Pressure from employer to book all leave
Discussion
Not had this before with any employer so wonder how common or acceptable it is (well I know how acceptable I think it is!!)
Holiday runs from 1 April to 31 March and by 31 July you are expected to have booked all your annual leave in that period. If you don't the company books it for you. So basically you are booking all holiday at least 6 months in advance. Now I know roughly when I want my holiday but not specific dates because that will depend on other people, flights, family events etc
What say PH?
Holiday runs from 1 April to 31 March and by 31 July you are expected to have booked all your annual leave in that period. If you don't the company books it for you. So basically you are booking all holiday at least 6 months in advance. Now I know roughly when I want my holiday but not specific dates because that will depend on other people, flights, family events etc
What say PH?
fasimew said:
What are the consequences of not booking leave and dropping it on them ad hoc?
The repsonse is if i dont book it they will randomly allocated holiday dates that suit them... although not sure how they can pick dates that far ahead! My workload is programmed in until the end of October and in that period I have holiday booked and I also have holiday booked for February next year.
I have 5 remaining days unused and I am being told book them by the end of this month or the company will book them for me on the dates of their choosing!
It's not uncommon. Is sometimes necessary (teachers, for example). Whether you consider it acceptable or not is down to you but presumably, this will have been set out in the contract of employment before you accepted the job.
fasimew said:
What are the consequences of not booking leave and dropping it on them ad hoc?
Your request being denied or leave being unpaid. Disciplinary proceedings or, depending upon the contract, you being fired.fasimew said:
IMO I'd just tell them to do one and that I'll be taking leave as I please whether they like it or not.
Good luck with that. Do let us know how you get on should you find yourself in that position.OP, is this in your contract, or just 'custom and practice'?
And what is their reasoning for it? As above, it's common in some industries (factories for example often have a summer shutdown when you have to take leave) but to book a whole yr in advance sounds a bit much.
Personally I would hate it (but as I have worked for myself for around 10yrs now I would.probably find it hard to go back to having to book holiday at all...).
And what is their reasoning for it? As above, it's common in some industries (factories for example often have a summer shutdown when you have to take leave) but to book a whole yr in advance sounds a bit much.
Personally I would hate it (but as I have worked for myself for around 10yrs now I would.probably find it hard to go back to having to book holiday at all...).
This goes on in retail high street banking. My wife was a senior bank manager and every year everyone who worked within a branch had to submit all their holidays by a certain date, banks group branches together so when all requests have been submitted they then have to be reviewed and approved, and a lot of people don't get the dates they want, simply because a lot of people have children and they obviously want to book holidays around the school holidays. The bank has a minimum number of staff per branch to operate, so it may be that someone from branch A may need to work at branch B to cover leave etc.
We're a small business,
For decades now we mandate that everybody takes five days over Christmas as we have a full shutdown. This said, if the shutdown period ends up meaning they end up with 6 or 7 days then we give that gratis.
Then the rules are no two 'ops' employees (there are 10 in total) off at the same time. It's first come first served.
Then no two office off at same time (there are five).
Then absolutely nobody can take certain days in the year. There are 4 or 5 of these in the year.
Works for us.
Just as an example.
For decades now we mandate that everybody takes five days over Christmas as we have a full shutdown. This said, if the shutdown period ends up meaning they end up with 6 or 7 days then we give that gratis.
Then the rules are no two 'ops' employees (there are 10 in total) off at the same time. It's first come first served.
Then no two office off at same time (there are five).
Then absolutely nobody can take certain days in the year. There are 4 or 5 of these in the year.
Works for us.
Just as an example.
I have worked for a small organisation that liked to get holidays sorted, so that there was ample cover all year, but nothing contractual. Everyone did it though, as it was mutually beneficial.
At the other end of the scale I have worked for organisations where it was very much a first come first served affair, and if you wanted a date that too many people in your team had already booked, that was tough luck.
Everyone got their families school and Xmas breaks in as soon as the year started, to avoid disappointment.
At the other end of the scale I have worked for organisations where it was very much a first come first served affair, and if you wanted a date that too many people in your team had already booked, that was tough luck.
Everyone got their families school and Xmas breaks in as soon as the year started, to avoid disappointment.
After all the dates are booked in, does that mean they are set in stone? Sometimes holiday dates need to be tweaked for flights etc. and this works both ways where I, for example, have chosen to postpone my scheduled annual leave if I'm in a particular busy period at work. You would hope that in a professional environment, both employer and employee would show flexibility for mutual benefit.
Jimjimhim said:
I personally would find a different job, sounds drastic but those rules sound crazy to me.
Put yourself in the position of a manager or business owner and consider the aggravation if most or even all your team were on holiday at the same time and that this fact only came to light a few weeks before. It's allowing that to happen that would be crazy.At least you lot get to choose!
Our holidays are allocated to us on a rota system and it’s up to us to swap between us to get the dates we want (and you may not be successful in that either).
You get used to it and you can plan a few years in advance if need be once you know your position in the rota as it moves every year so everyone will get prime times off eventually as you move through the holiday rota.
Not ideal as people with young kids want school holidays off but then there’s us oldies who’d prefer to be off outside of school holidays who’ll gladly swap.
You get used to it and you know about it going in but with over a hundred employees at my depot alone, there has to be some system to ensure continuity of service. Just don’t book a holiday without first seeking an exchange as then you’re at the mercy of the admin lady who’ll only grant it if there’s a vacant spot and if not, well, tough.
Our holidays are allocated to us on a rota system and it’s up to us to swap between us to get the dates we want (and you may not be successful in that either).
You get used to it and you can plan a few years in advance if need be once you know your position in the rota as it moves every year so everyone will get prime times off eventually as you move through the holiday rota.
Not ideal as people with young kids want school holidays off but then there’s us oldies who’d prefer to be off outside of school holidays who’ll gladly swap.
You get used to it and you know about it going in but with over a hundred employees at my depot alone, there has to be some system to ensure continuity of service. Just don’t book a holiday without first seeking an exchange as then you’re at the mercy of the admin lady who’ll only grant it if there’s a vacant spot and if not, well, tough.
Surely it depends entirely on what you are employed to do? In my line of work (office drone in large organisation) requiring us to book holiday months in advance would be ridiculous. We manage it at the level of our individual teams and just make sure we're never short of coverage. In practice that means giving each other a few weeks notice. But small companies where roles aren't fungible would need much tighter attendance management.
As others have said, yes, they can enforce these rules around booking holiday well in advance.
They should only really be doing that when there's a genuine business need though. If they are just doing it for the sake of control that's really s
tty behaviour.
Everywhere I've worked has allowed flexibility, and where I've managed teams, I've always encouraged them to discuss their holiday plans with each other at key periods before putting the request in. That was particularly important around Christmas where we needed to have a minimum number of people available, so I'd normally end up with a compromise where everyone had some days off, but nobody had the whole break. Similar thing for the summer holidays.
They should only really be doing that when there's a genuine business need though. If they are just doing it for the sake of control that's really s
tty behaviour.Everywhere I've worked has allowed flexibility, and where I've managed teams, I've always encouraged them to discuss their holiday plans with each other at key periods before putting the request in. That was particularly important around Christmas where we needed to have a minimum number of people available, so I'd normally end up with a compromise where everyone had some days off, but nobody had the whole break. Similar thing for the summer holidays.
StevieBee said:
Jimjimhim said:
I personally would find a different job, sounds drastic but those rules sound crazy to me.
Put yourself in the position of a manager or business owner and consider the aggravation if most or even all your team were on holiday at the same time and that this fact only came to light a few weeks before. It's allowing that to happen that would be crazy.StevieBee said:
Jimjimhim said:
I personally would find a different job, sounds drastic but those rules sound crazy to me.
Put yourself in the position of a manager or business owner and consider the aggravation if most or even all your team were on holiday at the same time and that this fact only came to light a few weeks before. It's allowing that to happen that would be crazy.“No more than X staff off at Y time. First come first served. A request for holiday isn’t a guarantee that it will be given. Approvals will be based on business needs and demand.”
Op, print this out and present it to your managers.
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