nastyapple Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 I have a holiday booked from the 1st-14th August, and I haven't been allowed the time off work to go. I haven't been allowed to swap my shifts with another member of staff and my holiday is all booked and paid for - I'm going. I'm planning to go to personel today and ask if there is any possibility of me taking the holiday unpaid. If they say no, I'm handing them my notice. Guidelines say I have to give a week's notice, and my reasons for leaving. What am I supposed to write? I'm leaving because I'm not allowed time off for the holiday? I've done them loads of overtime lately aswell, what a joke! It's either leave or be sacked if they won't let me go unpaid.
Thornton Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 Um.... shouldn't you have booked time off work before you actually booked a holiday? I wouldn't ditch my job for a holiday... losing the cost of the holiday will be less than the wages you would lose in months of unemployment, and you could probably sell the holiday to someone and recoup some money anyway. Are we talking about a career job here, or a summer job or something that you're not too committed to? If you're determined to take the holiday, perhaps you should meet with personnel and emphasise how important it is to you to be able to go on holiday, and say that there are easy solutions such as swapping shifts, and you're prepared to submit your resignation if this issue can't be resolved... they might be more reasonable if they think they're going to lose you. Alternatively, just pull a sickie... go to the doctor the week before the holiday and claim something unprovable like back pain, get a 2 week sick note to be absent from work... your employer can't say anything about you being absent from work if the doctor says you need to be.
Author nastyapple Posted July 10, 2009 Author Posted July 10, 2009 Well, I did everything by procedure. I submitted a holiday form, which has to be signed firstly by my department manager and then by a member of staff from personnel... I didn't get the holiday form signed by a department manager for weeks (she was never in when I was, and I'd left numerous notes etc). By the time she signed it, the time slot was fully booked. The holiday wasn't booked by me, it was booked by family. They paid, and I have no choice other than going. I just think they have a nerve to put me down on the rota for overtime (without asking) when they know fine well I'm a uni student and have other commitments! I'm only contracted 8.5 hours per week, it's not like I'm THAT valued, and last week I worked about 22 hours, just to do them a favour! Slave drivers haha!
imani Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 How's the economy over in England? Will it be easy for you to find another job if you quit this one? I'm afraid if you quit and go, you won't be able to even enjoy your holiday because you'll be worried about how you'll find a new job when you get back. Can you give them a two week notice, use that time to secure another job while you still have one and book a holiday for yourself after your two weeks are up. You could put your available start date of the new job to coincide with your return from your holiday. This way you won't be losing anything. The hard part is that there would be no sure bet that you could find another job within your two weeks notice time.
BUENG1 Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 Well, I did everything by procedure. I submitted a holiday form, which has to be signed firstly by my department manager and then by a member of staff from personnel... I didn't get the holiday form signed by a department manager for weeks (she was never in when I was, and I'd left numerous notes etc). By the time she signed it, the time slot was fully booked. The holiday wasn't booked by me, it was booked by family. They paid, and I have no choice other than going. I just think they have a nerve to put me down on the rota for overtime (without asking) when they know fine well I'm a uni student and have other commitments! I'm only contracted 8.5 hours per week, it's not like I'm THAT valued, and last week I worked about 22 hours, just to do them a favour! Slave drivers haha! Are you a part timer just earning extra money? Or do you need this job to make a living? is it something your doing that could turn full time when u graduate. If no and you can afford to not have a job then just give your 2 weeks notice and be done with it. If you do need a job then I would rethink.
Jilly Bean Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 If you are working 8 hours a week, I don't see how losing this job is going to be very impactful...
Thornton Posted July 10, 2009 Posted July 10, 2009 OK, so obviously this is just a part time job to keep you going while you're studying, it isn't your actual career... so in that case quitting is much less of a big deal. You asked for the time off, they knew you wanted it because you had left notes, but they never completed the forms despite your repeated requests. Then they refused to allow you to swap shifts with someone so you could go on a holiday that's already booked, which is just them being difficult, I can't think of any reason why you can't swap shifts - you did them a favour doing overtime, but now they can't do you a favour and allow you to swap shifts? Ridiculous if it's only a part-time job. I would explain the situation to them - you asked for the holiday and their manager didn't sign your form, the holiday is booked and the situation can easily be dealt with by swapping shifts, and you're prepared to quit if they won't allow this... plus you did them a favour working overtime and it would be nice to have the favour returned. As I said before, if they think you're going to quit they might allow you to change shifts... if not they're just being awkward. And you always have the option of pulling a sickie, which is what I'd do in this situation... they can't fire you if your doctor has given you a sick note. Since you're a student, go to the doctor and tell him you're suffering from back pain, or stress from uni, and get a 2 week sick note... your employer can't do anything if you have a sick note. If all else fails, quit... part time jobs are easy enough to come by. When I was a student I once quit my part-time bar job because they wanted me to work Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and night, Boxing day and night, New Years Eve and day, as well as my usual shifts! So basically I would have been working right through the entire holidays. I said it was unfair because I hadn't agreed to do all of those shifts, plus other members of staff had ALL of those days off. They said they had given all the older ladies the time off because they had family (what? I don't have family just because I was only 20 with no kids?) plus they wanted all the young good-looking girls behind the bar over the holidays to pull the punters in. I said if they didn't change my shifts to be more fair I was quitting... they refused, so I quit, and got a new job after Xmas.
zoe1983 Posted July 12, 2009 Posted July 12, 2009 i dont know how your job works but if its anything like mine then i feel ur pain! They only allow us to take time off three months in advance. I am getting married next may and even though i already booked the venue there is a chance that my job will try to say no to me taking time off. What can i do though....not many venues you can book with only three months notice!!! The thing that really bothers me is that last may the whole month was closed because two people i work with (who are married) took the whole month to visit back home in the Philippines!!
RA1 Posted July 12, 2009 Posted July 12, 2009 I think your employer is being totally unreasonable. You can't be that indispensable if you only work 8.5 hr per week. You yourself have made good arguments and other posters have also made good suggestions.Try to reason with your employer. Tell them how you filed your application early and how they sat on it. Personally, I wouldn't have the nerve to go to the doctor and claim I was sick when I wasn't but if you feel you can pull it off, go for it. Another possibility - check the circumstances under which you need a doctor's note. It sounds as if your 2-week trip only involves missing 2 x 8.5 hours of work. Is a doctor's note necessary for missing that time?
Author nastyapple Posted July 14, 2009 Author Posted July 14, 2009 It's only a part time job that I have while I'm studying. I've worked there since I left school and was old enough to get a job, and I've done them numerous favours over the years. There really is a LOT of favouritism within the departments. (I work in a supermarket). For example, on a Sunday afternoon when the shop was closed with customers, one of the young girls on my department (same age as me) was made to clean the shelves EVERY week. It's an awful and extremelly boring job - I thought it was unfair it was given to her to do every week. I made a point of speaking to my manager about this, saying everyone should be given that job at some point and it should be rotated fairly - one person doing it one week, the next person the week after etc. It makes it all round fairer. Guess who got landed with the job for the next 3 months or so every week? Me. I took it further and fought my corner until they let me show someone else how to do it. It was then rotated between us 3 when there were like 10 people on the department. We gave up arguing about it because noone listened. I just took my revenge by doing a half hearted job of it and opened the cleaning products off the shelves every week instead of using the disgusting ones they gave us to use. Stealing from the company, technically yes. But do I care? no. I need this Friday off work, so I asked to work the hours up for them on a different night. They said I could work Wednesday instead.... Although now I have to work for 7 and a half hours to make up for 4 and a half. See where I'm going? They're not fair at all. I spoke to one of the nicer managers about the holiday and explained my problem. She said it should be fine for me to take it unpaid, and said that 17 hours in total wasn't much to miss and it should be easy to get it covered. She did say I'd have to speak to a specific member of staff and to call the store tomorrow to have a talk with her and get it sorted. I called, they said she was in a meeting, and she'd call back. She didn't, so I called her again. As soon as I mentioned what it was about, she said she was busy and couldn't talk. She said I'd have to come into work, and sort it with her. I came in, she said to pop a note under her door on Wednesday to remind her and she'd let me know on Monday. What a carry on, just for missing 17 hours work over a period of 2 weeks.
Author nastyapple Posted July 14, 2009 Author Posted July 14, 2009 How's the economy over in England? Will it be easy for you to find another job if you quit this one? The economy is terrible. I've tried looking for another job because quite simply I hate this one, but there really are no jobs. No part time ones at least. I've tried every job website, every newspaper etc. Nothing.
TwinkletOes26 Posted July 14, 2009 Posted July 14, 2009 I worked in a place like this a grocery store to be exact like you LOL. MY issue was my boss was a blatant racist. She would make comments about mexicans shopping in the store. She would say stuff like black people didnt value education like whites yea. You know what i did ..i quit.I found another job at another grocery store much much later. I could do this at the time though i was in college and had no bills to pay. If you have that option which it sounds like you do then quit if you can afford to. If not i would seriously find another job b4 giving your two weeks notice.
cyml Posted August 8, 2009 Posted August 8, 2009 If you didn't sign a contract, you don't have to abide by guidelines. That's the way it is in most places. Basically if you didn't sign an agreement to abide by those guidelines, than you're fine. You can leave whenever you want and it doesn't matter.
anne1707 Posted August 8, 2009 Posted August 8, 2009 If you didn't sign a contract, you don't have to abide by guidelines. That's the way it is in most places. Basically if you didn't sign an agreement to abide by those guidelines, than you're fine. You can leave whenever you want and it doesn't matter. This is not correct in England. There will be a basic set of terms and conditions (in line with legislative requirements predominantly) which will be implied and both employee and employer are obliged to follow even if a contract has not been signed. This job however sounds like an absolute nightmare and even if there was not this holiday issue (on which the employers do appear to be acting unreasonably), I would consider leaving anyway.
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