Employers should not have a say on when employees can take leave, amirite?

24/7 healthcare finds this unpopular. I think it would be great if ppl could take off whenever, but its not practical.

by Far-Minute1065 11 months ago

"As we have no staff, all area hospitals will be closed from Dec 23 - Jan 3, good luck."

by abdul07 11 months ago

Yes! I can finally try out my home appendectomy kit! The doctor is IN!

by Anonymous 11 months ago

So nurses and doctors don't deserve their own time?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

In most companies the "request for leave" is generally taken to be granted unless there's very good reasons to not do so, such as not having enough leave balance. Staff would be made aware of when you shouldn't request leave. Some have already given the retail Christmas season as a pretty good example. If you're in tax, you're likely not taking much time off between July and September, at least here in Australia.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

"we're sorry about your house burning down, but all our firefighters took a day off."

by Successful_Apple_644 11 months ago

So when most of the workforce wants the same time off so the business can't operate and closes for that time period would you expect to be paid

by Hot_Impression 11 months ago

Maybe I lack reading comprehension, but I would not expect to get paid when I do not work.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

The magical HR elves will figure it out.

by Rhetthessel 11 months ago

"Not my problem if you're spread thin or don't have back up employees." Ah, but it will be your problem when half the place takes off leave for something, e.g. a football game, and you're practically doing double the work you were meant to with little recompense. This may not mean much in a job where employees can be plentiful but for something like an engineering firm, having half your staff show up for a big job is gonna cause problems. You're correct on one thing though, you definitely shouldn't have to explain WHY you're taking leave when requesting it, but it should still be requested well in advance. I've taken half-days off from midday to get a head start on travelling up to concerts, and no one cares. Also booked off two weeks in August for a holiday, and I put in the request at the start of the year (literally Jan 3rd of 4th) which was instantly greenlit. The more time you give to plan the happier people will be to let you take off My role is a little bit of a unique one, where it requires travel for in-house training/courses which are ran and paid for by the company. Booking leave during these would not only waste their time and money, but it could also put my progress back by up to a year with how in-demand they are. That's why, at least for me, checking when I have no conflicts and requesting it is beneficial.

by CitronNarrow7325 11 months ago

"Sorry students, I'm going somewhere in April, but don't worry you'll be taking 3 lessons per week throughout August to make up for it".

by Anonymous 11 months ago

So close for Christmas? Companies can 100% afford it

by Recent_Royal 11 months ago

Imagine being unable to access your money or fly somewhere during December because the banks and airlines just "closed for Christmas" lol.

by Goodwinellen 11 months ago

Y'all acting like I said an entire month. Christmas is ONE DAY

by Recent_Royal 11 months ago

Yes but many people like to take off the surrounding days too

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Yeah, and on that ONE DAY people spend like crazy - which is why a lot of businesses stay open. What, you think restaurants, pubs, grocery stores, etc., will shut their doors on one of the most profitable days for the entire year? Nah, not going to happen. Plus, you want some entertainment on Christmas, do you? What, did you think that what you watched on TV on that day appeared by magic on your screen? No, it didn't, it was put there by people like me. I don't work in TV anymore, but I used to - and technicians like the one I was were not allowed to take any vacation days around Christmas and Easter for a reason - those were the hardest days to work and we often needed all hands on deck. Businesses that can afford to close on holidays usually do.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Sort of depends on if the company is a grocery store or an accounting firm, doesn't it?

by Strong-Tour-4128 11 months ago

Many companies highest earning period is around Christmas, a week around that time could be worth more than an entire month at another point of the year. Also can customers afford to go without food and water over Christmas?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

I didn't know Christmas was longer than one day. Don't recall saying Christmas vacation. Just said Christmas

by Recent_Royal 11 months ago

Is today not your day with the brain cell? Many many people wouldn't just take off xmas day, they'd try to take off a handful of days to where it would very likely leave many places short staffed

by Anonymous 11 months ago

You are being extremely obtuse here

by Both_Profile 11 months ago

I can literally start a company right now by getting an LLC. That doesn't mean I can afford anything.

by Time_Influence3796 11 months ago

You would not like this. Customers would all be impacted. Mail would not arrive. Amazon not deliver. Surgeries not happen. People would literally die from this

by Rafael22 11 months ago

Wait until the payroll department all take their leave at the same time at last minute.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

In my experience that's usually forced to avoid having to pay it out instead, typically happens around the end of the fiscal year.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Heres the problem with that... too many people will abuse it.

by Both_Profile 11 months ago

Those people in HR and Operations have figured out the logistics of staff movements. If you have 30 workers, all 30 of them can not take leave at the same time.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

If people are being paid to figure out the logistics of staff movements, wouldn't that include ensuring that employees take leave at reasonably scheduled times? Even a properly staffed company with wonderful backup can't have every employee suddenly on leave at the same time and still operate effectively.

by Rosendo74 11 months ago

Lol, tell me you've never worked or appreciated Ops without telling me you've never worked or appreciated Ops. The people paid to work these issues out are usually some of the worst paid in the company (at least in my last fours jobs worth of experience). In an idea world, we could all take as much time off whenever we want, but a lot of companies wouldn't exist anymore.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

I think those special people for "figuring it out" understand that sometimes it's not possible for every worker to take leave whenever they want. What if every single worker wants to go away for month at the same time?

by jadamckenzie 11 months ago

Where I am I can take any single day off with just 24 hours notice. In practice 12 hours notice is accepted. When I need or want to take a week off I the maximum wait time is two weeks but that too can be as little as one day if scheduling allows.

by veumray 11 months ago

Depending on professions this ranges from "completely not doable" to "this is already standard practice". In my 10+ years a manager in software dev I have never denied a single holiday request (and even lectured people on not ever giving me elaborate explanations on why they need a single day off). Hospitals, airports, bakeries even... different story.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

At my job and every job I've had as an adult, I've just told the boss I'm taking off this day. No problem. At my current job we just put it on our shared calendar so everyone on the team knows.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

The employer should be able to reasonably refuse, jf they have a valid reason then it should be fine to decline it. Also sure there's plenty of people who work on creating schedules, but you can't make something out nothing. If there's not enough staff then it just won't work.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

This is an organizational thing. I've only worked at small businesses, so taking leave basically means someone else has to cover your shifts, which means they work 7 days a week for a while.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Well this sucks in healthcare, we are allowed a maximum number of people to simultaneously take vacation. And I don't see a logical way around it, you can't hire more because you actually don't need that much people most of the time so it's wasted money.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

I have a work trip booked for June. Should I be able to take the day of my flight off? What about a day in the middle when meetings are scheduled?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Technically I completely agree; I used to work for a guy who'd leverage leave requests by demanding that all holidays were authorised by him personally, then require a meeting with the employee before he'd give authorisation, then deliberately make himself unavailable until a day or two before the date, then make use of the meeting to force acceptance of pretty much any condition that he liked if you didn't want to have to trash your by-now-fully-arranged holiday plans. It was so much the expected process that it was accepted that if you want to take your allowed leave you were going to have to pay with a pound of flesh. On the other hand, a lot of businesses have a genuine need to make sure they're manned, and resourcing doesn't always pan out the way you'd like it to, so somebody would need to be making the call about what's just cause to deny leave and what isn't. For that you need some kind of external process / regulation / tribunal, which is a whole lot of infrastructure and investigation for something that probably in a lot of cases is just unavoidable circumstance. (But if your HR are demanding to know why you're taking time off, they're over-stepping.)

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Sounds like a popular opinion to me. 👀

by Foreign_Nose3227 11 months ago

Not at all. Only for people who do not understand how to run a business. Saying that HR should just get back-up is not a smart argument bc if everyone decided to just take time off during the same period, there is no back-up possible. No, reasonable notice and first come, first served. Companies should allow a minimum amount of staffing and those who said it first, should get it. But if you are too late, you cannot just 'tell them'.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

It kind of is in Europe. My boss knows if they refuse my leave request I'll definitely be going on paid sick leave, so better off just approving it because I won't be there anyway

by BudgetPie 11 months ago

Anyone who doesn't agree with what you said is probably an employer. Popular opinion

by Fabulous-Cricket5879 11 months ago

No, I'm an employee, and as nice as it would be, if everyone took time off at the same time, then the place would be severely understaffed. That's the biggest reason.

by eusebio33 11 months ago

As a teacher I completely agree...

by Anonymous 11 months ago