People who don’t take annual leave and prefer to work?

Manxman_in_exile

justworriedabit said:

Perhaps you could point to my post where I said that an employer can't? TIA.

My post is very clear, it was about being told to take leave as per my post which I duly challenged on both occasion and won.

No employer is going to tell me to take leave just because they think I need a rest, looked burnt out, etc and as you can see in my post, I challenged the manager and asked them if they were a doctor or otherwise medically qualified to state that. You know what the result was and the impact of me winning my case ie the manger never repeated those words. HTH.

You do realise that in the above quote, and in your earlier post about the exchange with your manager, you don't come across as favourably as perhaps you imagine you do?

If your employer thinks you need to take leave for any reason (let alone health and safety reasons) they're perfectly entitled to tell you to do so.

If the behaviour you describe was typical of your approach to work and your colleagues, you come across as a right PITA...

strawb_shortcake

My Uncle is one that hated to take holiday, when it was enforced he would find casual farming work and do that as his "holiday" after he got married he would have a yearly holiday abroad. His wife was quite hard work and he crept back up to working 7 days a week as it was preferable to being at home but that was over two jobs.
The only real break he's had from work was when he had cancer and then his only question was when can I go back to work? 
Unfortunately his Wife spent money quicker than he could earn it so he hasn't even got anything to show for it.

justworriedabit

elsien said:

justworriedabit said:

elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

Years ago when I was a lot younger and took no prisoners my manger wanted me to take and I asked why. Initially she could not give a reason and stuttered and then said I do it to everyone so there are at their optimum when they return. I said I was and my work was as good as the next. She then went out to say she did not want her workers to "burn out."  

I asked her if she was a doctor or in anyway medical qualified to make a diagnosis on me, by co-workers sniggered and one did burst out laughing. The manger called me into her office and I put my foot down and told her that if it was the end of the year and she said to me i needs to take A/L and she was doing to everyone to avoid bottlenecks fair enough but she was not. She wanted to give me a verbal warning and take me to HR. I was ready to go to HR before she was and went with the union guy and guess what, lol, she had to back down.

Never again did she go around telling people they need to take their hols just because she felt they were burnt out.

I always took most of my hols and flexi in 1 and 2 days and she then picked me up on that. Again we went to HR with my union rep and as I was not causing a problem ie shortfall of staff I could carry on taking the odd 1/2 every subject to usual conditions ie cover in the office.

People need to stand up for their entitlement IMO.

No need to say anything about being burnt out. 

A simple you need to take x leave by y date; if you don’t book it I’ll allocate the dates for you. 

Without all the completely unnecessary responses. 

So why do you state and I quote ?
"elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

justworriedabit

Sea_Shell said:

AskAsk said:

when i started out working i really liked my job and would quite happily come in 7 days a week if i was allowed and was paid for it!  then when i worked for an employer that allowed you to sell your holiday, i sold all the days i could but we had to have 20 days as a minimum.

then i got older and work was no longer interesting so i started to buy holidays instead!  so much so that i ended up buying 6 months at a time 

I decided in my last job to buy back 365 days holiday a year....it's working great so far!! 😁

LOL, that is funny.

elsien

justworriedabit said:

elsien said:

justworriedabit said:

elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

Years ago when I was a lot younger and took no prisoners my manger wanted me to take and I asked why. Initially she could not give a reason and stuttered and then said I do it to everyone so there are at their optimum when they return. I said I was and my work was as good as the next. She then went out to say she did not want her workers to "burn out."  

I asked her if she was a doctor or in anyway medical qualified to make a diagnosis on me, by co-workers sniggered and one did burst out laughing. The manger called me into her office and I put my foot down and told her that if it was the end of the year and she said to me i needs to take A/L and she was doing to everyone to avoid bottlenecks fair enough but she was not. She wanted to give me a verbal warning and take me to HR. I was ready to go to HR before she was and went with the union guy and guess what, lol, she had to back down.

Never again did she go around telling people they need to take their hols just because she felt they were burnt out.

I always took most of my hols and flexi in 1 and 2 days and she then picked me up on that. Again we went to HR with my union rep and as I was not causing a problem ie shortfall of staff I could carry on taking the odd 1/2 every subject to usual conditions ie cover in the office.

People need to stand up for their entitlement IMO.

No need to say anything about being burnt out. 

A simple you need to take x leave by y date; if you don’t book it I’ll allocate the dates for you. 

Without all the completely unnecessary responses. 

So why do you state and I quote ?
"elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

That was the reason that I wanted them to take leave. I would not necessarily have expressed it to them in those terms. I also preferred staff not to do the ridiculously long shifts that some of them wanted. Or work on every day off. Because it is unfair on the clients to have staff working with them who are knackered and not at their best. If staff are dealing with challenging behaviour, they are more likely to do so effectively without anyone getting damaged if they're not at the end of a very long shift having worked 14 days without a break. 

justworriedabit

elsien said:

justworriedabit said:

elsien said:

justworriedabit said:

elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

Years ago when I was a lot younger and took no prisoners my manger wanted me to take and I asked why. Initially she could not give a reason and stuttered and then said I do it to everyone so there are at their optimum when they return. I said I was and my work was as good as the next. She then went out to say she did not want her workers to "burn out."  

I asked her if she was a doctor or in anyway medical qualified to make a diagnosis on me, by co-workers sniggered and one did burst out laughing. The manger called me into her office and I put my foot down and told her that if it was the end of the year and she said to me i needs to take A/L and she was doing to everyone to avoid bottlenecks fair enough but she was not. She wanted to give me a verbal warning and take me to HR. I was ready to go to HR before she was and went with the union guy and guess what, lol, she had to back down.

Never again did she go around telling people they need to take their hols just because she felt they were burnt out.

I always took most of my hols and flexi in 1 and 2 days and she then picked me up on that. Again we went to HR with my union rep and as I was not causing a problem ie shortfall of staff I could carry on taking the odd 1/2 every subject to usual conditions ie cover in the office.

People need to stand up for their entitlement IMO.

No need to say anything about being burnt out. 

A simple you need to take x leave by y date; if you don’t book it I’ll allocate the dates for you. 

Without all the completely unnecessary responses. 

So why do you state and I quote ?
"elsien said:

I used to insist my staff took holidays so that they didn't burn out. I didn't give them the option not to. Some of them then picked up shifts elsewhere because they wanted the money but if they then came to me telling me they were stressed I had less sympathy than if they'd given themselves a proper break.
As to feeling pressured to do the same, ignore them. Holiday entitlement is there for a reason. As per the above post, I work to live, not live to work. 

That was the reason that I wanted them to take leave. I would not necessarily have expressed it to them in those terms. I also preferred staff not to do the ridiculously long shifts that some of them wanted. Or work on every day off. Because it is unfair on the clients to have staff working with them who are knackered and not at their best. If staff are dealing with challenging behaviour, they are more likely to do so effectively without anyone getting damaged if they're not at the end of a very long shift having worked 14 days without a break. 

Fair enough re highlighted bit but you came across in your other post as that and even now as by stating "not necessarily" meaning you did at times.
As per my previous post, my intervention with the manger did the trick and IMO a manger, director, no one has the right to make that call unless they are medically qualified.
Mr J is a senior manager and he treats his staff the way he'd like to be treated ie with care and respect and never has he told anyone to take A/L like you did just because they looked "burnt out."    -  I too used to be manger but gave up as the companies were asking too much for staff. If I saw someone not looking a 100% not once I'd say go and take A/L - I'd ask them if they were ok and take it from there as appropriate.  My staff, some of them pleaded with me to stay on when they found out I was leaving because almost everyone agreed that I was a "caring, good manager."
I always try to help people and learn from others mistakes and the mangers I challenged, I took a lot of positivies out of them ie what not to say to staff.
Thank you.

GrumpyDil

Sea_Shell said

I decided in my last job to buy back 365 days holiday a year....it's working great so far!! 😁

I tried that recently. Apparently they won't pay me to take 365 days a year and work one day every 4 years 😭

TELLIT01

Any manager who backs down to an employee despite being in the right shouldn't be in a role where they are managing people.

Gavin83

I have a few colleagues like this. Almost universally it's the people who either live on their own or in some cases grown middle aged men who still live with their mothers and often have no friends outside of work. A few more just don't like their home life. For some people work is all they really have and therefore I can understand why these people wouldn't wish to take holiday, after all, what else will they do?

You also have to appreciate some people love working. For you, if I asked what you'd do with your time off you'll likely say go out for the day, take part in a hobby, see friends, go on holiday, that sort of thing. For these people they'd rather work than do all these things. If working is their "hobby" and there's nothing else they'd rather do why shouldn't they work?

Someone mentioned about everyone taking annual leave at once too. It's a significant problem in my place, especially this year. Loads take the majority of their leave in March so you end up with half the workforce away and it's difficult to get anything done.

Personally for me I'll take as much annual leave as I can. I avoid the March rush (mainly because I have no leave left by then!) but I often take a week off in April. I've got the 4 days next week booked off and given how stressful this year has been I can't wait!

Dakta

"You also have to appreciate some people love working."

This can happen. Vaguely similar note there was a thread recently where I think (think!) people were commenting the unlikelihood or ironies of staff being passionate about their work too. Didn't comment but in reality such people do exist. Might seem bizzarre but people do exist like this, and sometimes they even get rewards from it beyond contentment.

If you find your hobby your job, and if you find you don't after a while you hate it because it's become your job, fantastic - and I say that because you're a very lucky person.