Home Chat General Chat

Gutted!

Hi all,

Just found out that I will no longer be able to make my debut triathlon - HIM Austria on 30th May due to work commitments. I was also due to extend the trip into a weeks holiday which has now also fallen by the way side with the bombhell that I can't get the time off!

I am desperate to do a HIM/middle distance around that date (really needs to be before the 27th May). Was looking at the Swashbuckler but went to enter and it was full (now 14th on waiting list - not sure if that means I'm likely to get a spot??). The other options seem to be the Marshman or the Marazion (West Cornwall) tri.

Does anyone have any experience of these/recommendations. Any suggestions for a dejected tri newbie would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Guy

Comments

  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    bummer mate... got my AT 70.3 beanie in the post today.

    Bugger 'em... I'd take a sickie that weekend and do it anyway. They can't cover your planned absence from 4.5 months out? Screw them!

    didds
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Your employer obviously has a good grip on staff relations and how to retain people What a bastard. What is the attitude of work colleagues? If someone wanted time off for something important I wouldn't mind covering, what a lousy bloody attitude, not even a chance for a long long weekend?

    Start looking for a new job if possible, if your employer won't flex for something like this then not worth working for IMHO.
  • That's a bit daft to tell a man to leave his job !!! Not constructive.

    I too find it very hard to get time off work and much like the police we get leave refused and or cancelled at the services discretion.

    It is very frustrating but equally I'm not in the type of job that just allows me not to turn up to work or throw a sickie. Should I leave my job too ?

    After all we don't know what this chap does for a living.

    I sadly can't help with the event issues but I wish you the best.
  • And yes I'm on an early shift I got refused leave for and Not one patient has been ill yet!!!!

  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Willeverfinish - didn't tell guy009uk to leave his job - suggested he
    Start looking for a new job if possible, if your employer won't flex for something like this then not worth working for IMHO
    Bit of a difference. Even after giving 4 months notice he is told no; if he was in a 'service' job then Guy would obviously roll with it but he sounds well pissed off to me, a highly motivated employee, I think not. I can see how he may not get the whole week off but one or two days! I then did go on to ask
    What is the attitude of work colleagues? If someone wanted time off for something important I wouldn't mind covering, what a lousy bloody attitude, not even a chance for a long long weekend?

    I have been asked to work on my rota day off so that a colleague can have leave, it is not a problem, I like to think I am flexible and to be fair my immediate boss has been fair and flexible with me. It seems to me that many organisations/managers ‘manage’ by Excel and if the computer says ‘no’ it is the end of the matter.

    My wife is a surgeon and if she or any of her colleagues, whether doctors or nurses, give at least 6 weeks notice and there is not a clash with someone else’s leave they will get it. True there may be a short term problem with 'on calls', working on a non-working session to cover etc. but to have leave cancelled other than an extreme emergency, that has never happened with her. Similarly I have friends in the armed forces and the Police, they seem to do OK with leave bar the occassional 'emergency' but otherwise they are hogging the sun loungers on the Costa del sol along with everyone else.

    It seems to me that some manangers use the excuse 'work commitments' as an excuse for not exploring the options and to answer Willeverfinishes question let me ask a question in return, what is staff moral, absence and retention like? If you can't plan a holiday, can't have a home life then why is that? It is simply poor management, end of story. I accept that there may be a last minute emergency which throws plans out of the window but if not are you working to live or living to work?

    Nobody on their deathbed wishes they had spent more time in the office.
  • diddsdidds Posts: 655
    I can see willie's point, as I believe Zac can, but I'm 100% with Zac here. This ISN'T a case of an emergency, or leave being cancelled... (which may indeed have a good reason for at times)... this is management 4.5 months away from the date saying "no" - a vast difference.

    caveat - OP hasn't managed to mention that everybody else on his shift/office/whatever already has leave booked for those dates which could be a reason for a rejection.

    didds
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Exactly Didds - I did say
    What is the attitude of work colleagues? If someone wanted time off for something important I wouldn't mind covering, what a lousy bloody attitude, not even a chance for a long long weekend?
    If one of my colleagues had something special planned I would put myself out to accomodate and have done so on several occassions, working on my rota day off, working at Christmas etc and if I needed some leave my boss would ask if anyone could likewise accomodate me.

    If it was at all possible for the Guys work colleagues to cover why didn't they? Did Guy's boss even bother trying to find an alternative? If nobody can be bothered then would one really want to work there? Hence my suggestion
    Start looking for a new job if possible, if your employer won't flex for something like this then not worth working for IMHO
  • Hi All,
    Thanks for the replies..!
    Just to explain a little further.. I work as a junior doctor. I work within a team that coversTrauma and Orthapaedics (or will be in May). There must always be appropriate cover on the ward at any time. It seems that we shall be one doctor short during the rotation due to ?resignation. Someone else has also requested the time off during the period of the May Bank Holiday. As a result I will not be able to take this time off for definate at the moment unless they find a replacement for the resigned doctor. I was planning to make a weeks holiday of the event with my girlfriend but that seems very unlikely to go ahead alwell now, hence the reason for looking at another HIM.

    I hope thats clarified a little. Very frustrating and unfortunate that someone else wants the same time off as me, but there are other races and other years for the Austria HIM. Just looking to get stuck into an event around the same time. Think Marshman might be the option.

    Thanks for all your input.
    Guy
  • nivaghnivagh Posts: 595
    I hear good things about the Lisbon 70.3

    Quite impressed (concerned?) that your first tri will be a HIM - maybe look for an OD in the UK in the meantime to test your setup in race conditions?
  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    Assume you are at least in reach of South coast if you considered Swashbuckler... would Weymouth Middle distance on 6th June be any good?
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    I see the way forward is to get yourself on the interview/recruitment panel 'Immediate appointment VITAL to the functioning ofthis department.' Once on the panel candidate arrives..'Hi, I am Dr...' 'Yes sure, the jobs yours, when can you start..oh whilst we are here, I have an annual leave request...'
  • md6md6 Posts: 969
    I'm doing the Marshman + (3/4 distance) as I did an Oly distance run by the same people at the same place last year - which i thought was brilliant, really well organised friendly etc. The course if flat as a pancake (or at least the 40k loop I did was) and hte run was also very flat with a little climb about 2k out, nothing noticable. I would recommend the company/location, but haven't done the marshman yet so can't comment on the specific event, oh and the other plus (for me) about marshman (and +) is that there is no cutt off times... i'm probably going to need that, oh and the next few days off work
  • ZacniciZacnici Posts: 1,385
    Ah well Guy that clarifies the situation and Britspin as always comes up with a plan of action that minimises the affect on triathlon activities by the hum drum routines of life - good plan, work out the races you want to enter and tell the new kid 'you need to cover theses dates'.

    So get cracking Guy get networking, get someone to apply for the job and get a replacement chop chop!
  • jacjac Posts: 452
    At least Guy clarified the situation..saves more hysterical posting!
Sign In or Register to comment.