Unusual leave request

WelshGlyndwr

I work in a job with a generous annual leave. I have 13 days leave to take before the leave year is over. I work 5 days a week. if i took one day a week off for 13 weeks. Would that be unusual? my employer is checkkng with HR whether that constitutes a change to working hours....

lincroft1710

Employers decide when leave can be taken. So if it suits them they can agree to your proposal. If they don't you will have to rethink when you want to take your leave.

theoretica

It shouldn't be a change in working hours - any more than someone who always takes the first 2 weeks in August off.  They are still working hours but you are spreading your holiday out. 

Spendless

I can't see why it would be a change in your working hours when you're using AL to take the days off. Whether your own line manager/department is happy for you to take 1 day off a week for 1/4 of the year and will agree to it, is a different matter. 

turnitround

Depending on the company you work for I expect that  it may prove difficult for others to take holidays.

Where I worked, ( large company with 200 on each shift) in order to make sure that everyone managed to get their holidays booked they had a percentage of staff who were allowed to be off on any given day.
A number of people were required to meet the business needs each day so they had to limit the numbers they allowed off each day to ensure they were not in a position where they were short staffed, for instance during the school holidays when a lot of people wanted to book time off. 

 Once that number was reached then that day was 'full' and your request was refused. On my team I had issues with a couple of staff who constantly wanted to book Mondays and Fridays off rather than taking full weeks. This meant that some who wanted to take a full week were not able to as the Mon/Fri was fully booked. So in fairness to others we had to stop them continuously wanting long weekends.

Could this be an issue at your workplace, are you asking for every Friday off?

WelshGlyndwr

i work mainly on my own for a big employer. I was told i wasnt allowed to take it was it was a change in working hours. However, i am sure this incorrect. Others in the organisation pick and choose what their part time hours are.

El_Torro

WelshGlyndwr said:

i work mainly on my own for a big employer. I was told i wasnt allowed to take it was it was a change in working hours. However, i am sure this incorrect. Others in the organisation pick and choose what their part time hours are.

As mentioned already this is not a change in working hours, it’s just holiday. Your employer is allowed to refuse of course, which is what they have done. As long as they allow you to take the holiday you need to take they can tell you when to take it. This often happens in some professions, for example teaching. 

DullGreyGuy

WelshGlyndwr said:

i work mainly on my own for a big employer. I was told i wasnt allowed to take it was it was a change in working hours. However, i am sure this incorrect. Others in the organisation pick and choose what their part time hours are.

They ultimately dont have to give a reason, you apply and they say yay or nay. Sometimes they'll make excuses to hope not to look like bad guys but it's in no way necessary, they can just say no.

So, decide when you want a more concentrated block of time off.

Marcon

WelshGlyndwr said:

i work mainly on my own for a big employer. I was told i wasnt allowed to take it was it was a change in working hours. However, i am sure this incorrect. Others in the organisation pick and choose what their part time hours are.

Your employer is talking nonsense. It has no impact on your contracted working hours, provided your employer agrees to let you take your leave in this way (assuming there are no contractual provisions about when/how you take your leave).

Savvy_Sue

WelshGlyndwr said:

i work mainly on my own for a big employer. I was told i wasnt allowed to take it was it was a change in working hours. However, i am sure this incorrect. Others in the organisation pick and choose what their part time hours are.

There's a difference between your contract and theirs though. Yours is for 5 days pw. Theirs is for flexible p/t hours.

So that's not an argument.

I agree with those saying it's not a change to your working hours, but I can see why it might be resisted. Way back my company had flexitime, and it was well used. One of my team wanted to book every Friday afternoon, and that was turned down. Had they asked for a formal change of hours, it would have been considered (of course) but probably turned down: we needed cover then, and reducing the team by one permanently would have affected everyone else's ability to take a Friday off.

TBagpuss

It's not a change in working hours, it's just a different way of using your holidays.

You may find that if you but the requests in separately a couple of weeks in advance of each day off that it is not an issue (or if you alternate mon and fri!) 

That said, it the employer doesn't have to approve it and if it creates issues such as understaffing which might mean others can't take holiday, of if there are things that you normally do which need to be done on a Friday then they could legitimately reject it - it's one thing for others to have to cover 'normal' holiday where you might be out on one or two Fridays but 3 months worth is a different matter!