Work vent - Upated #53/79

[jen0610]

I have to be perfectly honest with you. I would not be happy if someone in my office hogged four of the nine summer Fridays (another of the nine is a holiday, so there would only be four summer Fridays left for anyone else). Week-long vacations tend to be planned well in advance. Days off here and there tend to be last-minute requests. It would stink to never have the flexibility to take a last-minute summer Friday, because they are already taken. - There are 4 other full time women in the office. The one has already cashed in all 3 weeks of her vacation. She could only take unpaid days off and the boss will only let you get those if someone else doesn't want the day off. The 2nd one has cashed in 2 of her weeks of vacation. The other week, she has taken off or has scheduled individual days off. She has July 31st off (a Friday) and Aug3rd, Sept 4th off (a friday b4 a long weekend as pointed out by our boss) and she took May 22nd off. She is looking to take another Friday off in December, so that she can go back home for her families Christmas. The 3rd girl in the office, I am not a back up for anything she does, so she and I have both had a Friday off at the same time her in July. And the 4th girl, she took 2 full weeks off earlier, one in May and one in June. Used 3 days for a Wed-Frid the last full week of June to be off. I made sure everybody who wanted a full week off, had it scheduled and approved before looking at what individual days I was going to take.

Also, does your taking of all these Fridays preclude everyone else from taking those entire weeks off, because there is no coverage on Friday? Could you change your days to a Monday instead of a Friday here and there? Per the boss, the only Mondays or Tuesdays I will ever get approval for, are full week vacations. I HAVE TO BE HERE to process the drivers payroll

Personally if I did not have any plans set in stone, I would not have a problem at all changing my day off so my co-worker could spend a birthday with a child, or to move her to college. The childs birthday in question isn't until the 9th. They don't turn 21 until Sunday. She is boo-hooing about not being able have Friday off to celebrate a 21st birthday. They can't hit a bar until Sunday, unless she plans to wait and go out with him after midnight Saturday. They aren't going out of town, they are staying here. As far as changing my plans for the college move, I DID IT LAST YEAR FOR HER.

You did make these requests rather late in the game, and you did check on the calendar to make sure no one else had requested them. But if I were your boss, I would probably have to make a rule next year that no one can have more than two summer Fridays off, or something like that.If that happens, he screws himself and 4 of the men out of their biweekly fishing trips that start at the end of May. And believe me, if he was to do a policy like that but only enforce it with the women, the one lady would be on the phone with the labor board before the ink dried on the notice.

ETA - maybe before you present your slip to the boss next year you should run your request by your co-workers, just as a consideration.I already did that. No one had the calendar marked. I asked all the girls if they were going to turn in any time off sheets. All said NO.....this includes the one who is now boo-hooing. And she was told the dates I was looking at. She looked right at her own PERSONAL wall calender and said Nope...nothing going on thoses days.

See above replies.

 

[mickeyboat]

Based on your clarification, especially since you talked to them before you turned in your slip, and since most of them have used or planned all their vacation time already, I see your side a little better. Rules are one thing, but being considerate of your co-workers is another. It sounds like you were as considerate as you could have been here, and that there have been no conflits or problems so far with the July Fridays.

However, if I were you, and it was not too terribly inconvenient, I would still switch with the other woman for Aug. 7th. Maybe your boss would make an exception for you to take a Monday if you offer to switch your Friday. Maybe you can turn this weekend into a four day one or take off the Friday before or after the 7th.

Your boss will really appreciate your willingness to compromise.

 

[jen0610]

OP
I got married in April. I took 3 days off for the wedding. I requested them 9 months in advance because I heard rumors that the people in my office were going to request the day before and the day after the wedding so that I couldn't have them. I reminded my boss that if I didn't have those days off I would quit with no problem.

When it came time to book my honeymoon they did the same crap again. Again, I told my boss that if they didn't approve it I would be gone. Sacrificing my honeymoon for my job was not going to happen. I reminded them that if it were a regular vacation I would not be this adamant.... but it's my honeymoon.

Thank god I was overseas for my honeymoon and my cell phone didn't work. When I got home there were 18 messages from work.

Thinking about, even just joking about, messing with someones Wedding plans is just plain childish. I would have told my boss the same thing you did.

I try sooo very to not tread on other peoples time off. I have more than once changed my plans to help them out. Some times they knew I did it and other times they didn't.

When I got pregnant with my 2nd one, the girl I worked with was well into the planning stages of a three week vacation to Germany. They were having to work with the vacation schedules of the family member they were going to Germany to see. It didn't dawn on either of us, until after they had already paid out a lot of money, that I might not be back off maternity leave. I was over due by 2 weeks with my 1st one, so once it dawn on us it really made me nervous. She offered to change it, the company told her not to. If it came down to it, they would hire a temp to answer phone and collect paper work until I got back or she did. It worked out that, I was back in the office for one week before she left for that vacation.

 

[LoraJ]

But sometimes people's plans change or something comes up. I just don't see the big deal if you do not have anything planned to move your day off to Monday. You still get a three day weekend.


Instead of giving us half day Fridays this year, they gave us 5 summer days to put in for. I put mine on some Mondays since I knew more people would ask for Fridays.

 

[manning]

I worked with a guy who had to have all holidays. I had senority and first pick. He always would give us a hard time and more than not get his way. I didn't have kids so I would let those who had take the holidays. Years later his kids are grown and gone. This one year my wife had something planned for christmas so I took the week off (24th-jan 1.) I knew what was going to happen so I also picked the 4th of july week.

Sure enough like clock work he starts his routine to get what he wants. The boss says you can't have both holidays so work it out. Well since I had senority I had first pick and picked christmas. Needless to say he was not happy.

10 of us worked in the group. That day I got 8 drinks on them.

 

[ols386]

normally i would say yeah it's not fair to hog the fridays , but she requested them only a week before july. She gave everyone else a chance to request them and they didn't so she should get them. If someone at the last minute wants a friday then that's the chance they take for waiting till the last minute.

To save office sanity i would not fight for the one friday and switch over to a monday but i would only do so because it's less hassle not because she did anything wrong.

ita

 

[blabbermouth]

Normally I would say yeah it's not fair to hog the Fridays , but she requested them only a week before July. She gave everyone else a chance to request them and they didn't so she should get them. If someone at the last minute wants a Friday then that's the chance they take for waiting till the last minute.

To save office sanity I would not fight for the one Friday and switch over to a Monday but I would only do so because it's less hassle not because she did anything wrong.

Personally I agree with this. Don't see anything wrong with what you've done, but I'm a nice girl and since it's not a special occasion for me, I'd just pick a different day to take off.

 

[EthansMom]

In the OPs shoes, I would nicely tell the boss that I had asked everyone in the office if they had a conflict with my taking all of the Fridays off and no one had a problem with it. But, in the interest of keeping peace in the office, I would be happy to take off another day instead of Aug. 7th.

It never hurts to look like the bigger person in the boss's eyes, especially when it's something so minor. Stuff like this tends to make a difference down the road (next time there's a vacation conflict, when it comes time for raises, or if/when they have to lay someone off, etc...).

 

[Fintastic]

Personally I think first come, first served. If you requested the days off first, you should have them. I like to request days off far in advance so I have something to look forward to, and it would tick me off to be told "no" even though I'd booked it weeks ago.

 

[WriteDisney]

Requesting days on Jan 2 for the entire year is asinine and childish behavior.

What? Could you elaborate a little on this one?

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

A 21st birthday? Wow, she could have taken time off 21 years in advance!

 

[DWGal210]

I feel for ya, OP - that stinks. I do think you are in the right since you clearly checked with the other folks before you filed your request, which was very kind of you. That other person is just kicking themselves that they forgot about an event and is now raising a stink.

I guess I should count myself lucky - where I work we do have to watch others vacation time as well, but only need to be 1/2 staffed and there are 15 of us so it's never usually a problem. I am taking off time between Christmas and New Years this year for vacation and I did put in my request in January for that time off but I talked to my boss about that and she said it was OK, no problem asking for that time off early.

I do agree with other posters, though, too - even though it sucks, it might be best to take the high road on this one and take off that Monday instead. It will look good in the eyes of your boss, and really, in this enviroment, I think that's important.

 

[jrmasm]

What? Could you elaborate a little on this one?

It's like kids running out to the car screaming "shotgun!" to get the front seat. Taking turns is a much more mature way to handle it.

I'm so glad the people I work with are adults.

 

[jen0610]

I do agree with other posters, though, too - even though it sucks, it might be best to take the high road on this one and take off that Monday instead. It will look good in the eyes of your boss, and really, in this enviroment, I think that's important.

You, as may others have said, take Monday off instead. I would LOVE TO. The boss, WILL NOT approve a single day off for me on Mondays or Tuesdays. The only way for me to get either of these two days off as a full paid day off is by taking it as a part of a full week off. It just the way he is with the fact that I enter payroll. The only time I took off a full week and someone else entered payroll, he had a cow over the number of checks that had to be redone. No one is trained or wants to be trained on how to do my job. Yea for me, job security, but it is a pain for vacation.

The reason I am taking off the 7th is that it is school registration. I have a 12 year old DD that is entering middle school and this is a big to do with her. One the day of registration, they not only get all their class info, locker stuff and books, but they also take the kids school pictures - ie yearbook picture - and this is a BIG THING with my kid. She wants me to do her hair in a certain way. It takes a while to do her hair this way. So in order to make life easy for me, it is take off Friday and get her hair done, get her and DS14 to the school get registered and spend the rest of the day with them. If I am not off on Friday, it would leave us to registering on Monday. That would entail me being at work all day, get home some time around 5, get her put together like she wants for her school pictures, try to get to the school sometime around 6-6:30 and pray that it doesn't take 2 hours like it did the other year with an incoming 6th grader when we did this on Monday night, because after we are done at the school, we will still have to hurry eat dinner and get home so DH can to leave to go to work at 9:30. Doing school registration doesn't work for us on Mondays.

 

[DWGal210]

You, as may others have said, take Monday off instead. I would LOVE TO. The boss, WILL NOT approve a single day off for me on Mondays or Tuesdays. The only way for me to get either of these two days off as a full paid day off is by taking it as a part of a full week off. It just the way he is with the fact that I enter payroll. The only time I took off a full week and someone else entered payroll, he had a cow over the number of checks that had to be redone. No one is trained or wants to be trained on how to do my job. Yea for me, job security, but it is a pain for vacation.QUOTE]

Oh okay....yeah, I can see how that is difficult. That stinks.

 

[dicar123]

Sometimes you follow all the rules and you still get screwed. It's totally unfair, but sometimes that's the way the world is. I hate it!

Now, I think you've got to decide how much being right (and your daughter's situation) is worth. Is it worth unpleasantness at work, is it worth putting your job at risk etc.?

Sorry. I think, at the least, you should get one free kick at your co-workers shins. Imagining that type of thing sometimes makes me feel better.

 

[WriteDisney]

It's like kids running out to the car screaming "shotgun!" to get the front seat. Taking turns is a much more mature way to handle it.

I'm so glad the people I work with are adults.

But you're "requesting" time off. I usually ask if it'd be okay when I book plane tickets for a trip (Disney for example) or when I book the accomodations. I say I can move it around for awhile, but once I get the plane tickets it will be very hard to change. I booked accomodations last September for this year (bounceback offer on our last trip) and I let my coworkers know about that and to let me know if that doesn't work with their plans. I told them I was flexible with my time for awhile, and to let me know if they were considering taking that time of year off too.

And when I was considering buying the plane tickets I gave my coworkers another heads up about it. I would hate to plan an event and know about it for months and then spring it on my coworkers at the last minute. And I am "requesting" it, so there perfectly able to speak up and let me know they want that time too.

Most of the time I take off I'm pretty flexible with, and I tell them that. But some vacations are pretty much set in stone, and I think its the adult thing to do to give them a heads up about your plans before its too late. Because if I ask in February, I can still move things around. But once summer hits and I have everything booked, it will be so much harder to change.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

How about instead of whining, these people do what she did and PLAN AHEAD. If they had planned ahead, THEY would have gotten those days before she could request them.

She should have to plan her life around other people dragging their feet.

I'd be ticked too. She should sit down with her boss and review the policy with them and see if he/she can say where she violated it or should not get what she requested. Whether or not this affects future policy doesn't matter. Her requests should be granted per the current policy, not the whim of the boss or co-workers.

It's so nice that you are able to plan your life so far in advance, but many people aren't that lucky.

Sometimes people have child care issue, spouse's job issues, money issues, etc. and can't plan that far in the future.

I think the OP is being hoggy about being off on all of those Fridays.

If I were her boss, and she called out on spite, she'd be fired from her job.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

OP
In my office we have a similar policy. This year... on Jan 2nd. one of my co-workers requested the day before and after EVERY SINGLE HOLIDAY this year. Not okay. The bosses won't budge. Someone had an actual emergency and needed to be off one of the days he had and the bosses said that the two of them needed to work it out. The person with the emergency ended up paying the guy to have the day off. Not okay.

I got married in April. I took 3 days off for the wedding. I requested them 9 months in advance because I heard rumors that the people in my office were going to request the day before and the day after the wedding so that I couldn't have them. I reminded my boss that if I didn't have those days off I would quit with no problem.

When it came time to book my honeymoon they did the same crap again. Again, I told my boss that if they didn't approve it I would be gone. Sacrificing my honeymoon for my job was not going to happen. I reminded them that if it were a regular vacation I would not be this adamant.... but it's my honeymoon.

Thank god I was overseas for my honeymoon and my cell phone didn't work. When I got home there were 18 messages from work.

OMG!

How can you stand to be in the same office with people like that?

What a bunch of spiteful jerks.

 

[Lindsay22]

OMG!

How can you stand to be in the same office with people like that?

What a bunch of spiteful jerks.

Yes. That's how I feel. They are a bunch of 12 year olds... Unfortunately, in this economy I can't just quit (because I would have... several times) Normally it isn't a problem and I will happily work around everyone else. But not for my wedding and honeymoon. That is where I draw the line.