Holiday not being accepted

Pash

Hi Guys,

Does anyone have any experiences of employers not giving required holiday when booked well well in advance? At our current customer site the staffing is very difficult to cater for currently because our customer is being picky about knowledge transfer/support handover because we have to get additional staff onsite to be trained.

These holiday dates are very important to me, and they also involve the arrangements of other people whom i would need to give notice to. So naturally I also need advance notice if my holiday request is going to be accepted.

In all honesty this is actually getting me quiet stressed and I do suffer badly occasionaly with eczema on my hands and neck which is starting to flare up at the moment.

I had 10 days of holiday bought back last year and this year id rather just have the time off to do the things I really want, I dont see the point in working week in week out without having some time off to do things.

If anyone has any advice, please let me know!

Cheers,

Pash

HeroPsycho

All I can say is check your contract you signed when taking the job. If they have requirements about requesting time off, and you meet them and have the allotted vacation days, it makes it hard for them to keep you from taking time off, although they can fire you for it if you put up a fuss and say it's for a different reason.

My solution is usually find a new employer who doesn't do that since that's important to you.

Paul Boz

If one of your benefits is paid vacation they have to be reasonable in allowing you to use it. If you give them several months notice they should have no problem allowing you to leave. If they have that big of a problem with letting you use your earned benefits you should probably start looking for new work.

My last employer awarded me 3 weeks of paid vacation a year for hitting the five year mark. I worked in the under-staffed NOC center and had to be paid out for all three weeks of vacation the last year I was there. That was one of the final straws that broke the camels back.

LarryDaMan

Generally, I wouldn't book a holiday without knowing beforehand that I can get the days off. In my current job they are very strict about not allowing days off unless cleared WAY in advance because we directly support a very high profile customer. It has gotten so bad that if I need a day off, I just plan on calling in sick that morning.

UnixGuy

yeah it happens ! specially that companies ideally run business with minimum possible staff.

Of course it's your right to take vacation, but you can't force them to give it to you.


Be wise, and keep negotiating it with your boss, in nice ways, and try to explain how important it is to you. Be really wise in this, you don't want a fight with your management over a vacation.

wd40

at my current job we have to book next year's holiday in December, Then some projects come up and holidays get delayed, then they force everyone to leave in the second half of the year because they will not pay for our leave days and we can not transfer them to the next year ........

Pash

Wow it seems us IT crowd do actually have it badly when it comes to booking time off....

I should probably mention that this time off is for only 3 days and this is for me to move house, so its not like im actually planning to go on a vacation. I probably made it sound like an opera drama or something.......but they are are aware this is my reason for booking time off as well. I have to arrange several things like the booking of a removal van, a driver for it (probably my old man) etc, handover of old place.

I should also say that we have several customer sites, this site has been undermanaged and understaffed for a while now.........they have known about these problems and they have done nothing to rectify it.

I guess the only option is clear if they continue to be unreasonable but lets see, I still have some time...

Thanks all,

blargoe

I hope that you can resolve this issue.

I'm testing the waters on whether I can take my earned/unearned vacation time myself. They used to pay us for unused vacation time, which worked for our department since we were booked solid. This year they required to use it or lose it all, no pay out, and also due to the economy we are having to take 10 single days as unpaid. However, demands from the business are higher than ever for our services. My counterpart on the team is going ahead and working about 65 hours per week anyway despite it all, checking email and working remotely during his time off, etc. I refuse.

There has to be a line in the sand somewhere... mine is being asked to not be paid for 10 days here and there, then being asked to work more hours to make up for not being at work on those unpaid days, then being asked not to be away for a week when they're the ones who decided halfway into the year to steal my vacation time if I wasn't able to use it. Thankfully my manager is awesome and has our back all the way to the corner offices if necessary.

Pash

Hi Blargoe,

Cheers for your input mate. Sounds like a bad situation to be in but you are lucky to have an understanding boss. My boss seemingly enjoys using the term "I am in the same boat", now while on a personal level I can sympathzize, It does nothing for my personal situation, which just makes me angrier. Time will tell I guess, im just gonna keep working away and see what happens. I have been reasonable and asked that a itemized handover/knowledge transfer list could be produced and that I can make it.

Cheers,

bertieb

I totally hear you on this one Pash. I'm planning on going to South Africa next April, with another TE member (NOT 'together' like that, me and my missus and him and his missus ) and I've already asked the question(s) to the senior management and so far I've had very, very little feedback. It's essentially a three person team in the Northern division at the moment with a decent chance it'll be down to two in the future so it will cause some problems.

I've brought it up early though to a) find out whats happening with the team as a whole b) discuss the 'problems' it may cause and c) what options are available. Hopefully it'll be sorted by negotiations and discussions as we do have people who could cover, however if it ends up hitting a brick wall then I'll have no chance but to move on elsewhere. My missus frequently reminds me I've done a lot over the years here and I really need a good holiday and its too good an opportunity to miss.

I feel for you though, it's not as if you are asking for weeks off and its not really a 'holiday' is it? (P.S I'm NEVER moving house again)

Pash

bertieb wrote: »

I totally hear you on this one Pash. I'm planning on going to South Africa next April, with another TE member (NOT 'together' like that, me and my missus and him and his missus ) and I've already asked the question(s) to the senior management and so far I've had very, very little feedback. It's essentially a three person team in the Northern division at the moment with a decent chance it'll be down to two in the future so it will cause some problems.

I've brought it up early though to a) find out whats happening with the team as a whole b) discuss the 'problems' it may cause and c) what options are available. Hopefully it'll be sorted by negotiations and discussions as we do have people who could cover, however if it ends up hitting a brick wall then I'll have no chance but to move on elsewhere. My missus frequently reminds me I've done a lot over the years here and I really need a good holiday and its too good an opportunity to miss.

I feel for you though, it's not as if you are asking for weeks off and its not really a 'holiday' is it? (P.S I'm NEVER moving house again)

Hi bertieb mate!

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time dude and I hope something can be sorted out for your hols next year. Sounds like a cool trip going to SA!

Yeh moving isnt a holiday, which makes this lack of effort from management all the harder to swallow, I have our company summer boat party this Saturday and I really don't want to talk to management lol

All the best,

Pash

bellhead

I have been in a similar situation before, contact your hr department. Most managers are very people friendly and will bend over backward in order to help you out, but time to time you run across complete a-holes.

The two times it happened to me involved a director, the same one.

The first time I was forced to switch to a evening shift for coverage in a noc. The reason I was switched was I was low senior person and we had a person out on disability. I had a prior engagment night school, so I took a vacation day, per the rules of the group 2 people where allowed off on vacation, there was one person off and the person on disablity who didn't count. I gave my 48 hours notice as required for the v-day and was denied. I asked why and my boss said her director said no. Said ok, and called the union president, who conferenced me with HR, and within 30 minutes my request for a v-day had been approved with conditions, that I could never do this again. I called the union president again and he called HR and informed them of this. The next thing I know HR, my director, the union, and myself are in a conference room. The HR director literally laid down the law on the director about the work contract, and employment law and said don't do it again. I guess I won that one huh?

The next one involved scheduling for our entire group, I was the 2nd to low man in seniority with 10 years at this point. Our group had grown to 13 people and our total vacation days added up to 73 weeks. The same director told us only one person would be allowed off at a time. I asked when would I be able to take vacation and she said only if one of the more senior people didn't take a day off then I could take one. In other words no vacation. I filed a grievance, the union met with her and she denied the grienvance. It goes to HR and they call her in again, lay the law down, and we win. 3 people off at a time. The union president told me later the HR director asked her in front of the union if she was an idiot.

Suffice to say she was let go in a restructuring later that year...

JBrown

I guess i am the luckiest one here. We are 3 person team plus the manager, and there been moments when 2 team members and/or the manager himself were on a vacation same overlapping days or a week.

eMeS

Pash wrote: »

In all honesty this is actually getting me quiet stressed and I do suffer badly occasionaly with eczema on my hands and neck which is starting to flare up at the moment.

This is not related to your primary question, but I might be able to help you here.

A couple of years ago I developed really bad hand eczema. Trust me, I know how painful it is for you, and I understand about it flaring up.

I tried every lotion, etc.. including the most powerful Rx steroid lotion on the market. Some things worked short-term, but nothing was permanent.

I however did find two things that work:

1) My dermatologist has a really old machine called a "Grenz" machine. It's is fundamentally a special wavelength of blacklight. When you skin is bombarded with it, it makes the eczema go away.

2) If you don't have a dermatologist, or yours doesn't have a Grenz machine, it is also possible to treat eczema with UV-B. There are many products out there that you can buy that range anywhere from $300 up to the thousands, that will treat all or parts of your body. Rather than spend that kind of money, I did quite a bit of research into this. I found that these expensive devices were really just providing UV-B primarily at the 310nm wavelength. I looked into reptile lights, and found that reptiles also have a need for UV-B, and there are many more affordable lights that provide the correct wavelength of UV-B. The one I have is a 30 watt unit and I spent less than $50 total.

I treat my hands with the light about once per month, about 30 seconds per side/1 minute per hand. It literally took me longer to write this post about it. I currently have no problems with eczema. I will warn you though, there's a lot of information out there that says exposure UV-B is a contributing factor to cancer. What I found indicated that the 310nm wavelength was relatively safe. Remembering how crappy eczema can feel, I'll take my chances.....

MS