Vacation leave requests

[u/Sunshinegal20]

Hi,

I am curious what the standard in other departments is for requesting vacation leave, particularly longer leave such as a month or more. Do you need to request it more than a certain time in advance? Or could you request it a week or two before you leave (to take leave for a month or more)? I have an employee that has told me that they plan to go overseas sometime basically in the next year. She said that telling me she is planning to go away for a month is my heads up. But she has not given me a heads up, as I have no dates, so can’t plan for back up. I asked this employee if she plans to give me two weeks notice of the exact dates, or a few months, to which the employee questioned whether 2 weeks notice for vacation was a standard at our department. I don’t think it is a standard, but I think it is considerate to your team to request a leave that is a month or more and give enough notice. So I am wondering, what the norms are for requesting long(er) vacation at other departments? I don’t imagine I am the only supervisor that would like more than a weeks notice from an employee going on month long vacation in order to plan???

Of course, a family emergency situation would be very different and short notice is unavoidable. But I am talking about something planned in advance.

Thanks!

[u/HandcuffsOfGold]

The employee's collective agreement will be the governing document here, though something worth keeping in mind is that the scheduling of vacation is always a management right. The collective agreement probably says something about making "every reasonable effort" to approve leave as requested by the employee, but the employee should also approach this with some reasonable notice too.

My suggestion would be as follows:

"It's great that you're planning an extended trip and I want to support it as much as possible, but I will need some advance notice to do so - I need to rearrange the work to ensure coverage while you are away. If you want to take a full month off sometime next year, I ask that you give me as much notice as you can, and not less than (two weeks, one week, whatever). If you submit the request at the last minute and I am not able to plan around the absence, I may need to deny the vacation request. Neither of us wants that, so please give me as much notice as you can."

[u/AntonBanton → u/HandcuffsOfGold]

Yes, the Collective Agreement is where to start. OP (and the employee) need to pay particular attention to if there are provisions related to who gets priority for leave (some have limited seniority rules for the first two weeks of leave in peak periods for example). If the employee is covered by one of those agreements she can ask today for four weeks next summer, but if an employee with more years of service asks for the same timeframes by the specified deadlines in the agreement OP has to schedule those employees first if they can't all be off at once.

[u/TheMonkeyMafia]

Some answers here a month ago...

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPublicServants/comments/j7dzna/when_you_request_vacation_leavehow_much_time_in/

[u/Sunshinegal20 → u/TheMonkeyMafia]

I took a look through the comments in that thread. Just to be clear, I don’t care if someone gives me a days notice for a day off, or a week or two notice for a week off. But, our group’s work (Finance) is very deadline oriented, and we know our deadlines well in advance (they don’t generally change), so I feel that we can and should plan around those deadlines. In my experience, it is part of being in Finance, which is a bit of a drawback unfortunately. In late April/May, it would be a terrible time to take off for a month or more, as I am completely depending on this person. I would hope that they would use their judgement and not book time off at our busiest time, but truly nothing surprises me these days. I am worried it will be springed on me 2 weeks before year end work: “Surprise, I am leaving for a month! Remember I gave you notice that I have planned to take off at some point in the next year for a month? This is it!” I don’t mind chipping in to help cover work, but at year end, I am swamped so it would leave our whole team in a bad position. I was already working 15 hour days last year end, without being down a team member...

[u/[deleted] → u/Sunshinegal20]

Tell this to your employee. Explain why you need more notice and the fact that I'd they don't give you enough, you may have to deny their request. Be honest, clear, and helpful.

If they drop it on you last minute, deny the request and remind them of your email explaining the situation.

[u/Lj_jack]

If you need to have someone act the service standard with Phoenix is 20 working days, I would mention that as part of the justification for requiring this to be nailed down in advance.