Holiday problems

[JessW]

I have a minor problem (nothing new there then!)

Today I am going to be out on site and for the foreseeable future - not a problem in itself, but for the fact that next week for an office of no less than 150 people we only have 2 admins and 2 receptionists with no typing ability to speak of.

My question is how do other organisations deal with avoiding having, as in our case, 5 admins out of 7 (and this does not include me as I am predominately classed as fee earning most of the time) on holiday at the same time?  Are there special contingencies / policies in place that mean that this sort of occurence never happens or is catered for via regular temps?

I need to know, if only for my own peace of mind, so I can at least try to suggest ways that my working life does not get p'd about and I lose sleep over it (I do stress easily).

Thanks

Jess

[gee4]

Hey Jess, I'm the ONLY admin in our office of close to 40 people.  If you're on leave, you're on leave, that's what holidays are for.  By the time you hire a temp and show them the ropes, it's not really worth the hassle.

Just my 0.02p's worth

G

PS.  Anyway why should you worry?

[hgray]

We have 9-10 admins for an office of 350 people.
Most people are self sufficient which helps.

There is no hard and fast rule here for cover.  A colleague and I have covered each other for a number of years so that's 3 Departments looked after.
We don't normally get temps in for holiday - the exception to the rule is for the CEO/Chairman.

H.

[raindance]

How this is resolved depends upon howy our company is structured, and the needs of staff (children/aged relatives etc).

It is a little easier if you are organised into teams or departments.  For example, the team in my office - composed of Chief Executive, moi as Executive Assistant and Administrative Assistant - reserves holidays around meetings.  The aim is that the Chief Executive and I  are never on holiday at the same, and we manage to space out our leave during the year so that we have leave roughly every four months or so.  Our Admin Assistant covers for me when I am away, and I am happy for her to take a long leave in July and August.  I rarely need interim workers these days, but I can arrange one if needed.

If you are two admins and two receptionists, providing admin and reception support respectively for the whole office, then you might consider arranging holidays around an "admin team" and a "reception team" so that there is always one permanently employed admin and receptionist available - with the other person being covered by an interim worker.  

Ultimately, though, this is a matter for your management to decide upon and budget for, but there is no harm in you and your colleagues getting together to discuss this and seeing if you can come to an agreement which you might present to management.

Raindance

[JessW]

I get the kudos (and who knows the overtime?)

[JessW]

Raindance

Thanks for confirming what I suspected - mind you this would not have happened if the team leaders and admins actually talked to each other re holidays in particular.  You can always lead a horse to water but cannot make him drink.

and thanks to everyone who has responded so far.

Jess

[msmarieh]

Our office admins have a centralized calendar for recording holidays. They probably wouldn't let 5 out of 7 take the same week. Sometimes this requires some delicate negotiations. There is more lee way around the holidays, but you are expected to ensure that your area has coverage.

Marie