Annual Leave

[stevie21]

The terms of my contract says that "you will normally be expected to take 2 weeks of your holiday entitlement consecutively" but doesn't say that I *must* do this.
Am I able to insist that I take the odd day here and there as long as those days are available and the company has staff cover or do they have any right to impose a 2 week block of holidays on me?

This year, and most others, I'd prefer to take each holiday in one week (at most) blocks, or even just long weekends etc.

[Hgrove]

The fact that it says that you will "normally" be expected suggests that you have to unless there are special circumstances/you can make a special case.

[Hammer]

In my (limited) experience, the rule is there in case they suspect foul play. If you are routinely doing something dodgy and covering your tracks well, two weeks without you around should be long enough for the problem to surface.

Put in a request for 1 week off, get that approved, then after a while do the same again. I doubt they will even notice.

[stevie21]

I agree with Hammer on lots of counts. I don't think they'll notice. I also am reminded of someone doing something fraudulent in my mate's company who was constantly cleaning their tracks and they were only ever found out when they had 2 weeks' holiday and someone else had the chance to check their tracks.
As I work in banking I think that's possibly part of the reason, which I can totally understand. It just doesn't suit me.

Either way, I'm not doing anything dodgy at all - I just don't want a 2 week block of holidays!
I actually want a few days at a time, or 8 months in one go so that I can go travelling around Europe!

[KebabMeister]

I've worked at a few places with that rule but they never imposed it.  I think it's just to cut down admin work more than anything.