Went over Line Manager's Head. Got the result I wanted. Now passive-aggressive hatred!

[SkintBadger]

Hello all, 

 

In my continuing mission to paint a target on my back at work! 

 

A colleague came to me in some distress a few weeks ago - the most lovely Peruvian person who has been working for the company for over 12 years, solidly and without a blemish on his record. He was upset because he had his full 30 days accrued holiday entitlement and requested it as a continuous "all at once" 30 days for a few month's time, plenty of notice.

 

Our immediate Line Manager responded to him saying: (paraphrased): "I only allow 2 weeks at a time, in exceptional circumstances I will allow the full 30 days, but you will only be paid for the first 14 days of your holiday, irrespective of entitlement".

 

I looked at my (our) employment contract and saw nothing about this, so in error I thought HR existed to help us little people. So requested HR director confirmed this in writing. AND as we all know, when someone is chatting bullcrap, it's highly unlikely they'll put it in writing.

 

The upshot is I got my pants pulled down. After a bit of to-and-fro'ing with HR, he sent his final response and cc'd in my line manager, my depot manager, and uncle Tom Cobbly & All, so they could read the whole thread.

 

I felt this SO unprofessional. And even if it isn't, still a very c*n*y thing to have done.

 

The fallout has been such that my immediate boss now hates me. "Why did I go over his head". Well, as it turns out there is NOTHING in the Employment handbook which says an employee can't take all their accrued holiday in one go IF the manager approves. 

 

Approve it or don't. Don't become king of the world saying "I will approve it, but I'll only pay you for the first 14 days".

 

Win the battle; lose the war, and all that. However this is really peeing me off.

 

What do I want? 

 

I want my Line Manager to take the target off my back by passively-aggressively now giving me the worst rota shifts. 

 

Any thoughts welcome. I hate this middle-management world where petty & vindictive people are promoted above their ability and take any opportunity to self-validate themselves by being a sh*t-show to other underlings.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

For a lot of companies, they only allow 2 weeks annual leave to be taken at a time. For more than 2 weeks leave,  they will sometimes allow this, if the staff resources enable this.   Companies don't like all annual leave being taken, as this could mean that the member of staff does not have a break away from work, at different parts of the working year.  So not great for health and wellbeing.

 

Not a great idea to go to HR manager.  Ok if you were a Trade Union official and wanted to clarify the companies HR policies.

 

Suggest that you apologise and seek to foster a better relationship with the manager concerned. Otherwise you may well be managed out of the business and they may not be bothered by any grievance appeal you started. 

[whitelist]

With any employee dispute, you must follow the chain of command. Will normally be in your employee handbook or a specific policy if the business has accredited trade union representation with a written disciplinary/grievance procedure.

 

The mistake you made is in not following that procedure and going over his head. The first step is in approaching the manager in question informally for mutual resolution. That fails you then go to their manager, which is formal, then escalated to HR if necessary.

 

As above, best have a quiet word with this manager, swallow your pride and apologise. He will probably respect you for it and say you were unsure of the correct procedure and made a mistake.

[SkintBadger]

Thanks for advice guys. Yep, I ate a massive slice of humble pie and apologised. He accepted apology. Time will tell!