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The Annual Leave Saga
Jan. 19th, 2009 11:35 amPeople trying to book their easter / summer leave already has resulted in a massive fuss over nothing.
Last week various people were wandering around checking with the WPO team so they could try and book leave. People have deposits to pay on caravans and holiday cottages which are only available certain times, fair enough. Except unfortunately our line manager is off sick and has been since before Christmas, and apparently nobody is allowed to authorise our leave in her absence.
Actually, it's because they're trying to book EASTER and SUMMER leave, which are notoriously difficult times. Because if it were actually the case that no-one can authorise leave, I wouldn't have come in this morning to discover I can't have the week off in February that I wanted because someone snuck two flex days in when I wasn't looking, thus taking the amount of people off up to three. It's partially my own fault for waiting until this week to book it, but still quite annoying.
As it transpires, I've now had to book it from 9th to 13th March instead, which means that for the entire of March our team is going to be one typist down. Noor is off the first, third and fourth weeks of the month (in the same boat as having lots of leave to use up), and me the second. Hopefully it won't be too horrendously busy and/or stressful, but still, I'd rather not have had to book it off then, as I'd rather have it in February.
It also buggers up the plan I had, which was to book the Sunset Boulevard tickets for 13th February and then have a week off after that (although it was dependent on Paul being able to get the leave also). I need to book the tickets before the end of January to get a special half-price offer, also, so I'd rather the leave situation be sorted first.
The thing which irritates me more, though, is that they're bloody moaning in the first place. I know it must be frustrating when there's only a certain time period in which you can book your precious holiday cottage, but for God's sake, at least you can afford one. I would take whatever days I could damn well get if I could even afford a long sodding weekend somewhere, let alone a whole week. My last proper holiday (by which I mean the hot country, lying on a beach kind) was back when I went to Crete. Annual holidays (even twice a year, in some cases) are a privilege, not a right.
Although if it's this bloody stressful to try and get the time off, it's probably just as well I'm not going anywhere.
In other news, the road through Kings Heath was open and running freely this morning, despite being closed all day yesterday. I imagine they had no choice but to re-open it, or it would cause absolute chaos. Things were bad enough on Saturday, though possibly my experience was somewhat exacerbated by going in and out of Birmingham three times over the course of the day...
Also, I appear to have lost another two pounds, though it's admittedly difficult to tell with our cheap scales. I should really get some digital ones.
Despite bemoaning my failure to keep resolutions, I have a few vaguely achievable plans for this year.
( Which I'm sure you don't care about... )
Gah, it's quiet here today. Just had an email to say our manager is back in tomorrow and will sort the leave out as a matter of urgency, thank goodness. I'm just waiting until it all blows over when it comes to Easter, quite frankly...
Last week various people were wandering around checking with the WPO team so they could try and book leave. People have deposits to pay on caravans and holiday cottages which are only available certain times, fair enough. Except unfortunately our line manager is off sick and has been since before Christmas, and apparently nobody is allowed to authorise our leave in her absence.
Actually, it's because they're trying to book EASTER and SUMMER leave, which are notoriously difficult times. Because if it were actually the case that no-one can authorise leave, I wouldn't have come in this morning to discover I can't have the week off in February that I wanted because someone snuck two flex days in when I wasn't looking, thus taking the amount of people off up to three. It's partially my own fault for waiting until this week to book it, but still quite annoying.
As it transpires, I've now had to book it from 9th to 13th March instead, which means that for the entire of March our team is going to be one typist down. Noor is off the first, third and fourth weeks of the month (in the same boat as having lots of leave to use up), and me the second. Hopefully it won't be too horrendously busy and/or stressful, but still, I'd rather not have had to book it off then, as I'd rather have it in February.
It also buggers up the plan I had, which was to book the Sunset Boulevard tickets for 13th February and then have a week off after that (although it was dependent on Paul being able to get the leave also). I need to book the tickets before the end of January to get a special half-price offer, also, so I'd rather the leave situation be sorted first.
The thing which irritates me more, though, is that they're bloody moaning in the first place. I know it must be frustrating when there's only a certain time period in which you can book your precious holiday cottage, but for God's sake, at least you can afford one. I would take whatever days I could damn well get if I could even afford a long sodding weekend somewhere, let alone a whole week. My last proper holiday (by which I mean the hot country, lying on a beach kind) was back when I went to Crete. Annual holidays (even twice a year, in some cases) are a privilege, not a right.
Although if it's this bloody stressful to try and get the time off, it's probably just as well I'm not going anywhere.
In other news, the road through Kings Heath was open and running freely this morning, despite being closed all day yesterday. I imagine they had no choice but to re-open it, or it would cause absolute chaos. Things were bad enough on Saturday, though possibly my experience was somewhat exacerbated by going in and out of Birmingham three times over the course of the day...
Also, I appear to have lost another two pounds, though it's admittedly difficult to tell with our cheap scales. I should really get some digital ones.
Despite bemoaning my failure to keep resolutions, I have a few vaguely achievable plans for this year.
( Which I'm sure you don't care about... )
Gah, it's quiet here today. Just had an email to say our manager is back in tomorrow and will sort the leave out as a matter of urgency, thank goodness. I'm just waiting until it all blows over when it comes to Easter, quite frankly...
