Vacation conflicts

MEssig

How do your companies address vacation schedule conflicts? We are looking for a clear, concise policy that helps everyone understand when their vacations are approved and in what order.

POPEYE

Although we are not a union facility, we do utilize a seniority system for vacation requests. In fact, this week we are allowing our EEs to fill out a written request for their first week of vacation. The supervisor for each dept. will then compile a list and sort by seniority within the dept. If more than feasibly allowable request the same week, that week is approved for the EE / EEs with the longest tenure. We go through the same process for vacation weeks 2-5.
Yes I know with over 300 EEs this does get a little time consuming but we have found it is about the most equitable method.

LindaS

I have worked in unionized facilities and the contract for the company I previously worked for had the following guideline...

In December employees were allowed to request vacation for the following year and the requests were approved, or denied, according to seniority in a department. Once January came all vacation requests were handled on a first come, first serve basis. The supervisors were required to sign, date and write the time they received the request to ensure the first come, first serve process. If two employees handed their vacation requests in at the same time, seniority prevailed.

My husband works for a non-unionized company and his company also employs the seniority process for all vacation requests that are put in at least two weeks before the date requested. If an employee requests a vacation day(s) within the two week timeframe, they have to wait until that week to see what the workload is.

Hope this helps...

martman99

Like that idea about getting requests in at year's end then "first-come, first-served".

Thinking we might try that. Haven't had a conflict yet, but we're growing and it will only be inevitable that a conflict WILL arise!

Marty

Don D

I have always felt that seniority should rule during the implementation of a policy. After that, I think it's fair to rotate who has preference, not always give preference to the senior person forever. We have a large number of people, for example, who deer hunt and everybody wants off during December. We give preference to the senior personnel and try to rotate the benefit, not always, forever, giving first shot to the senior guys. That ain't fair.

safety

We date stamp all requests then enter them into a database. Just today I posted the following memo on vacations.

ANY EMPLOYEE WHO IS PLANNING ON REQUESTING VACATION DURING THE FIRST QUARTER SHOULD TURN IN THEIR VACATION REQUEST BY JANUARY 31, 2004. FIRST-QUARTER VACATION REQUESTS SUBMITTED AFTER THIS TIME WILL BE SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY, NOT SENIORITY.

FOR 2ND 3RD AND 4TH QUARTER REQUESTS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2004 IS THE LAST DAY THAT SENIORITY WILL BE CONSIDERED. PLEASE FORWARD YOUR VACATION REQUESTS TO YOUR PROCESS MANAGER BEFORE THAT DATE FOR SENIORITY CONSIDERATION.