I have noticed that while I can talk about any leave plans I have with some manager that I have already worked with for a few months, if I have to inform a manager about my prospective leave plans at the very outset when I begin to work with him/ her, I am met more often than not with a WTF expression that makes me want to do this thing again and again, cheap guy that I am.
The trouble with switching managers and working with different ones for different projects / accounts, aside from the adjustments required to make towards their working styles is their approach towards the whole leave issue.
Some of the people I have worked with have been awesome enough to just ask me to go ahead with my plans, while some others have had the chutzpah to ask me why I need the time off, and where I was headed to and so on.
As far as I know, I don’t need to provide justifications for asking for holidays within the limits allocated to me annually, since I am entitled to them in any case. It is sort of like being asked why I eat how much ever food I do consume.
There have been a few instances where I have been asked to re-think my leave plans due to some situations that have come about, and I have been shameless enough to go ahead anyway, comforted by the fact that crisis situations can be mitigated by clever and able project management, and my time to address such situations isn’t yet on the anvil.
In retrospect, the attention paid by teachers in school to students on leave strikes me as ironic, since it was the student’s loss if he/she played truant from school for whatever reasons and the teacher did not stand to lose anything in the student’s absence.
However, I feel that it is the dedication exhibited by most teachers and their committment towards ensuring that their students were taught properly, that led them to be as strict as they were in these matters.
In any case, I am glad the festive (read:leave) season is upon us.
I guess this is the plight of most of the IT people.
@Lively,
Well, IT people most definitely, but I guess it also applies to people in other industries, especially the services. I can’t imagine how tough it would be for security guards, cooks and people engaged in other similar occupations to get leave the way we do.