Question regarding asking a day off when needed

mammu

Hi everyone. I am working shift hours and full time. I am getting counseling once a month and I used to ask in an advance that day off. Now my boss said to our manager that we are not allowed to ask anymore specific days off, we will get that days off that our boss decides whenever he does a rota and however he decides to give us days off. Has he actually right to do that? He does not do a month rota in an advance, we will get our working hours for following week just on saturday, day before new working week starts. My own problem regarding this is it is impossible to organise and get appointment for my counseling like that. I should talk to my boss about that, but just for me it seems anyway weird that we are not allowed to ask day off when we need. I am not asking like extra day off

jimmii

Perfectly within their rights to do so but it certainly doesn't make a very employee friendly place to work and not being able to request a day before the rota has been done seems very unreasonable. In your case it obviously seems very reasonable for you to request those particular days off but they don't seem to be very reasonable if that is the general policy regarding taking days off. Is there a supervisor or anyone else you can approach to talk about it first? Would your Doctor be able to write a note detailing a recurring appointment on X date each month surely they couldn't refuse it if a Doctor has requested to see you on those days or would you not be comfortable sharing that sort of information with them?

Irish_Elect_Eng

I would be surprised if your boss means days off for health reasons. He probably has a string of people asking for specific days and shift patterns for all sorts of reasons. from simply wanting to have the weekend off, childcare, sports commitments, yoga classes, the list is endless. This can make pulling together a roster a nightmare, potentially leaving the business understaffed at times and even resulting in morale/favoritism issues if different people are perceived to be getting better shifts.

As suggested above, I would get a letter from your counselor, stating the times, dates and occurrence, including an end date if appropriate, without any clinical information. Discus this with your boss, emphasis your continued flexibility outside of this request, acknowledge his flexibility in the past and how this has been a factor in making this a good place to work, and explain that being able to continue these sessions would mean a lot to your health/recovery.

If your employer is so hard-hearted that he dismisses your request out of hand, then perhaps you should seek another workplace in the long term.

(I take it that your boss means shift patterns days off rather than actual annual leave)

mammu

Understandable, and I talked to him about my situation and he understood and no problem to get that specific day off. Didn't need to get any letter from my doctor. However, manager is the one who delivers messages from business owner by evil manner that makes our work environment kind of complicated. But by end of the story all is sorted. Thanks for the replies

jimmii

mammu wrote: »

Understandable, and I talked to him about my situation and he understood and no problem to get that specific day off. Didn't need to get any letter from my doctor. However, manager is the one who delivers messages from business owner by evil manner that makes our work environment kind of complicated. But by end of the story all is sorted. Thanks for the replies

Good to hear it got resolved nice and easily!