No Room for Favourites: Fair Holiday Requests in Small Businesses
In a small business, annual leave can feel personal.
When you’ve got a small team and limited cover, every request has an impact. One person off can mean someone else picking up the slack and in some cases that work just stops until the person returns.
It’s also really important to acknowledge that in small businesses and small teams people are often ‘doing more’ more than one role, more than is expected, because they’re committed to helping something grow.
This is where fairness matters more than ever. So how do you keep things fair when flexibility is limited?
No complex policies, clear and simple is the way
Decide upfront how leave will be handled across the business, sensible approaches could be
First come, first served
Rotating priority for peak times
Manager discretion based on business need
The key is that everyone understands the rules before requests start coming in. Ambiguity is where fairness breaks down.
Be transparent about the constraints
These people understand your business,There’s no point pretending you can approve every request so be open about how many people can be off at once, which roles cannot overlap, times of year where leave is limited or even not possible.
When people understand the “why” behind decisions, they’re far more likely to accept them.
Keep Records To Create Fairness
It’s just not about how you decide each request, it’s about how decisions look over time. By keeping accurate records you can track
Who’s had:Popular weeks off (school holidays, Christmas)
Last-minute approvals
Requests declined
This helps you spot patterns and avoid the same people always getting the approvals because believe us in a small business people notice and it will cause friction.
Don’t play favourites
She’s your most reliable employee, the best and you want to keep her happy, understandable but you can’t make accommodations or exceptions for one person, if others see this it undermines the system you’ve put in place and quite simply its not fair is it?
You don’t need to be rigid, but you do need to be consistent, if you’re bending the rules for one person you’d better be clear on why and ready to justify it.
Work together as a team to make leave fair and realistic
In smaller teams, leave doesn’t just affect the business, it affects colleagues directly.
Create a culture where employees:
Check who’s already off before requesting
Talk to each other about plans
Think about coverage, not just entitlement
You’re not pushing the responsibility onto them, but you are encouraging awareness. That alone can reduce clashes.
Don’t shy away from conflicts
It’s bound to happen, so don’t let it drag on. Make a decision based on your system, explain it clearly and move on with your life. Delays make things worse, so rip the band aid off it’s better for everyone.