Staff Holiday

[legal girl]

We have someone at work who never takes all the holiday he is entitled to - he takes two days a year, if that. Just out of interest; should the company insist that he takes his full holiday entitlement?

[KJN]

Before I retired this year it was a condition at work that we all took at least one holiday per year for at least ten working days, the request came from the Pension Providers of the Company. (Office work) . I guess it depends on the Company he works for , Pension Providers and Health Insurance Company if given.

[factor-fiction]

I'm puzzled as to why that would have anything to do with pension providers though, KJN.
Usually rules like that are put in place for HR related reasons or as an anti fraud/malpractice measure (fraudsters can hide their tracks for the odd day but things come to light if they're off for two weeks)

[factor-fiction]

Clearly two days a year (plus public/bank hols I assume) is well below the statutory minimum, but I'm not sure whether employers have an obligation to ensure that employees take the holidays offered

[bednobs]

in my work you used to be able to negotiate less holiday and more pay

[dotty.]

salaries are set to allow for 4 5 or 6 weeks holiday a year, if this person is still salaried on that basis imagine what his hourly rate is?

[grasscarp]

we used to have a chap at work who had no home life (lived alone) and even came in on Christmas day and all funny hours like middle of the night. Nobody said anything and just left him to it. He is now redundant and I heard just drinking all the time.

[chas2008]

the last person i knew who did that was up to dodgy dealings (fraud) ,she was scared to have the time off in case something cropped up that she needed to cover up or explain away.

[bednobs]

and thinking about it if you don't take all your leave in our place you lose it

[craft1948]

If we weren't busy at work I used to take holidays. If we were extremely busy the company used to buy holidays from me..............

[Psybbo]

Is he a busman?

[vodkancoke]

My Dad is entitled to 8 weeks holiday at BT, but he is lucky if he takes any more than 2 weeks. BT certainly don't demand he takes the full 8 weeks. I wish he would take more time off but he feels, as a director, it's too busy and they have too much on so he can't. It's much the same for his team too.

[VHG]

I agree with chas2008, it may be the person is on some sort of fiddle and is worried that if they are away for any length of time they will be found out.

If they deal with invoices or cash or stuff like that I would ensure they are not on some sort of fiddle.

A friend of mine worked for a company of accountants. The company was owned by the "husband" but the "wife" worked there in an admin role.

The wife decided to leave and a young girl was trained to replace her.

The first Friday after the wife left the young girl said did she need to get £100 out of petty cash to go the Post Office to buy £100 of stamps.

Everybody asked why as their mail was franked.

Turned out the "wife" had been drawing £100 out of petty cash each Friday to "buy stamps" but was actually just keeping the money.

I know £100 is not that much but people can fiddle much higher amounts than that.

[craft1948]

lol vodka that's where I used to work (but I only got 6 weeks)

[chas2008]

VHG,
after the company discovered the fraud they put a system in place so anyone not taking holidays were carefully investigated.
(horse ,stable door & bolted springs to mind)

[Skyline D]

What a terrible lot of cynics we have on here. Someone doesn't take their full holidays per year so the first thought is they must be commiting some sort of fraud! Dear oh dear.

For what it's worth, I don't take my full holidays in a year, though since marrying and having a family I get a lot closer to it than I used to. I can think of at least two other staff in our office who don't get anywhere near taking them all either. I'm not committing any frauds, and I'm pretty sure neither of the other two are either. I even worked Christmas Day morning once because I wanted to finish something before we came back from the Xmas break, though that was long before wife and kids came along.

Perhaps he just doesn't have anything better to do?

[LyndaB]

Someone not taking their full holiday entitlement? Madness! I take my full allowance, and then the same again in unpaid leave. I love going on holiday!

[EcclesCake]

As a manager it was part of my remit to ensure that those who reported to me where encouraged to take their leave entitlement. This was in part to demonstrate that the organisation had taken adequate steps to ensure that the employee was taking sufficient breaks to restore themselves and to counter any claims of exploitation in the workplace.

[merejeans]

when I started work in the fifties we were entitled to 2 weeks holiday a year. I only took one, because I couldn't afford to go any where, so I got my one weeks holiday pay, and they gave me another weeks pay for working.

[squarebear]

We had a similar situation to a couple of posts above. One guy never took any holidays. When he took sick, audit found out he had fiddled thousands over 3 or 4 years and made sure he was in every evening to "balance" the books.

[lcg]

i've only taken one day off this year so far (april to april). but, i will make sure i take every minute i'm owed by next year!