Holidays for the girls?

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stanyer21

Nail addict
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Apr 7, 2011
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hi business owners .. when the girls want to book holidays how far in advance do you ask them to book. I have only 1 girl work for me and she keeps asking me for Saturday's off to take her little girl to parties but we already have bookings in for her at work ?
 
How many times has she asked for a Saturday off at short notice?

I think it’s ok to ask for reasonable notice such as 2 weeks or so and if it’s not convenient, you need to say so. Working Saturdays is pretty standard for salon work so it won’t be any different elsewhere.
Unfortunately, most school mums don’t hand out party invitations until quite late but can she not ask a family member to help out or a friend who’s child is also attending the party to drop & pick up and return the favour another time? Usually, parents aren’t expected to hang around at a party and they’re normally 2 hours max at primary school age and held in the afternoon, so she could at least work all morning.
 
How many times has she asked for a Saturday off at short notice?

I think it’s ok to ask for reasonable notice such as 2 weeks or so and if it’s not convenient, you need to say so. Working Saturdays is pretty standard for salon work so it won’t be any different elsewhere.
Unfortunately, most school mums don’t hand out party invitations until quite late but can she not ask a family member to help out or a friend who’s child is also attending the party to drop & pick up and return the favour another time? Usually, parents aren’t expected to hang around at a party and they’re normally 2 hours max at primary school age and held in the afternoon, so she could at least work all morning.

this is the 3rd one she has mentioned this year . obviously when she wants that Saturday off because clients are already booked in we would need to cancel them whixh I just think sounds a bit extreme to take her little girl to a party . her little girl is only 2 this year so it worrys me that this is only going to get worse :/
 
I work for myself and I would love to have Saturdays off to take my daughter to parties, however it’s part of the job and Saturdays have always been the busiest day of the week! I have also been employed so again from an employee point of view and having 3 Saturdays off in 3 months is a bit much, you don’t want to come across as unprofessional. Clients like to book in advance so I would say 3-4 weeks notice unless she has lots of clients booked in then she can’t have it off. If she gives short notice but she only has 1 client in that can be moved then that’s fine, I would put my foot down and tell her no so she knows the rules..it’s your business and your clients that don’t want to be messed around otherwise they will go somewhere else!
 
I work for myself and I would love to have Saturdays off to take my daughter to parties, however it’s part of the job and Saturdays have always been the busiest day of the week! I have also been employed so again from an employee point of view and having 3 Saturdays off in 3 months is a bit much, you don’t want to come across as unprofessional. Clients like to book in advance so I would say 3-4 weeks notice unless she has lots of clients booked in then she can’t have it off. If she gives short notice but she only has 1 client in that can be moved then that’s fine, I would put my foot down and tell her no so she knows the rules..it’s your business and your clients that don’t want to be messed around otherwise they will go somewhere else!
we have bookings for 3 months in advance and because we are such a small salon they book all them in to make sure they can get in .
 
we have bookings for 3 months in advance and because we are such a small salon they book all them in to make sure they can get in .
Then I don't think it's unusual for her to book in holiday with the same lead time. Most people book holidays way in advance. My wife works at a building society and has to book at the start of the year for everything for the whole year I'm pretty sure.
 
Her child is 2 and she wants to take time off for parties for a 2 yr old? That’s just ridiculous.

I was assuming by ‘young’ you meant primary school age. I could understand if the child was in Reception class and the mum wanted to encourage friendships with new children/other mums during the first year of school but 2yr olds are only going to be attending parties thrown by close family or friends.
Who looks after her when mum is at work?
She should be asking someone else to take her and go to the party herself after work.

You need to nip this in the bud as she’ll be requesting time off on Saturdays for all sorts of nonsense.

First of all, decide a limit on how many Saturdays she can book off in a year (including Saturdays booked as part of a week’s holiday). Assuming she has around 20 days holiday entitlement, then that includes no more than 4 or 6 Saturdays in total, whatever is manageable for the business and seems reasonable to you. Also, she needs to give at least 2/4 weeks notice, or whatever you feel is reasonable.

Then, sit her down and talk to her.
She needs to understand that working in a service industry means that Saturday is usually the busiest day of the week, working on Saturdays is the industry norm and taking Saturdays off has to be viewed as exceptional.
Also, explain how cancelling and re-arranging client appointments seriously affects the business.
If clients are inconvenienced, they’ll go elsewhere and as a direct consequence, without enough clients, you’d have to let her go.
Make this last sentence very matter of fact rather than sounding annoyed or threatening.

I hope you can resolve this satisfactorily.
 
I worked in an extremely busy salon in a shopping centre, and we were limited to only having 4 Saturdays off a year. I think in our industry that has to be acceptable. X
 
Have a look at your rotas and see how many Saturdays each of them has worked since starting and then if it’s equal show her she needs to pull her weight.

I once had a full time job where my boss found it easier to put me on a Saturday shift in a separate building next door on my own and forget about me because I knew what I was doing, than have the part timers do it as they were often late etc.

Worked out fine for my boss and made her life easier but when I asked for a weekend off for something important and she said no, I got her book out and showed her I’d worked every weekend for a year consecutively and she felt terrible about it, she didn’t even realise because she trusted me so much to run the place on my own it didn’t even cross her mind that I might like to have some time off like everyone else is entitled to.

Just check it and then talk to her. Mums miss their kids sure but it’s not hard to drop the kid off and arrange her breaks so she can pick the kid up. She can easily ask that of you.All the mums I know are desperate to get away from their kids and get out to work...if she’s not comfortable with the break thing she might be using the kid as an excuse to just have Saturdays off.
 

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