Holidays help please

[Postiegirl1]

To mad Martin I suggest like all the others have suggested that it's done on a group rota. That makes it fair. And for your information I'm not asking for all the school holidays just a break in the summer with my kids. I bet ur the first to moan about broken families and kids hanging around. They are probably doing that because their parents are working!! I never book the half terms but would like a holiday with my children is that really too much to ask?

[SexyLegs]

how would you suggest holidays are booked then? just because someone doesnt have kids doesnt mean they shouldnt be allowed to take school holiday weeks off. seems to me just lately people are using having kids as a reason to get what they want. Oh I cant finish after 2:30 ive got kids so i should be given a certain duty, Oh I have kids I have to have school holidays off.

Royal Mail is supposed to be a 'family friendly' organisation!

[fishtank]

Have a read...it's an interesting thread...

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... =seniority" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pat Ostman]

seems to me just lately people are using having kids as a reason to get what they want. Oh I cant finish after 2:30 ive got kids so i should be given a certain duty, Oh I have kids I have to have school holidays off

As opposed to I have no kids but been here 40 years give ME what I want? Pot -- kettle -- black?

I think the main grumble was that certain people (like in our DO) ALWAYS get summer leave and have no kids and some people in our DO NEVER get the time off they want with their kids in the summer.

Taking kids out of the equation, some people always get what they want and others never get what they want, that's unfair and smacks of wanting all the pie.

Two camps here as well. Them with seniority, and them without.

The ones with, love it, the ones without tend to hate it. Problem is neither system is right really.

My personal thought is that it fits right in with the antiquated system Royal Mail has run on for so long. When Royal Mail is privatised (or more than 51% shares sold) the system will be ousted and most of the cobwebbed posties relying on it for an easy life will stagger for the hills.

Seniority is all but finished so enjoy why you can.

[Lounge Lizard]

Postiegirl1 wrote:
We don't have a rota in our office. It's just being done on seniority so being number 70 I have no chance of ever getting what I'd like. So the same people every year will get their preference



Except with seniority, you will eventually move up the list so it's not "no chance" is it.... you just have to wait your turn like everybody else!


I have been there for 11 years and have hardly moved up the list! Only those that are at the top of the list think the seniority is fair! When it comes to resigns yes I'm for it but not holidays

Why then is seniority right for resigns but not for holidays ?

[Pat Ostman]

Postiegirl1 wrote:
We don't have a rota in our office. It's just being done on seniority so being number 70 I have no chance of ever getting what I'd like. So the same people every year will get their preference



Except with seniority, you will eventually move up the list so it's not "no chance" is it.... you just have to wait your turn like everybody else!


I have been there for 11 years and have hardly moved up the list! Only those that are at the top of the list think the seniority is fair! When it comes to resigns yes I'm for it but not holidays

Why then is seniority right for resigns but not for holidays ?

Probably due to frequency used or called upon.

It's obviously not fair, but fairness doesn't feature in seniority and nor does capability.

[Postiegirl1]

For the resigns I don't know how else they would do it??!! But for holidays a Rota system seems fair! It's not like we change our walks all the time but with holidays we have those every year!

[ebbzie]

how would you suggest holidays are booked then? just because someone doesnt have kids doesnt mean they shouldnt be allowed to take school holiday weeks off. seems to me just lately people are using having kids as a reason to get what they want. Oh I cant finish after 2:30 ive got kids so i should be given a certain duty, Oh I have kids I have to have school holidays off.

Oh dear seems we have a sad lonely SINGLE man (prob middle age) still living at home with his mummy

[dvbuk55]

how would you suggest holidays are booked then? just because someone doesnt have kids doesnt mean they shouldnt be allowed to take school holiday weeks off. seems to me just lately people are using having kids as a reason to get what they want. Oh I cant finish after 2:30 ive got kids so i should be given a certain duty, Oh I have kids I have to have school holidays off.

Oh dear seems we have a sad lonely SINGLE man (prob middle age) still living at home with his mummy

Oh I don't know, perhaps you misjudge him, perhaps he, like me, brought up a family of three children without being pandered to by the employer and actually made arrangements around work and holidays and not the other way round. To have childcare responsibilities is the decision of the employee.

[Judgee]

how would you suggest holidays are booked then? just because someone doesnt have kids doesnt mean they shouldnt be allowed to take school holiday weeks off. seems to me just lately people are using having kids as a reason to get what they want. Oh I cant finish after 2:30 ive got kids so i should be given a certain duty, Oh I have kids I have to have school holidays off.

Oh dear seems we have a sad lonely SINGLE man (prob middle age) still living at home with his mummy

Oh I don't know, perhaps you misjudge him, perhaps he, like me, brought up a family of three children without being pandered to by the employer and actually made arrangements around work and holidays and not the other way round. To have childcare responsibilities is the decision of the employee.

[fishtank]

Times have changed though and the world is a different place.
Families can no longer be expected to help out,people are working longer and grandparents are no longer the easy choice for childcare...they mostly have to keep working.
Both parents working is the norm and lone parents can no longer sit back and live of benefits.
The world has sadly moved on and so must the union and it's practices.
Trying to protect seniority when it is inappropriately applied as in this case will simply hasten it's end completely.
Then the real tears and tantrums will begin.

[dvbuk55]

Times have changed though and the world is a different place.
Families can no longer be expected to help out,people are working longer and grandparents are no longer the easy choice for childcare...they mostly have to keep working.
Both parents working is the norm and lone parents can no longer sit back and live of benefits.
The world has sadly moved on and so must the union and it's practices.
Trying to protect seniority when it is inappropriately applied as in this case will simply hasten it's end completely.
Then the real tears and tantrums will begin.

The world has changed indeed, and so has the expectations of people. They want a big mortgage, a car, 42 inch LCD TV, with Sky, foreign holidays etc etc etc. Well we didn't have those things in order to accommodate our family life. We had a rented house, a black and white TV,no car, no foreign holidays, in fact none at all, during holidays I would work somewhere else for extra money. It has taken us 40 years to accumulate all those things that people today take for granted, without state aid and without an employer making provision for looking after my family. It wasn't easy but there is a satisfaction in knowing that hard work and diligence pays off in the end.

[fishtank]

It's all very well turning this into the four Yorkshiremen sketch dvb but the girl is only asking for a fair crack at the holiday sheet not a 42 inch plasma and not preferential treatment just the same chance as everyone else to get a couple of weeks in the summer with her kids.
Thinking that she should have it tough because you did is hardly progressive,my grandad died of Miners Lung...you're not suggesting i should join him just to make it fair are you?

[Pat Ostman]

It's all very well turning this into the four Yorkshiremen sketch dvb but the girl is only asking for a fair crack at the holiday sheet not a 42 inch plasma and not preferential treatment just the same chance as everyone else to get a couple of weeks in the summer with her kids.
Thinking that she should have it tough because you did is hardly progressive,my grandad died of Miners Lung...you're not suggesting i should join him just to make it fair are you?

dvb, you get more out of your staff if you give back in equal measures, not just to the privileged few. Then, well then you just get resentment.

[Postmanpat1]

Our rep does our holiday leave too and our office does it on seniority. A rota seems a much fairer way