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Submitted by chenderson on
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How would you address a senior manager who feels it is reasonable to request vacation for the coming full month of July It i for non-emergency reasons.  His specific time length request is not address in our company policy manual.   

BariTony's picture

If it's your direct, than you can always say "no". Vacation time is not a given and usually needs to be approved by a supervisor in advance. A good rule of thumb is the longer the vacation, the more advance notice you should give.

What do you visualize as your end game? To get them to cancel the vacation? To reduce the amount of time taken off? To be available to respond to emails or phone calls? Or are you just annoyed that they didn't follow an unwritten rule?

What are your concerns? That other people might expect the same treatment? That they will be out of touch?

Why are they doing this? Do they have tons of unused vacation time and July is a slow month for you?

If it's your boss, then start planning on how to manage your projects when they're away. Are they checking email every day? Once a week? Will someone be absorbing their responsibilities in the interim? Their supervisor, a peer manager, or one of their directs? Maybe you? Start talking to him to figure out what you need to do to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

If it's a peer manager, there's probably nothing you can do about it. Talking directly to them probably won't accomplish much. Talking to your supervisor to get their request rejected will only create animosity between the 2 of you.

It's just too hard to say without more info...