Booking Days off

[Seymour Buts]

Said this before, the worst part of this job is the leave. Literally a year in advance in our office. Getting odd days is a nightmare too. A guy booked Florida and needed an extra day, Monday I think it was and he was told no and to cancel the holiday He had to sort it himself and swap his day off with somebody.

I am new...

Should I be booking days off well in advance then? I mean - I don't have any days I need to be off, no holidays to Magaluf booked, no weddings booked, so I don't need any specific days off....but... do I need to be booking some random days off now, early, well in advance?

Is it not the case that I can just say to them a week or 2 in advance that I need a Wednesday off? do they expect like 5 months notice of something?

I've only worked in one office, but judging by comments here others are similar, no you can't say I need a day off next week or the following week because most of the time they'll say no. You've got to imagine offices virtually run on skeleton staff nowadays and they do the rotas three or four weeks in advance so they'll need you in. You can swap your day off with someone if their day falls on what you need, but that's obviously dependent on them agreeing.

You books weeks too, not odd days. I literally book my leave from work then book my holidays around that, not the other way around. You can 'buy' an additional two weeks if you wish, they take the amount out of your weekly pay. You're taking two weeks unpaid leave effectively but speading the cost over 52 weeks making it more manageable. That's probably the only good part!

[SpacePhoenix]

and they do the rotas three or four weeks in advance so they'll need you in.

Dream on, there's probably less than half the offices in the country (DOs, MCs and RDCs) where the rota at best is only done the previous week for the current week

[Celgar]

Hi, new Postie here....

In your experiences how easy is it go get the days off that you want?

Are management ok with employees taking 3 weeks+ off at a time?

Are management ok if you want to book 23 consecutive Saturdays off?

Are management ok with you booking off time around Xmas?

1)Its fairly easy to get the time off you need but nothing is guaranteed and you may not be able to.
2) If there is space on the AL sheet then you can book it. A sneaky option is to get someone else book the week/s you want and maybe you book the week/s they want then swap over afterwards. I have seen this done - I wouldn't personally do it though - and it will be visible to all what has occurred afterwards which may result in 'banter'. Another option is to ask to swap your day off with someone else's day off which can be done if it still allows all walks to be delivered and everyone is agreeable.
3) When we switched from booking AL in days to hours it was pointed out we could book days and in theory end up with more days off than before given that not all days have the same hours of duty. In theory this is entirely possible but practically it is not generally possible to do. AL booked in less than whole weeks, except where you actually have hours making up to odd days, generally messes up the weeks for others to book.
4) Consumerism & capitalism is making Xmas effectively start earlier year on year in terms of when people start buying presents. RM is slowly moving this window earlier so eventually I can see it taking most of November as well as all of December when AL cannot be booked.

[Celgar]

Said this before, the worst part of this job is the leave. Literally a year in advance in our office. Getting odd days is a nightmare too. A guy booked Florida and needed an extra day, Monday I think it was and he was told no and to cancel the holiday He had to sort it himself and swap his day off with somebody.

I am new...

Should I be booking days off well in advance then? I mean - I don't have any days I need to be off, no holidays to Magaluf booked, no weddings booked, so I don't need any specific days off....but... do I need to be booking some random days off now, early, well in advance?

Is it not the case that I can just say to them a week or 2 in advance that I need a Wednesday off? do they expect like 5 months notice of something?

AL is booked each year in or shortly after October so for example AL booked in October 2018 is for the year running from April 2019 to March 2020 inclusive. I realise it sounds barmy but RM has a lot of staff or whatever so this is how it is done. In addition DO have differing ways and methods as to how AL is allocated and booked. Some DOs still use the seniority system, as in how many years service you have with RM, as basis for the order of booking AL even though strictly speaking this is illegal. In our DO we alternate it year on year so one year it gets booked in order of least service then the next year the most service. Then we take turns to book two weeks each up to the six weeks maximum as we go up & down the list. Then we add a further complication in that we book summer and winter weeks. For RMs purposes from April to end of September is classed as summer and October to end of March is classed as winter. Complicated isn't it?
You should be able to ask your DOM and/or union rep about this stuff or any other question you have. Ask about the 'POAL' scheme if you want to top your annual leave quota to the maximum amount allowed. A small amount of money is deducted from your wages each week if you want to do that. I say six weeks annual leave but its actually thirty days because you deduct the Sunday and your weekly day off work from the equation. If your office has changed over to the new system - not all have yet - then your AL allocation will be in a total amount of hours. If not then it will show up as twenty days initially. Thirty days is the maximum you can get as I mentioned before.
You can ask for a certain day off a week or two in advance and they should do their best to help out. This would usually be fixed by swapping your day off with another member of staff. If you have spare AL this may be able to be used for the purpose. In my personal experience & given that offices are usually short staffed the more likely outcome is the DOM will attempt to swap your day off.
Regarding holidays at Xmas it is possible to book the week between Xmas and New Year at RM. Posties who like to have that week off, and it is usually the same posties, will often book that week first if it is available. Another thing to remember is you get a 'day in lieu' to book at a later date if you book a week of AL that has a bank holiday eg Good Friday, Xmas Day etc in it.
Up to five days of AL, or the equivalent in hours, can be carried over to the following year of annual leave if you can't or choose not to take it.

There is a separate section on this forum for questions from new posties if you wish to read stuff there or ask more questions. We are mostly a friendly bunch of posties but occasionally we get angry and go off on one.

[Celgar]

and they do the rotas three or four weeks in advance so they'll need you in.

Dream on, there's probably less than half the offices in the country (DOs, MCs and RDCs) where the rota at best is only done the previous week for the current week

I think we have rotas up on our wall until the end of May at the moment. We are fully staffed at the moment though which we haven't been for as long as I can remember.

[SpacePhoenix]

and they do the rotas three or four weeks in advance so they'll need you in.

Dream on, there's probably less than half the offices in the country (DOs, MCs and RDCs) where the rota at best is only done the previous week for the current week

I think we have rotas up on our wall until the end of May at the moment. We are fully staffed at the moment though which we haven't been for as long as I can remember.

There can't be too many offices around the country (shifts in MCs and RDCs) that are fully staffed