Based in the UK. I started working for my current employer back in March this year and on the whole, as far as employers go, they're pretty decent.
My manager has explained to me in the past the office shuts down over Christmas, basically the week between the 24th of December and 1st of January. I didn't think much of it until this week, when I put in a request for annual leave in March and noticed I had three approved days of annual leave coming up: 27th, 28th and 29th of December.
The office is closed, nobody is working that week, and I'm annoyed that they're taking our annual leave away over this without a choice. Is there anything I can do? I guess it's nice not to have to work over Christmas (I did at my previous job) but frustrated that it comes out of my 25 days per year without me getting a choice to allocate it differently. I feel a little scammed.