Unpaid leave query

grahamor

Hi,

I work in an IT position for a large bank. I am interested in taking 3 months off at the beginning of next year to do a cookery course. The employee handbook states the following :

Employees may be granted a long term unpaid leave of absence of up to 2 years when they request to be away from their job for reason of public service, education or other reasons which will be considered on an individual basis.

The reasons are : Educational Leave, Public Service , Academic Research, Extended Travel , Spouse's/Partner's Career

A cooking course would obviously not be considered as educational leave that's beneficial to my position in the bank.

I'm wondering how i should approach HR about this? I'm worried they might refuse my request as it doesn't really fall under any of the reasons listed. I genuinely wish to return to my current job after the course is complete.

Thanks for any advice regarding this.

Del2005

grahamor wrote: »

Hi,

I work in an IT position for a large bank. I am interested in taking 3 months off at the beginning of next year to do a cookery course. The employee handbook states the following :

Employees may be granted a long term unpaid leave of absence of up to 2 years when they request to be away from their job for reason of public service, education or other reasons which will be considered on an individual basis.

The reasons are : Educational Leave, Public Service , Academic Research, Extended Travel , Spouse's/Partner's Career

A cooking course would obviously not be considered as educational leave that's beneficial to my position in the bank.

I'm wondering how i should approach HR about this? I'm worried they might refuse my request as it doesn't really fall under any of the reasons listed. I genuinely wish to return to my current job after the course is complete.

Thanks for any advice regarding this.

Be truthful and hope for the best. Generally with unpaid leave you return to the same grade but your job isn't guaranteed, so you could return to a different role.

Is it a specific course you want to do? A course in Italy or France etc should fall under extended travel.

grahamor

Thanks for the info. I agree about being truthful.

Yes, it's a specific course and it's in Co. Cork. I live in Dublin so will need to live down there during the week and i wont be back in Dublin every weekend.