Hi all, first time poster here!
I'm seeking some advice and thought this is the best way to turn.
Our annual leave allowance is 30 days per year (from 1st April to 31st March) plus bank holidays, there isn't anything in the annual leave policy about how this is built up, i.e. 2.5 days per calendar month, but I am currently reviewing our policies.
I have a member of staff who has already taken 15 days annual leave since April and by the first week of November they will have taken 27.5 days in total with no leave booked for the Christmas shut down period or in the new year.
Having only joined the company two months ago I can't do very much about how much leave has been approved and taken already, but I am very concerned about the lack of annual leave available and/or booked.
I have suggested they ensure they have enough leave to take during the Christmas shut down which, as things stand, they don't have sufficient annual leave available. There is the possibility of this employee accruing TOIL but this might not be the case and I have concerns that we should do more as employers to ensure they don't use all their annual leave up so soon.
Added to the above this person is a parent who regularly has to take annual leave to look after their children as the other parent also works full time.
Could I ask for people's opinions please? In previous roles annual leave could only be approved if it had been earned so I've not had to consider this before!
Many thanks!
Adele
Replies
Thank you Sarah and Becky for you very helpful replies! :)
I am the manager as well as the HR bod in the company, we are a very small company with only 5 in the office full time! So I need to look at this from both points of view.
There are other concerns with this particular individual which I won't go into in great detail but let's just say they are a project manager who has difficulty managing their own time and this often leads to last minute leave requests and lots of changes in annual leave plans!
I do wonder whether the individual is seeking alternative employment and this lends to them not considering the lack of annual leave in the future but have nothing to back this thought up, other than their general mood and the fact they were demoted last year.
There are a few days booked over the next couple of months and a week in October which I have no doubt will be moved around several times by then so I will not taken any action for now but will bring the topic up in our next 1:1.
Many thanks again for the advice.
Regards
Adele
Hi Adele
Welcome to your first time post!
I understand what you are saying about only booking leave when earnt however individuals often need to plan ahead especially if they are a parent and have to book holidays in school holiday periods. I read your post and a couple of questions sprang to mind.
Where is the manager on this? as I see it as their role to manage the holiday entitlement of their team in an appropriate way. Likewise for someone who has not taken enough leave they should be encouraging staff to book this. Do your managers have visibility of holiday entitlements?
Also annual leave to look after children if it is as an emergency as you probably know time off for dependants is an option here maybe?
Also do your contracts have a clause which allows you to recover holiday which has been taken over entitlement from their last payment?
I think my approach would be to flag the above with their manager and ask them to manage it in line with holiday procedures. I would be relaxed about someone booking holidays prior to their accrual rate but not over and above their annual holiday entitlement, as anything above this would need to be mutually agreed as unpaid leave.
I think Becky's comments about some sort of Flexible Working discusion are helpful but again I would push the line manager to deal with this.
I hope this helps
All the best
Sarah
Hi Adele!
I tend to only worry about leave being accrued before being taken if it's a new employee and they literally haven't worked at the company for long enough to accrue (i.e. booking a week off if they've only been with us a couple of months). If it's a longstanding employee, or someone who's been with you a reasonable amount of time then I (personally) wouldn't stipulate that they can only take leave once it's accrued, if for no other reason than because it would be far too much work to calculate - especially if you do this for everyone all the time (or of course, unless you have a system that does this for you...).
We also shut-down at Christmas but I tend to add that to people's holiday record at the beginning of the year so that it's already accounted for (as they don't have a choice) - although appreciate if you've only just joined then this was out of your control (although it might be worth doing now anyway so that everyone else accounts for it). If your shut-down is compulsory and they don't have enough leave then perhaps get the Manager to make them aware that Christmas will now be unpaid due to so much leave being taken at the beginning of the year - which may change their mind! :)
Looking at this from a general perspective, I agree with you that it's not ideal that they haven't left themselves enough leave to use for the remainder of the year, especially if it's likely they'll need time off to look after children. It's not going to be healthy if they have to work lots of overtime just to earn a few extra days leave at the end of the year - 30 days is very generous so should be manageable! Perhaps there's more of an underlying issue here and a discussion needs to be had about flexible working to assist with the childcare?
Hope that helps!
Many thanks
Becky