Time off for Hospital

[melco]

Hi,

I have had to book leave for the 4th October for an Hospital appointment and I informed parents at the start of September. I knew I would receive another appointment through and I did today and this one is for next Friday 28th. Its at 3pm so can not look after any kids that day!! I may be able to swap a day with one of the children but the others are all after school.

I feel really guilty. I have printed out Holiday forms so I can inform parents tomorrow but am worried they will be annoyed with me as due to only receiving letter today I am not giving them much notice.

Any advice on how to approach this with them? Any others had this sort of problem? Obviously they will not need to pay me for it but feel like I am letting them down.

Thanks

melco

[cathtee]

Hi, I would give them the letter in the morning and say I'm sorry about this I know it's short notice but I only had it come through yesterday. We all have hospital appointments and know how short notice they can be they would have to do the same at work if it was them. I had a operation date for a thursday which i informed the parents about and it was the week I was due to come back to work after 2 weeks hol, but they were ok about it and then a couple of days before i went i found out i had to have a pre op visit on the monday i was due back to work so had to tell them that too again they were ok.

You could offer to work til lunch time (12) and see what they say, probably find they will say no as easier for them to find alternative care for full day but at least you offered.

Sorry to waffle hope it works out

[melco]

Thank you

melco

[tialil]

Just have to explain that you just had the appoinment.

Its so hard trying to juggle work with appoinments, its not as if we can take an hour off or two and then come back to work.

Hope all goes well x

[Tealady]

I've been in a similar situation recently. I always gave as much notice as possible basically they found out at pick-up on the day the appointment came through.

I offered to have the child as long as possible, so say in your case until lunchtime. I didn't feel guilty, basically your health comes first and if they didn't like it they could lump it but I was lucky and my parents have been great.

[hectors house]

I would tell the parents that you are only working til lunch time (depending on how far you have to travel to hospital), but would phone hospital first and see if they can give you a later appointment for that day - it is worth a try, you would still have to get parents to finish early but maybe only a few hours rather than half a day.

When I had my shoulder operation, I was lucky enough to be able to choose to go to a private hospital paid for by NHS - I had permission from parents for a friend of mine (ex childminder) to come with me for appointments and sit in car with children - because it was private they were always on time, generally in and out in 15 mins for consultations.

Good luck with telling the parents, they wouldn't think twice about telling their employers they were taking whole day off - think of yourself for a change and good luck with operation.