I’m fairly new at my job, and I won’t give any details of where I work for anonymity sake.
A lot of my coworkers take half days so they can attend appointments or doctors check ups, meaning their valuable holiday is being taken for something mandatory like this.
The discussion also came up because a coworker worked through her lunch break so she could use her ‘break’ to have a scheduled call with her doctor.
I think this is ridiculous, and there’s a theme of my employers making any absence from work be taken as holiday. They’ve even asked people to take their sick days as holiday which I’m pretty sure isn’t allowed.
I just wanted to check if things like this are the norm? Is it allowed? Is it just up to the employer? I currently have 28 days holiday including bank holidays, though due to starting later in the work year I have 18 days I can choose myself rather than 20. I do not think I should have to take holiday to see a doctor if I need to?
I’ve got an MOT coming up soon too, so may not be able to get to work without my car, I know damn well we have a lot of WFH flexibility as many employees do (however when I asked about this I was told I can’t work from home because I don’t have kids so why would I ever need to work from home?). I’m not gonna let them make me take it as holiday. I’ll WFH, I’ll take it unpaid. I’m just not using one of my 18 days holiday for a necessity like that.