Work colleague block booking desired holiday dates

I would book the next three years off and see how they like it!


At my work we share and have a casual chat.




Is sharing a difficult concept.

As others have said, the bottom line is that unless what they have done is contrary to your employer's policies about requesting leave, they have done nothing wrong and you having a go at them is likely to create more problems or you than for them.

Moving forward, you can consider:

- suggesting to management that the policy for how leave is approved is amended - perhaps to give staff who don't have 'preferred dates' one year, first refusal the following year.
The downside of this is that is would create more work for managers so unless this is a widespread problem ad other staff members have expressed dissatisfaction with the current system, it is unlikely to change. Fr that reason, I'd only suggest to try it if you know that other members of staff would also like the current policy to change and (ideally) if thy are willing to say so, so it is a small group of you making the suggestion rather than just one person.

- plan ahead. If it is important to you to have days off around bank holidays then request the days you would like, when the holiday calendar goes 'live'. You don't have to have concrete plans ahead of time as to how to use the time, and can (assuming that your firm's policy allows it) cancel a day off if you decide you don't need it after all.

- talk to your colleague. It sounds as though you may have already burned your bridged on this one, if you've called her selfish etc. However, you could try apologising to her for those comments, letting her know that you understand why she has booked those days and asking that next year, she liaises with you so that you can each have some of those 'desirable' days and see what she says. However, since most people are not going to appreciate being called selfish I would suggest that you think carefully about how to approach it, and also think about what your relationship with her in general is like. If you get on well, and you have (or can build) a good relationship with her where she sees you as a helpful, supportive co-worker, then she is much more likely to be open to considering you when it comes to booking holidays, than if her perception of you is of someone who is aggressive or critical of her.

inglorius wrote: »

I'm afraid you are giving them too much credit, I did discuss this with them and they couldn't see how selfish their actions were. They do not have children the motivator being that they complained they only get statutory holidays which isn't enough so to stretch them they take all bank holiday weeks off so use 4 days leave to get a weeks holiday.

In my first job I only got 12 days leave plus all the bank holidays. We had to take 4 or 5 of these days at Christmas, so it meant I could never get a 2 week holiday in the summer. So I used to do something similar where I took the corresponding Friday or Monday off so that I effectively worked 3 days a week during April and May. No one ever complained. Didn't realise I was being selfish, was just trying to get a decent break. Perhaps its the same for your colleague?