Giving a week's notice then requesting to use two days of annual leave

TBagpuss

testings wrote: »

Tomorrow I will be resigning from my job, due to personal difficulties. My contract requires that I give a week's notice - my job is a fixed term position, doing basic clerical/administration stuff in the public sector. Furthermore, by the end of the month I'll have accrued two days of annual leave, and I'd really like to use these days on Monday and Tuesday of next week, therefore effectively reducing my notice period to three days (I'm guessing that, even if I were to hand in my notice first thing tomorrow morning, it still wouldn't be counted as a full day of notice, so the notice period will run from Wednesday), as I don't think I'd be able to deal with my job beyond the end of this week.

I understand that the law permits me to use annual leave in this way (so long as my manager is okay with it), and I've checked my contract and it states, "[o]n termination of your employment you shall be entitled to annual leave with pay or payment in lieu thereof based on your length of service in that leave year less any leave already taken", so in theory it's possible. I just feel kind of bad. Even though I'm only required to give a week's notice, a week isn't enough time in which to employ and train my replacement, and my department is short-staffed as it is, so reducing this to three days could be messy. And yet, I need to consider my well-being too.

I guess what I'd like to ask is - is there any real chance I'll be able to use these two days of annual leave? My manager is very reasonable, and we're on good terms, but I just don't know whether this sort of thing is ever done, or whether even just asking (and making it clear I'll be okay with whatever my manager decides) will probably result in ill feeling.

the bolded does suggest that the OP may be leaving due to health reasons - *if* that is the case and if Op does find it impossible to complete the week as a result then there would be nothing fraudulent about taking sick leave, regardless of whether OP hands in notice or not.

OP, you can only ask. Your employer may be perfectly happy to let you have the days off, to avoid having to pay you in lieu of holiday. As it is likely to take more than a week to recruit a new employee it may not make much difference in terms of training.

If they say no, you may find it easier than you think to manage the last few days knowing that you have a definite end-date (assuming that it is the job, and not external factors, which are causing you to feel you need to leave)

good luck.