As a final-year student applying for jobs, or as a newly graduated vet, one piece of advice that will come up time and again is “book a holiday”.
Some will advise you not to rush straight into a job from university – “you won’t get the chance to take a long break once you start work”. Some will advise you book a holiday for a certain period of time after starting work – three months seems to be the magic number, which gives you long enough to settle and get into the swing of things, but not so long as to be utterly exhausted.
You think you’ve done long hours and worked your brain hard throughout your final year, but in reality, nothing can prepare you for how tired you will feel in your first few weeks of practice (you get used to it, I promise). I would advise stipulating some holiday time before you even take the job, to make sure you have that break to look forward to and ensure you actually get it.
Compromise to be made
While being a vet is extremely rewarding and has numerous perks; unfortunately, some aspects of the veterinary profession would seem, at the very least, bizarre to many non-vets, and at worst, verging on illegal – one of these being the concept of holidays.
No doubt, many practices are working well within the law and operate a fair holiday request system, but sadly, some practices or organisations think they are a law unto themselves, seemingly with complete disregard for employee well-being.
Admittedly, we are obligated to provide round-the-clock care, and even with out-of-hours providers, just like our medical counterparts, we cannot just close the doors for two weeks over Christmas and send all staff home.
However, that does not mean certain employees (for example, the most recently employed graduate) can be refused all holiday requests because the holiday rota has already filled up. Some sort of compromise has to be made – many practices will operate a “first come, first served” approach, which is often the fairest way of doing it.
However, more often than not, the new grad joins the practice halfway through the calendar year, when every other vet is trying to squeeze in his or her holidays, and is often left empty handed until the new year.
One vet off at a time
I have university colleagues who have been presented with precisely this scenario, and not been granted any annual leave until more than six months of employment because “X has already booked that week off” or “we’re short because Y is on maternity or off sick”. This frequently stems from a ludicrous “one vet off at a time” rule, which is seemingly commonplace.
I appreciate why this rule is often enforced, but it has to be taken with a pinch of salt sometimes. Luckily, most reasonable employers would let more than one vet off for special circumstances, such as family events, but to me, not allowing someone holiday until six months of work – especially a new grad who will likely be completely exhausted by that point is not okay.
Staff numbers
The one vet at a time rule is also highly dependent on the number of staff on the rota – the more vets, the less available weeks in the year; so this needs to be taken into consideration, too. In small practices, there may not be much competition for holiday dates, but trying to enforce that rule in a 10-vet practice leaves no wiggle room and would require meticulous holiday planning.
Some practices prevent staff who do not have children from booking time off during the school holidays. Again, this seems sensible in principle (most people would probably avoid booking during those times anyway as the cost of going away is exceptionally higher), but a blanket ban for non-parents is discrimination.
Things are simply not as black and white: what about new graduates with young siblings? Or vets whose partners are teachers? Are they not allowed to be off at the same time as their families too?
Nail in the coffin
During my previous job I was told I couldn’t take the last few remaining holidays before the new year because no space was available on the rota, and neither would they allow me to carry them forward to the next year.
They also introduced a rule that the majority of holidays could only be taken as full weeks, instead of booking of single days. That was one of many nails in the coffin for me and, needless to say, I no longer work there. It was a breath of fresh air to have all my holiday requests approved in my current practice.
I know we can’t expect to be able to book last minute time off due to the nature of the job, but the strict dictation of when you can take holidays is no doubt part of the widespread recruitment and retention problem in the profession.
It must be a logistical nightmare to manage the holiday rota, and it would be naive to suggest hiring a locum for cover when people are on holiday (I know some practices don’t have the budget), but if some practices can operate a fair system, those dragging their heels need to catch up.
Not looking at bigger picture?
One of my friends made a good point that “no practice is really ever fully staffed”. Yes, the advert or the website may say 10-vet practice, but someone is always on holiday, on a day off or half day, or on CPD, or the partners or clinical director doesn’t do much actual clinical work, and the potential for someone to telephone in sick.
Very quickly, your 10-vet practice is down to 6 on a normal day. The question remains: are practices running themselves at that capacity, or are they consistently understaffing themselves because they aren’t looking at the bigger picture?
We have such a stressful and seemingly soul-consuming job at times that having a break is important for self-preservation and mental well-being, and the attitudes some employers have to dishing out holidays is unacceptable.
My advice to new graduates regarding holidays would be to book a holiday before you even accept a job – most employers will honour pre-booked holidays and, if they won’t, the alarm bells should already be ringing.
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