May only be a part position I'm in, but we've recently had a new manager where I work. Staff holidays have never really been an issue, if you knew when you were away over summer, you'd book it a few months in advance.

New manager has now decided he now wants to know EXACT dates we require off, for next year, and to book them on a 'first come, first serve' basis. So now of course all the full time staff have booked July/Aug off, and another new rule means part timers such as myself can't be off when a full timer is.

Pretty sure rules like this can't just be made up when the manager feels like it?

Any thoughts/advice?

Oh, and it's a chain of stores..over 400 stores in the UK

Thanks.

It's up to your manager to decide how many can be off at any time. However, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to "favour" full-time staff over part-time.

What do your Ts&Cs say?

TBH booking holidays like that is fairly common – it's how it works at our place
Everyone who need specific dates gets them in early – if you don't you'll have to take what's left

Sounds normal to me. If you have a good boss then they make sure its fair in the long term.

Yes I used to have this problem, only trouble is everyone had kids and there could be no overlap 13 people wanting two weeks in the half term is a problem.

MrFC is a firefighter and is issued his holiday dates a year in advance. His 2 week leave date is for September next year. I'm a teacher so have to take my hols in July/August. SO no family holiday for us next year.
I presume that as you are part time, you do not have children(may be completely wrong of course). Why would you want hols in July/August? I'd be delighted if I didn't have to take my hols at this time.

Find a new job…

LOL…just looked at your profile and you're a student!!! Your whole life is a holiday! 8)

FoxyChick – Member

Why would you want hols in July/August? I'd be delighted if I didn't have to take my hols at this time.

Find a new job…

Non of us were told of this new arrangement, just a crappy little notice up on the board.

Checked and I can't have any real time off in July/Aug, due to the fact the full timers are having at least two weeks off!

Why then?, well I race and this is the busiest time of the season, and I was hoping to go southern france to see the Tour and some family in July.

0091paddy – Member

Checked and I can't have any real time off in July/Aug, due to the fact the full timers are having at least two weeks off!

I'm not sure that's right.

Just had a look.. I reckon they can set any policy they want.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10029788

Checked and I can't have any real time off in July/Aug, due to the fact the full timers are having at least two weeks off!

do you mean they beat you to it?

@ uplink, I'd not been in for over a week so couldn't participate in the race to book time off!

@ uplink, I'd not been in for over a week so couldn't participate in the race to book time off!

I think you're going to struggle to make anything of that
I guess there's no time when everyone is in so someone will always not get first shout
At our place – the holiday diary is opened at the beginning of each year, if you're working on Jan 1st you get the pick of the dates, those that are off & on holiday have to choose from what's left.

As a postie, we have to give exact dates for our summer 2 weeks, usually 6 months in advance.
As my beloved employer has shed quite a lot of staff recently, and is in the process of getting rid of more, there's noone available to provide any holiday cover, so the chances of getting any other periods off = zero. I currently have about eight weeks accrued leave( from previous years) but no ability to take it.
The hilarious thing about where I work is that if you need a day-in-lieu, say for a wedding or funeral(!), they need at least ten months advance notice, and even then you might be turned down nearer the time.
I dont think the OP's situation doesnt sound any different to anywhere I've previously worked, though.

Only being in my job a few months I discovered that I couldn't get any useful time off over christmas or the new year as it's first come first served, the same with working bank holidays you have to do 2 a year, and if someone hadn't already put there name forward for xmas and boxing day it would have been me, luckily my team leader put his name forward.
So I got my arse in to gear and created a bit of a bad feeling in the office by, putting my 2 bank holidays to work down for next year, as well as all my holiday bar 2 days already booked off, 3 of the weeks clashed with weeks that others on the team always take, tough luck there mine now 🙂
Mind you I haven't told them I've got an interview on monday, so with a bit of luck i'll be out of there by the end of the year.

Holidays are taken at mutual convenience. You cannot demand certain dates off, your management cannot insist you take certain dates off unless it is in your contract.

However last time an employer told me I could not have any holiday between may and sept – because the made a mess of the holidays I quit. that may be your only option.

Mind you my old job said I couldn't take holiday during august, although it wasn't in the contract!
When the wife became ill they reluctantly let me have a couple of weeks, but i was told that I couldn't use anymore, so I walked best thing i've done for a long time.

I work for a big company, and all holidays have to be booked by end of march for next year, and its based on first come first get, we often have no part timers or full timers off at the same time, but i have 8 staff, so can't afford to have more than 1 of any off at any time and that includes myself being off. We work to a percentage of hours each week off, some times its tough, you can't please everyone, as much as we try.

Simply resign next summer -that'll teach them? Seriously, is it your primary occupation, if not then is it the sort of work that is easy to come by? etc

Just call in sick on the way to the airport… 😉

some of you folks seem to have the rough end of the management holiday planner stick 🙁

I'm a programmer, I work in the IT department of the UK arm of a pretty big manufacturing company. We have an IT Director, 1 helpdesk guy, 1 operations guy, and me & two other developers.
We make doors – in Europe, Israel, N & S America, S Africa and the far east; we also make cubicles here in the UK.

Our IT team covers the UK (2 factories & 1 sales office), Czech Republic (IT Manager only, 1 factory), Poland (see Czech Rep); coming on stream in the next 12 months we also have Hungary (2 sites) and Ireland (1 site).

We 3 UK developers do all software development and implementation work for all the European plants; the 2 French developers look after all the development work for all 8 of their sites, but we have to do Quality Control on their work.

We never struggle to get the holidays we want, aside from the helpdesk guy & the ops guy can't be off at the same time, and at least 2 of us developers should be in the office at any one time (although we can have 2 off at the same time for the odd day or two).

In addition we get all bank holidays off, all weekends and a complete shutdown from 24th December until the first working day of the new year.

There's a lot of work for us to do, but we do generally get the holidays we want (first come first served of course) and we don't need to plan 2 years ahead like some of you poor sods

Life could be worse

Christ! It's incredibly lax where I am, a week is courtesy, but could go in tomorrow and have the rest of the week off s long as there aren't machines hired in or I'm the only qualified person for anything on that week which can't be changed

to the OP, if it's anything food based, just say you can come in if they really need you, but have to be near the toilets, they get the hint and say in your own time, well it worked for me when I used to work in a nightclub

In the prison service we get a form to fill in every October for when we want our next years leave & i got everything I asked for between next March & January 2011. Some people end up dissapointed but not many, usually those who have kids off in school holly's

Part time staff/ student whingeing over not getting exactly what they want leave wise? Came across hundreds of these in my 8 years managing in retail.
Tough tittys. The others got there first, that's life. As a manager for a large automotive chain then a larger home improvement chain, I had to sort the holidays of up to 40 staff. I often tried to get them organised nice and early, and yes those who could give me dates first usually got their choice. I , on the other hand, had to fit mine around my deputy/other managers for the duty manager cover rota, so am very unsympathetic. MTFU.

It does sound tough for a lot of you.

Even when I was employed it was pretty flexible to arrange holidays only a month in advance.

Thankfully Im self-employed now so can arrange holidays about 1hr in advance if want to since I can service my clients from anywhere within reason.

Even when I was employed it was pretty flexible to arrange holidays only a month in advance.

yeah – we can take leave with just 10 days notice
but, If you want to be sure to get certain dates, it's wise to get your request in early