Resigning in awkward circumstances

[Argharga]

I have a very awkward work situation that I’m struggling with.

I’ve accepted another job and will be handing my notice in this week. My notice period is only a week as I’m still in probation.

The problem is that I’ve had 2 weeks annual leave booked and approved for ages. It starts next Monday. It’s for a family holiday in Crete that’s already organised/ booked/ paid for.

I’m worried that once I hand my notice in they’ll suddenly decide to cancel the leave and insist I work instead. Especially because I don’t think I have 10 days leave to take.

Can they actually do that? Has anyone had an employer cancel pre-approved annual leave just because they resigned? Would waiting until Friday make it too late for them to cancel it?

I don’t want to be difficult or leave on bad terms, but equally I don’t want to lose a family holiday that’s been booked for months just because I’ve accepted another job.
Has anyone been in this situation?

why don't you give notice after your vacation? or are you planning on starting the new job immediately you get back?

I'm not sure - given you are leaving whilst on probation whether you would be leaving on bad tersm in any case

They’d have to give you at least the same amount of notice to cancel your leave as the length of time you’ve booked.

How long is the notice period from their side? If it’s also a week, then they could decide to end your employment after that week, which could mean some of your leave is unpaid.

Don’t you need to have 5 days accrued, given your notice is 1 week, so technically the second week of your holiday will be when you’ve already left the company and won’t be paid for anyway

if you don’t have 5 days accrued, I imagine they’ll take it out of your final paycheck, assuming you can do a handover of work before you go?

I don’t have 5 days accrued. Think I might only have 1. I’ve taken a lot of annual leave to try and cope with a stressful work environment (which is why I’m leaving). New job hopefully starts day I return from holiday.

I’m hoping they can’t cancel it as I’ve read they would need to give me 10 days notice to cancel 10 days leave but don’t know how that interacts with my notice period and not having accrued leave.

If you’re off for two weeks, can you not just hang your notice in at the of the first week of your holiday?

I don’t think they'll cancel it but the 4 days will likely be unpaid.

@Argharga depending on how many days holiday you get, you accrue them at a rate per month. So mine accrue at 2.5 a month. If I were leaving the company after 7 months, I’d be entitled to 7 x 2.5, so 17.5 approx. If I had taken more than 17.5, the excess would be deducted from my pay. If I had not taken enough, they would be added to my pay. Or they might agree I could use them in order to leave sooner. There is a page on .gov that talks about holiday entitlement. I very much doubt they would force you to cancel though.

Happy for it to be unpaid. Is there any way I can do this and not leave on awful terms or is that pretty much guaranteed?

I don’t think it needs to be on awful terms?

Can you hand in notice tomorrow - Thank you for the opportunity but I will be leaving for a new position. I appreciate my notice period is one week, however I am away from Monday so my last day will be this Friday, not next Tuesday. I will speak to HR regarding annual leave accrued.

It’s just unfortunate. If it has been organised for ages, just apologise and say you are very sorry but it can’t be helped and you realise you’ll owe them for excess days.

You have two choices really:

Hand notice in, acknowledge lack of accrued leave and need to pay money.

Or

Go on holiday, hand notice in during the holiday, acknowledge lack of accrued leave and need to pay money back.

To be blunt - are they going to be sorry to see you go?

If you were hired after a complicated, expensive recruitment process or you’ve had a ton of specialist training & now you’re leaving them in the lurch, I can see they might be a bit grumpy, but you’re not going to do another 10 years just so they don’t get miffed at you, are you?

If you’re a fairly routine, replaceable hire AND you’ve taken quite a bit of time off during probation (I’m not saying you’re to blame for that), they may be quite happy to silently agree with you that the job isn’t a good fit, no hard feelings.

I think I’d just bite the bullet, hand my notice in, & acknowledge that they will need to calculate deductions based on my not having enough AL to fully cover the holiday.

They'd have to be seriously bloody minded to try to cancel the holiday of a staff member who is leaving in a couple of weeks anyway.

Obviously if you do think they’re capable of pulling a stunt like that, as PP have pointed out, go on holiday, THEN hand in your notice. They aren’t going to come after you with a butterfly net - & if they are particularly pissed off, you won’t be there to see it. I’d say that way is more likely to create ill feeling than being upfront before you go, though.

Will you need future references from them, or is it a small industry where they could do you reputational damage?

If I could bear it I would be inclined to sit down with employer and sa this isn't working. I want to tell you I will not be returning after my holiday, what would you like me to finish off, prepare for handover the next couple of days. Thanks for the opportunity blah blah

If not then just hand it in on Friday, or Monday and say thanks, I won't be returning. Leave kit on a desk etc. don't overthink it they won't cancel your holiday, you are going to go anyway and they won't take you to court for it. It sounds likely there is not going to be much more pay due either so not a lot to fight about there either.

It doesn’t benefit them to rescind it.

You hand I notice for a week. Work 4 days and take your leave.

you aren’t paid for leave that isn’t accrued.

You hand notice in, they rescind the leave, you phone in sick those days - and if you get paid sick days they end up paying you more!

you’re leaving. Just hand in your notice and don’t turn up from Monday. If they cancel leave ring in sick instead .

they can hardly make it a disciplinary offence either as you will be leaving 3 days after your leave starts!

Just give your notice now and go on your holiday.

Realistically they can't force you to cancel or work and you are leaving anyway.

As you are in your probation I assume it is something you started recently so I would not even use them as a reference or feel the need to list this job in your CV.

Of course it is likely that they won't pay you for your holiday time but that should not be an issue if you have another job.

As someone has mentioned if they become difficult ring in to tell them you are sick and unable to work. You can self-certified for 7 days.

I assume this job wasn't great or you would not be leaving so soon so no point in you bending over backwards to make them happy...

This

Say this.