Am I right to be annoyed at this? (work situation)

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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I'm aware this might be better suited to mumsnet, but I value my sanity, so not going anywhere near there!

In August I had to take 2 days off work at relatively short notice (2 weeks), due to my 2 year old having heart surgery (not an emergency, but we had been waiting for a slot for several months).

Due to several previous bouts of illness & hospital stays, I'd exhausted my annual leave for the year, so spoke to my team leader about it, and was candid in acknowledging that if it had to be unpaid then so be it - he said to put the request in on our HR system and he'd speak to our department director about whether it would be unpaid or not. Request was approved, and I heard nothing more about - received my full pay for the month, so figured given the circumstances they'd decided to give it to me paid.

Fast forward to today, and my line manager (not the same person as team leader above) asks me for "a chat" and tells me they "forgot" to take it out of my pay in August, so they'll be taking it out at the end of November instead.

Now I know I shouldn't be annoyed about the time being unpaid, as it's what I was expecting anyway - it's more the fact it's now 4 months later, out of the blue, and while it's not going to leave us struggling, it's still a bit of a **** move to leave us a few £££ "short" just before Christmas. Been feeling pretty ****** off about it all afternoon to be honest.

Just wondering how someone on the outside would view it - are they being bang out of order, or am I being overly sensitive and need to MTFU?
 
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If you didn't get it in writing then it seems OK for them to do this, although they must realise it could irritate you.

I had something similar years ago where I was contacted in September to be informed that in the prior calendar year I'd taken 0.5 days too much holiday (I'd joined that year so it was pro rata). I explained that I had queried this with the HR manager at the time during my induction and been told I had 3 days leave to take that year not 2.5. What I was most shocked at is that they would query half a days leave NINE MONTHS after the period it was taken in, I mean how crap must their processes be if it takes them that long to reconcile it? Probably cost them more in admin time and faffing about than the £50 or whatever half a days wages worked out at.
 
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MTFU mate, you owe them money, they messed up the timings, but they were flexible enough to accommodate you in the first place. If it's bugging you that much, say you'll be struggling for Christmas and can they take it out early next year, but personally I wouldn't bother. Don't sweat the small stuff.
 
speak to your team leader and ask what the craic is, as it was him you spoke to initially? i'd be miffed too if they just rocked up 4 months later telling you they were taking it back but as already said, if it wasn't in writing that you'd get unpaid leave then there's not a whole lot you can do about it.
 
It's irritating, as they ought to be able to manage themselves better than that and their communication could have been better but it's not really something to kick off about.

It's the sort of thing to remember when you're presented with a new opportunity and you're weighing up how much you enjoy working where you are already. Plenty of companies out there with decent 'compassionate leave' policies that wouldn't make you lose pay over heart surgery for your 2 year old kid.
 
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I'd go back to them if you're struggling at Christmas and ask to set a plan for paying it back in the new year or over a couple of months and see what they say. If you can suck it up now then it'd probably easier to just get the loss over with though considering it was agreed.
 
GaryTheSnail said:
what's 2 days pay going to do at Christmas?
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It's still over £250, sure, not the end of the world, but not exactly pocket change either.

HungryHippos said:
You almost got away with it, but you didn't, it's a shame but you agreed not to be paid for the 2 days when you took them.
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I'm not sure "got away with it" is the wording I'd use (makes it sound like I tried to rip them off or something), but I understand the sentiment.

Worthy said:
MTFU mate, you owe them money, they messed up the timings, but they were flexible enough to accommodate you in the first place.
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I'm not sure I'd class allowing me to take my legally entitled parental leave as being "flexible", but again I see your point.

Fishman said:
Paid sick leave no?
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Not me that was sick, my 2 year old.

Seems the general consensus is to suck it up, but file it under "reasons to keep the CV up to date" - pretty much what I was going with anyway, guess I just need to have a vent.

Edit: what annoyed me further was that about 10 mins later they sent an email out inviting people to a Christmas lunch, during work hours, with no need to make the time up...

If my line manager asks why I'm not going, I might just say it's because something's come up and I can't afford the petrol to get there :cry:
 
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Haggisman said:
Due to several previous bouts of illness & hospital stays, I'd exhausted my annual leave for the year
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You shouldn't be losing annual leave days to illness and hospital stays in the first place, that should be sick pay. This kid having scheduled/non-emergency surgery perhaps is annual leave but you should have had some available if the other stuff had been classified correctly surely?

Edit - if that was also related to your kid then check for compassionate leave details in your contract or in your HR intranet pages/employee handbook etc. emergency/sudden illness, hospital etc.. stuff at least ought to be covered under a compassionate leave policy if they have one thus perhaps leaving some actual annual leave to use for this scheduled operation.
 
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I would also be annoyed if it were me considering the circumstances. I imagine they are perfectly entitled to ask for the money back however so I'd just mentally curse at all the management for the day then let it go the next day.
 
dowie said:
You shouldn't be losing annual leave days to illness and hospital stays in the first place, that should be sick pay. This kid having scheduled/non-emergency surgery perhaps is annual leave but you should have had some available if the other stuff had been classified correctly surely?
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If the company has a rubbish sick pay policy and only pays statutory, then it might have been OP's choice to use annual leave instead.
 
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