This place really **** me off

Man of Honour
Joined
25 Oct 2002
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Hampshire
Personally when my son has been unwell and I’ve needed to take time off work, I’ve used annual leave. I could probably get away with dependents leave as my employer is generally pretty good at staff well-being etc but I’d feel very cheeky just having a day off on full pay with no use of holiday allowance to care for family.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
29,524
Location
Surrey
I'm lucky to be able to work from home if necessary. But before that was possible I always had to use my holiday to look after my kids when they were I'll. It's completely normal and I'm not sure why the employer should take the hit for it.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Sep 2010
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2,841
Location
Somewhere in Asia
With every employer that I ever worked with there was no benefit that covered payment for these sorts of things.

However there were usually alternatives to make sure your pay wasn't impacted :

1)Emergency holiday usage
2)Work over your contract to cover the shortfall (perhaps work your day(s) off)

This will, of course, be up to your employer.

There were a number of times that this happened to me in the past and with my family being geographically miles away it usually resulted in me driving 100 miles with my son and my mother driving 100 miles from the other direction and us meeting in the middle at a service station so someone could look after him. It sucked but it enabled me to go to work and maintain my salary.

I was senior management but I still had to live by the rules and to be honest I wanted to so my team would understand that it applied to everyone.

It sounds harsh but the moment you make allowances because of non sick related circumstances then where do you draw the line? I am not saying that you would do this, but some people do take the *** and this is why policy is usually the way it is.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,055
Tbh i don't think they should pay you. You could have arranged care for your son by paying someone or taken annual leave. Its not their duty to pay for your personal issues, however terrible they may be.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2006
Posts
5,137
I used a lot of my leave last year looking after elderly patents or issues with kids that's just life. This year I've used 4 days already.

You can take force majeure leave in some circumstances. But I like to keep that in case of funerals and someone dying. That's life too.

With all leave you have to aware of the impact it has on your job and what is covered in your contract.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2007
Posts
23,415
Location
UK
You're obviously upset that the two days are not being paid for, but unless you take holiday days for them then I wouldn't expect anything more from the company.

I know other companies that would interrogate you if you took 2 days unauthorised off. You shouldn't expect two days off paid for because you had a personal issue - Sorry if that sounds blunt, but that's the way it is.
 
Associate
Joined
11 Apr 2006
Posts
827
Location
Yorkshire
Hi all

Another thread by me about my **** depot... I had to take 2 days off recently as my wife was in hospital over night due to reduced movements with our baby...

They've decided they don't want to pay me for these 2 days as i wasnt sick i was looking after my 22 month old...

The thing i dont understand is that my wife wasnt home and my son had nowhere else to go so what am i supposed to do leave him home alone...

Where do i stand with this??

Im that wound up right now im tempted to leave this place :mad::mad:
On what planet did you think you would be paid for having absence from work? They are not a charity you know. It wasn’t sickness, it wasn’t annual leave, it wasn’t a close family bereavement - it was an absence and therefore it will be and should be unpaid. Having children doesn’t suddenly give you more rights to free charity from your firm compared to someone who doesn’t have children (with the exception of paternity leave).
 
Associate
Joined
11 Apr 2006
Posts
827
Location
Yorkshire
Granted i didnt work the hours but neither do people who stay at home with a cold :confused: mines a tad more important than a cold or the ***** so why do they feel the need not to pay me
What you are referring to is sickpay. The bottom line is YOU weren’t sick. Your wife is nothing to do with them - YOU are the one who they have a contract with. Some firms offer paid emergency leave but it is not a god given right or something they are legally obliged to give you. To be fair, why should they pay you? You weren’t sick after all and as I said earlier they have no contract with your wife.

Whatever your personal problems at home, bottom line you have LET YOUR FIRM DOWN as far as your contractual obligstions are concerned and therefore do not deserve any pay for this ABSENCE. Hopefully you have now had a good dose of reality check.

If a couple of days loss of pay is enough to cause this much outrage ( and all unsubstantiated at that!) then you really need to get your finances in order. For goodness sake, with another child on the way you should really have at least a 3 months salary as an emergency fund and preferably 6 months imo. This is pertinent stuff - no government no employer no body, is going to bail you out when **** hits that fan. Protect yourself and your family.
 
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