might get 3 weeks of good work rather than 4 weeks of bad if you just let it go... really depends on the dynamic, work ethic and her reasons for leaving.