Funeral Bank Holiday, work closed, forced holiday

JReacher1

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

SiliconChip

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

You could be switching jobs a lot with that attitude, given that every employer has the right to dictate when holidays are taken, even if they normally don't use it. When I was working I usually had a lot of flexibility but I never worked anywhere that didn't enforce taking Christmas and New Years Day as holidays.

p00hsticks

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

I think you're stretching it a bit far to equate 'a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays' with this situation that hasn't happened before in the last seventy years and is probably only likely to happen once more in a lifetime....

The OP isn't even the person who's being asked to take the holiday - it;s their husband (who for all we know just wants to work because he knows he's not going to get out of being made to sit on the sofa and watch the funeral coverage all day if he's at home).

And we know nothing about what sort of job they do and how realistic it is for the employer to function with only a fraction of the workforce. People who work in fairly solitary office environments are one thing, but there are many manufacturing industries running production lines that really require a full quota of people in at any one time in order to function. In unprecedented circumstances like these such employers really have four choices

a) insist that everyone comes to work as usual - which with bank holiday timetables and schools closed is likely to cause use problems with transport and childcare for some employees , as well as preventing those who wish to watch the funeral form doing so

b) close the workplace and insist that everyone takes it as a days paid holiday, which is what this employer has done

c) close the workplace and insist that everyone takes a day off unpaid, which could cause financial hardship for some employees (and I'm not sure about the legality of this option)

d) close the workplace and pay everyone as usual without reducing their holiday quota - obviously the best option for the employee, but potentially financially a non-starter for the employer, especially if they are a relatively small business with high fuel costs as many manufacturing industries are.  An extra days holiday for every employee on the books could amount to a considerable sum that the employer simply can't afford in the current climate 

So if you were such an employer, which option would you go for ?

Ath_Wat

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

Really?  Regardless of all else, this single point would mean you'd change jobs?  Even if everything else was perfect, and the company regularly went out of their way to make you happy, you'd leave instantly because they said you had to take a day's holiday for the Queen's funeral?

Undervalued

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

And they have been helped by being given the correct answer! 

Even an employer with flexible contractual arrangements for staff "booking" holidays can only go so far. In most business, clearly not everybody can always get the holiday dates of their choice. Monday it a real one off in that a public holiday has been created with barely a week's notice. The government has however stressed that no firm is obliged to close. Those that choose to stay open will clearly only be able to let a limited number of staff take the day as holiday. Those that close will presumably be "forcing" the majority of their staff (apart from maybe security etc) to take the day off. Some companies may choose to give staff an additional day's paid leave but they don't have to.

jimpwarsop

Really?  Regardless of all else, this single point would mean you'd change jobs?  Even if everything else was perfect, and the company regularly went out of their way to make you happy, you'd leave instantly because they said you had to take a day's holiday for the Queen's funeral?

Of course, they could do it again when Charles dies.

Undervalued

jimpwarsop said:

Really?  Regardless of all else, this single point would mean you'd change jobs?  Even if everything else was perfect, and the company regularly went out of their way to make you happy, you'd leave instantly because they said you had to take a day's holiday for the Queen's funeral?

Of course, they could do it again when Charles dies.

Indeed. Plus they will, very likely, do it again next year for his coronation!

TBagpuss

Undervalued said:

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

And they have been helped by being given the correct answer! 

Even an employer with flexible contractual arrangements for staff "booking" holidays can only go so far. In most business, clearly not everybody can always get the holiday dates of their choice. Monday it a real one off in that a public holiday has been created with barely a week's notice. The government has however stressed that no firm is obliged to close. Those that choose to stay open will clearly only be able to let a limited number of staff take the day as holiday. Those that close will presumably be "forcing" the majority of their staff (apart from maybe security etc) to take the day off. Some companies may choose to give staff an additional day's paid leave but they don't have to.

Exactly - most reasonable employers try to approve staff requests for holidays, as much as possible, but most have rules about things like how many people can be off at any given tim, to ensure coverage, many will have manadatory shutdowns (the period between chrsitmas and new year being common in office jobs, for instance, and  places with production lines may also jhaave a mandtory shutdown in the summer or at easter  as it can be necessary both to ensurethat safe staffing levels are maintained and as it may be needed to allow for servicing of   the machinery. 

And of course some jobs have persods where people are not permitted to take holidays - my sister is an accountant and in her previous job there were blocks of time that weren't availabe for holidays due to very high levels of work related to tax deadlines, for example.

My BIL works for the NHS in a job where  24/7/365 coverage is needed so he doesn't necessarily get to take holiday when he wants

Like most things in life, for most people there's an element of compromise. Most of the timeyou get to choose whichdays you have off and how you use your holiday time, and your employer will work round that, but ocassionally it may go the other way and you will need to fit round them. 

Obviosuly if you feel very strongly about it you are free to leave the job but for asingle day it's an odd thing to decie is your hill to die on. 

JReacher1

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

Really?  Regardless of all else, this single point would mean you'd change jobs?  Even if everything else was perfect, and the company regularly went out of their way to make you happy, you'd leave instantly because they said you had to take a day's holiday for the Queen's funeral?

Not leave instantly. I would look for another job and then when I secured it would leave. 

You’ve done what most people on the internet do which is create a fake scenario about the OP’s husbands employer which is clearly not the case here. A company that either forces you to take holiday or a day unpaid due to the funeral of the queen is not an employer that cares about its employees. 

DullGreyGuy

JReacher1 said:

Ath_Wat said:

JReacher1 said:

Marcon said:

JReacher1 said:

Sounds like he has a bad employer. Personally I would look for another job. 

Just think how that would sound to a prospective employer if you gave that as the reason for leaving.

I think a lack of flexibility over holiday days is an acceptable reason to seek a new job. 

It’s strange that you don’t think it is 

It's a bit strange that knowing nothing other than that, you would suggest looking for a new job.  He might be on £100K a year for 4hours a day, 3 days a week.  But that's fine, he should get a new job because they want him to take a day's holiday for this.

I accept some people (you for instance) are happy to have their holidays dictated to them by their employer but as the OP has come on this forum to ask for help it doesn’t sound like they are one of them. 

Personally I think the ability to choose when to take your own holidays is key (teachers excluded obviously) so I would leave a job that forced me to take certain days as holidays. 

But you are talking a single exceptional circumstance... as far as you know they may be exceptionally flexible in allowing people off and dont have strict maximum 2 people per team at any time etc type rules. 

Most people will also look at a job in the round... is it better to have 30 days + 8 bank holidays and a single date is fixed or have 20 days + 8 bank holidays but flexibility subject to minimum staffing levels? Does a 20% employer contribution pension offset having some of your holidays on set dates? Is it better to be paid £40k for a low stress job that you can comfortably do in your 40 hours a week or be paid £50k for a job that routinely requires you to work into the evening and you're stressed about over the weekend even if not actually working.