Leaving employment with too many paid holidays.

Genevaman

Hi everyone,

Bit of an odd question but recently I've been seeing a counselor for mental health issues that have resulted in insomnia and pretty bad depression. Over the last few sessions it became clear seems to be pretty heavily influenced by my workplace. I live far away from where I work and pretty much my entire life is spent in the office answering phones at a call centre for predominantly irate callers. I've decided to leave as soon as I can.

I've been working there for six months now and over the last two months I've used up the entirety of my annual holidays. My logic was that I had just hit a hump and needed to get over it. That if I got away from the office for a while I would be would as new. I told myself this over and over and ended up using the four weeks I had within the first quarter.

Now that I'm leaving I'm worried that this might actually be a problem. I'll be being paid at the end of the month but I've taken more holidays in the quarter than I probably should have. Normally the holidays for the remaining three quarters would just be deducted from my pay check but if I get paid and then quit then I wouldn't be working enough days to pay off the granted and holidays.

I just want to know where I stand. Can I still leave if I hand in my notice? Do I have to work enough unpaid days to earn the previous holidays. Do I run the risk of being sued if I don't. It's been two days since I last slept. My head is in an awful state and, frankly, I don't think I can pull myself through another month in that place given where my head is at right now. I was just hoping for some advice so that I know how to proceed.

Thanks in advance.

Peregrinus

They cannot force you to work.

They'll deduct the holidays that you have taken before they accrued from your final paycheque. If, as you suggest, the total will be more than your final pay, that will reduce your final cheque to nil. In theory they could pursue you to repay the balance; in practice I would be absolutely astonished if they tried. They might ask you to work a little longer than you had planned in order to square the account, so to speak, but they can't make you.

If they get stroppy about this - and, seriously, I doubt they will - you could suggest that you could ask your doctor to certify you for sick leave (on account of your insomnia and depression), and then resign at the conclusion of your sick leave period.

Genevaman

Thanks for the quick reply. That's a huge relief. Honesty I'd rather leave things as square as possible but I feel I need to focus on getting myself out of this rut first and foremost.

Peregrinus

Ideally you'd like to leave the place with the prospect of a reasonable reference, so it might be worthwhile talking to them about your situation. Explain your medical/welfare issues and the decision you have taken, with the support of your advisers, to resign. The likelihood is that your employers will be sympathetic, but quietly relieved that you have chosen to resign rather than go on what might be prolonged sick-leave. Then raise the holiday pay issue. The likelihood is they'll say "don't worry about it", in which case you're grand. If they start talking about maybe you should work a bit longer, that's the time for you to mention the possibility of sick leave as a way of squaring the account. Odds are that at that point they'll say no, don't worry about it, hope you get better soon.

pilly

The employers were actually at fault here by allowing you to take so many holidays in the 1st quarter.

Honestly don't stress too much about it. At the end of the day they took the risk of paying you all that holiday pay and they'll have to take a bit of a hit on it. It's not a huge deal for a big company to swallow that kind of loss.

If you're only there 6 months I agree with previous poster, they will have more respect for you leaving that going on extended sick leave.

Best of luck with it OP. Try not to let this add to your stresses, honestly, it's not like they can keep you there in chains.