I originally posted this in r/childfree, so if hating on parents triggers you, you might wanna skip this post.
Just for context, im in the UK.
My manager always preaches the whole 'people with kids get priority with bookkng leave', and emphasises that's particularly important during summer holidays or any time that kids have off school.
Due to my team being small, we can only have one person take leave at any given time, even though I think we could easily cope with 2 people out at the same time for a week every now and then.
A particular colleague had 3 weeks off during August last year, blocking anyone from taking theirs for the majority of the month, and I joined the company in June, so it was far too late to book anything for the summer, so I thought, well, I'll just book some leave in the summer next year.
Well, at the start of the year I booked a week off in August, which, by the time I looked into booking leave in the summer, was the only week left free for taking in the summer, as the rest was taken up mainly by people with kids.
Cue my colleague calling me yesterday, asking me to give that week to him because he paid for a holiday abroad a day before and it falls on my week off and then some… I asked him well, I was hoping to go away during this time off too. When he asked me if I had actually paid for a holiday somewhere during that time I said no (I should have lied, but I'm a shit liar).
I added my manager to the call, to ask if she would consider giving us both time off during that week, since I booked it first and wanted to do something on that week. I should have expected it, but she came out with the 'Well, X has kids and his wife is a teacher so I'm going to need you to cancel your leave' and starts talking about how we need to be more mindful of people with kids.
I can't even begin to explain how angry this made me. I don't give a shit about your kids and your wife's profession! In fact, I think this douche definitely checked the calendar and saw that a childless person had leave booked, and thought that he will pay for his vacation anyway because he will definitely get it off because has kids.
I'm sick and tired of this. Not having kids is my own fucking choice and I have to deal with BS like this from parents all the time. They get any time off they want, and people without kids are deemed less important.
What if I actually wanted to have kids but couldn't for health reasons? What if I had tried but had miscarriages which I found traumatic? That's not the case, but management do not know this
Now I'm left with no time off work in the summer, again, because someone with kids needs it more apparently.
Sorry, I just needed to vent, because it's a fucking joke.