Bermudashorts

Is it normal in your work place to have to get approval for holidays before you actually book them?

Generally my organisation is very accommodating towards staff taking their leave at whatever time they wish, however today one of my direct reports has come to me to say that somebody that reports to him wants 7 weeks off and has booked flights because it did not occur to her that this would be an issue. Annual leave entitlement is 4 weeks but this person saved up some leave.

This is the second time in 12 months that somebody in my wider team has booked flights without organising time off first, so I am starting to think it must be the norm.

RedT

My old company was pretty cool about it if it fell within the normal 2 week holiday maximum and you didn't book it when you knew there was a mega deadline coming up. But anything over two weeks had to be approved further up so we ALWAYS got permission before booking anything. 7 weeks seems a long to to me to just assume you can be off...

Bermudashorts

The previous occasion was 3 weeks and it was at a very busy time and highly inconvenient. It wasn't one of my direct reports but got escalated to me as an issue. I let him have the leave in the end, because his flights were not refundable and there did seem to be some confusion over whether this leave had been informally / verbally agreed or not by someone that had since left. With current case there is definitely no confusion in that respect ... I think it's a generation y thing.

DadAgain

We have no formal policy on length of leave that requires 'pre-approval'.

Having said that I'm in the habit of taking holidays that last 4 weeks - so I tend to verify that at least in principal my boss is ok with me being out for 'a month at xmas', or 'a few weeks around easter' (just to make sure it doesnt clash with other team members plans. Since this is almost always fine (I tend to plan more in advance than my coleagues ), I then book my travel and get formal approval for the leave once the precise dates are known (which never happens until the booking is actually made and locked in).

Kooky.

No, it's not normal, certainly not in the Team I'm currently working with (who I've worked with before so know them well). We would consult each other, bring it up at a team meeting, ensure adequate coverage for planned jobs (we service the rest of the organisation), try to do our best to suit everybody but understand that sometimes we have to be grown-ups and we don't always get what we want.

Then it's marked down in a shared calendar that the whole Department can see.

If somebody has saved up extra holiday to take extended leave, they've obviously known for some time that they want this time off, and I'd wonder how their manager did not know this if they'd carried over leave from a previous year.

Is the "book first ask later" system something you've inherited as acceptable from the previous management? Hard to reverse it, if it is.

Dreamy

It isn't normal practice in Himself's workplace (or, according to his contract, for his new employer either) Days off are one thing, anything more than that he has to get signed off by his line manager.

When we went to the UK, he had to take almost 5 weeks off, 3 of which were unpaid (ouch) and that had to be signed off by both HR and his line manager's line manager

Bermudashorts

Yes I was also thinking that the direct manager (my report) should have spotted that leave was accruing and should have wondered why! But they are new to management so I think have just not had to deal with that side of things before.

Not sure, although neither of the individuals involved have worked here that long, maybe about a year each at the time of booking the leave. hence I started to wonder if this is how things work over here generally.

Bermudashorts

That just reminded me, I booked a trip back to UK a few weeks ago and didn't get my leave pre-approved.

However it was only two weeks, it was with 11 months notice and I did make sure it was fully refundable just in case it was not approved. I was booking flights on FF points and didn't want to miss them.

DadAgain

It is extremely normal to accrue large amounts of leave. In my workplace we are all way too busy and dont take enouigh holiday. We have one guy with 3 months leave accrued + 3 months long service leave, another with 2 months accrued and I'll have 5 weeks leave accrued even after I get back from having 4 weeks off at xmas.

Accruing leave in itself is not necessarily indicative of having extensive holiday plans.

I'm sure numerous studies have indicated that when it comes to taking their holidays Australians are very bad and we lead the world in 'accrued leave'.

Bermudashorts

I cannot imagine that I will ever embrace the Australian way of building up accrued leave. We only get 4 weeks, I need 4 weeks leave a year.

Kooky.

I suspect how much "the norm" it is depends on the type of work someone does, how much impact it has if they just take off for a few weeks.

Might be a good time to ask who's due for Long Service Leave, and whose wife is about to pop (blokes taking parental leave, although they are supposed to give you ten weeks' notice IIRC).

Lots of types of leave in Australia, that's for sure.

edit: DadAgain beat me to some of that.

I never have enough leave - I end up taking some without pay.

Kooky.

You're an accountant, aren't you? Accrued leave here must be a huge financial liability.

Bermudashorts

It is indeed. My company does try to manage it however, people that accrue more than 4 weeks are "encouraged" to start using it. At payrise time whatever is sitting on the balance sheet gets revalued for pay increases and immediately hits profit.

DadAgain

???? .. Thats just UNAustralian....

'Payrise time' happens only when you quit your job and find a new one. This is a reason I am so gobsmackingly surprised every time I hear of people actually managing to acrue long service leave! How do people manage to stay in the same job for 10 years without appropriate pay rises? (Perhaps I just always managed to work for complete tight-ass employers?)

Turban Explorer

Didn't it used to be the thing that if you didn't move jobs every couple of years you weren't ambitious. Maybe that's lost in these tough economic times.