I need some good solutions

Forums: Life At Work, Work Shit, Holiday Time
Email this Topic • Print this Page

There are two women where I work (support staff) - me, who's on the phones, and Cindy, who does the tapes and is also the "office manager". I work M, W, F, and she works every day. I want to take a Friday off in Sept, Oct, and Nov. Well, I am booked to fly to a wedding in PEI where I will have to take a Friday off, plus the Wed before and my flight is booked. I want to visit two of our gals in Oct and need the Friday off. I have booked to go to Vancouver for the Grey Cup in November and need that Friday off. What she also doesn't know is that I plan on going to Spain for two weeks next Feb or March, regardless of what she says. And I'm going to Turkey/Cairo for the month of April (but the company should be disbanded by then).

I took one off before, last month, I guess, and she said it was too crazy by herself and that I can no longer take Fridays off. I said that that was unreasonable. One Friday a month is not much to ask and why don't they just get a temp in? There is no policy that we know of - we both started the same month - so we have no precedent. But I am not going to live my life through the office, that's for sure.

So... other than temps, what are other options/arguments I can use? I actually don't care how crazy it is - you can only do what you can do. I asked her what would she do if I took a whole week off? She'd really go crazy then! And if she took a week off, her tapes simply wouldn't get done. C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

I also told her that if that was the rule, I would quit and they'd have to find someone else. It's not reasonable to deny someone a holiday, especially if it wasn't mentioned up front in the interview. We looked at my poor excuse of a 'contract', and vacation time isn't even mentioned!

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 2,355 • Replies: 48

@Mame,

Well, it seems like you don't have any real restrictions where you can't take
a Friday here and there off, or take vacation (unpaid I assume), since your
contract doesn't even mention anything remotely thereof.

If you really want to continue working there and like to appease Cindy,
why not offer her to come in Thursdays for the times you're absent on Fridays. This way, she could get caught up and it would be a nice gesture on your part to help her out.

1 Reply

@CalamityJane,

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. And if that doesn't work, adios.

I was in a similar position years ago. Ultimately, I got someone else to replace me for one night, but the company's position was so outrageous I was really prepared to walk.

0 Replies

@Mame,

Are Fridays a particularly busy day for her? If not, arrange to work a different extra day on the weeks you want to take Fridays off.

If Fridays are a particular issue for her, she needs to talk to your mutual employer.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

I offered to come in on the Thursday last time I took a Friday off - I had family in town. She had no problem at the time but afterwards she said it was nuts. I offered that this time, too, but she said it wasn't the same as actually working the Friday.

Fridays may be an issue for her, but you can't just tell someone mid-stream that they can't take a certain day off. If she got a temp, that would help immensely.

2 Replies

@Mame,

I am assuming you do not get paid for the days you take off? Then if it is something simple like answering the phones or a few other things - not sure why you cannot get a temp. Is a temp more expensive? Who is your reporting manager - they should be the one handling this.

If this office manager is the reporting manager, I'd suggest you give her a list of the you need off (maybe do this whoever is your manager so they know ahead of time) and you are either willing to help her get a temp or if possible make up the time on Thursday (if that is possible). If she says no - then your option is to leave.

0 Replies

I look at it like this: if she's too valuable to have an occasional Friday off, she's too valuable to be made unhappy.

1 Reply

@roger,

Valuable enough or not to the powers that be though Mame is, the office manager seems a tad anxiety ridden, for which Mame finds small reason, and I dunno, but would likely concur if I was around to see it. I also get Mame's view re having a life at this point. This is not a lazy woman. Whether a temp could help, I also don't know, but tend to believe that if Mame says so. A lot of us have held down a busy office/lab/whole business/whatever for a day or many days - not that I know the nature of this firm's business.

0 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

One Friday a month is not much to ask and why don't they just get a temp in?

Lemme get this straight: you work three days a week and you want vacation time? What do you call Tuesdays and Thursdays? And you want a temp to take your place when you're away? I got news for you: if you're only working three days a week, you're already a temp.

As for what you should do, how about coming in on Thursday if you have to take Friday off?

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

Oy, what an attitude.

First of all, the job was advertised at three days a week. But it doesn't matter if it's three days or five; you're entitled to a friggin holiday. So, I want to visit some people and need the Friday off in order to maximize things - why should this be my problem? Doesn't matter if I just started there, work 3 or 5 days a week or have been there 3 months or 30 yrs - I'm entitled to a freaking holiday, do you get that, smart ass? Whether I take it as paid leave or unpaid leave is not the issue for me... it's whether I can take the time off. OKAY???

And... I'm giving 2 months, 3, months, and 4 months notice. And it's only ONE FREAKING DAY per month. What else do you want?!! It's not like I'm calling in sick for tomorrow.

I think I really don't like you, "Joe-from-who-the-frig-from-wherever". Just do us both a favour and don't respond in future, dick-head.

I've offered to go in on other days to help out (not my obligation to do so, but willing to help) and been told "No" by the Office Mgr. Not my problem, in that case. I've offered.

Anyway, we might find out tomorrow whether I'll be employed after Aug 31 Smile

Don't care much either way, but they'd be stupid to screw something that works (me and the pts, me and the docs) just because of a few Fridays.

1 Reply

I can partly see Joe's point; have spent some time at a university with boocoo rules set in stone and ending up, when I left, with a huge number of non spent sick days and vacation days because I was crazy invested in the work. If I remember, vacation was spare to non existent at the beginning. But I've also worked at less rule written places, more like start ups, where common sense won out... some to be rule written after that, and some rather laissez faire, more camararderial, based on needs.

In this situation, given it's a medical situation, I'd talk with the docs. They'll agree with you or not.

0 Replies

This might be an American vs a Canadian sort of thing. I do see Joe's point. One day a month seems like a lot for me, but it's probably because I've been drinking the American Workaholic Kool-Aid all my life.

2 Replies

@Green Witch,

It's not about one day a month for vacation - I'm willing to take it non-paid. It's the "who's going to relieve me" question that has her mind-swoggled. What if I had a surfeit of medical tests to go through on that day? It doesn't matter WHY I'm not there, just that there's enough notice and some coverage. But why is that MY problem? It's not. I'm not available that day for whatever reason - figure it out yourselves.

2 Replies

@Green Witch,

nah, not American v Canadian at all.

A day a month off when you work 12 days a month is a lot. It doesn't seem like a good match of employer requirement/employee demand. Probably a poor hiring process at base.

1 Reply

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Fridays may be an issue for her, but you can't just tell someone mid-stream that they can't take a certain day off. If she got a temp, that would help immensely.

well, yeah they can say you can't take certain days off.

you're a MWF employee. it is reasonable to expect those are the days you'd be available to work.

1 Reply

@Mame,

I'm moving to the other pov re the med aspect. To me the key thing is if a temp could supplant you with your level of knowledge. Maybe, maybe not, re 'some' coverage. Hard to say, since we don't know what you do.

Your contract didn't have vacation days. That may well have been on purpose.
As I said, I seem to remember at the university that we didn't earn any for quite a while - I think after a year, but that was way back then. These docs probably went to universities galore.

Vacation days may be out of the contract for a reason.

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

A day off a month is NOT a lot, whatever you're working - you've been working for bit outfits for too long to see the small picture. And as for hiring processes - how about specifying what is and is not allowed during the interview, and not springing it on someone when they book something?

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm not in this for the 'career' aspect, and neither are they. It's usually very workable, and 'm sure this will work out, too, to everyone's satisfaction. This is a 'job' vs 'career' point ... makes a huge diff since I've invested in both in the past and I'm just not interested in 'owning the job' anymore. Blah, blah, and more blah.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

Yeah well, they never said I couldn't take them off, so... and when the hell do you think a M-W-F person CAN take holidays? Tuesdays!??? don't be asinine. GMAFB.

1 Reply

@Mame,

I think, with respect, Mame, that some of us think you can't just take holidays. I'm in between at this point, but chary on your sense of demand as righteous.

I think your employers assumed holidays were not a part of the contract, and you signed it. I'm not sure where you get that holidays are somehow owed the day you start.

(yet another lesson on having an attorney go over your contracts. We had to do that in my last firm, not re employees, as we didn't have any, but when having superclients and killer contracts and needing major insurance.)

I was raised in landarch by a japanese american who was handshake firm, as were his clients, not all japanese, or, asian, but it held. Even he had a worked out contract, mild by legal standards, as in dozens of pages less. Well, max two pages. Perhaps once a year, three pages. Years went by without any mess.

In that kind of old firm I worked in, the original talks matter.

2 Replies

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

Oy, what an attitude.

You should have seen what I originally wrote.

Mame wrote:

First of all, the job was advertised at three days a week.

A fact which you seem to forget.

Mame wrote:

But it doesn't matter if it's three days or five; you're entitled to a friggin holiday. So, I want to visit some people and need the Friday off in order to maximize things - why should this be my problem? Doesn't matter if I just started there, work 3 or 5 days a week or have been there 3 months or 30 yrs - I'm entitled to a freaking holiday, do you get that, smart ass?

So what exactly are you trying to say?

Mame wrote:

And... I'm giving 2 months, 3, months, and 4 months notice. And it's only ONE FREAKING DAY per month. What else do you want?!! It's not like I'm calling in sick for tomorrow.

Well, let's do the numbers. You took a day off in June, you're taking one off in July, and presumably you want one day off each month, except for when you take your two-week vacation in February and take the whole month off in April. From June 1, 2011 to May 1, 2012, there are 136 workdays. You want to count 25 of those as vacation days -- around 18%. If you were working a regular 5-days-a-week job, that would be the equivalent of taking over 9 weeks vacation a year.

No, that's not an unreasonable request at all.

Mame wrote:

I think I really don't like you, "Joe-from-who-the-frig-from-wherever". Just do us both a favour and don't respond in future, dick-head.

Meh, I'll manage somehow to survive.

0 Replies

I need some good solutions

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know