There is typically a peak in vacation requests during the summer and year-end holidays. When you're a manager who's inundated with leave requests, you may be forced to decline a few. Let's review some managerial etiquette on how to decline leave requests diplomatically.
Analyze the team requests as a whole
It might be beneficial to discuss the requested time off as a team if you have multiple team members who can cover each other's responsibilities and see if any obvious adjustments can be made to ensure coverage. It is possible for some employees to move their requested days off so that they do not overlap, or to take them later in the year.
Establish the reasons for rejecting the request
Make sure you're not showing favoritism by rejecting the request based on personal factors. A manager may not be able to accept a leave request based on reasonable business grounds in the following instances:
Work cannot be covered by existing staff
Not being able to hire additional staff
Customer demand is negatively affected
The performance of the company is negatively affected
Refusal in person
When you have investigated other options and concluded that you cannot grant the leave, it is time to have a private discussion. It's best to decline requests in person if you can. Identify the reasons why the business cannot accommodate the request based on the business grounds you identified. We should then discuss when an alternative time to take the leave might be. Mutual respect must remain intact throughout the process.
Keep a close eye on the bigger picture when it comes to managing your employees' annual leave. Some managers are too accommodating and allow too many employees to take leave at once. As a result, employees that are still working have an unfair amount of work to deal with, which can negatively affect the business performance for the period.