Managing Time Off
StaffBrik provides a complete time-off management workflow - from the moment an employee submits a request through to approval, rota impact, and entitlement tracking. No more scribbled notes on the kitchen noticeboard or WhatsApp messages that get buried.
Time Off Request Types
StaffBrik supports the following request types:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Annual Leave | Paid holiday from the employee's entitlement allowance |
| Parental Leave | Maternity, paternity, shared parental, or adoption leave |
| Compassionate | Bereavement or family emergency |
| Unpaid | Agreed time off without pay |
| Sick | Pre-notified sick leave (e.g. planned surgery recovery - distinct from day-of-absence logging) |
| TOIL | Time off in lieu - hours banked from overtime worked |
| Other | Anything else - jury service, public duties, study leave |
Sick leave as a time-off request is used when an employee knows in advance they will need time off for a medical reason (e.g. a hospital procedure next month). For unplanned sickness, use the Absences workflow instead.
Request Workflow
The time-off workflow follows a simple three-stage process:
Employee submits request → Pending → Manager approves or rejects
Submitting a Request
Employees submit time-off requests through StaffBrik. Each request includes:
- Type of time off (from the list above).
- Start date and end date.
- Notes (optional) - e.g. "Family wedding in Edinburgh" or "Half-term childcare".
Reviewing Pending Requests
Pending requests appear in StaffBrik > Time Off and on the manager dashboard. For each request, you can see:
- Who is requesting time off and for when.
- How many hours/days the request covers.
- Whether any shifts are affected (shifts already published for the requested dates).
- The employee's remaining entitlement balance.
- Whether anyone else on the team already has approved time off for the same dates.
Always check for overlapping time off before approving a request. If your head baker and your pastry chef are both off on the same Saturday, you may struggle to open the bakery. StaffBrik highlights clashes automatically.
Approving or Rejecting
Click Approve or Reject on any pending request. When rejecting, you must add a comment explaining why - this is good practice and creates a fair, transparent record.
Example rejection comment: "Sorry Jordan, we already have two team members off that week and need at least three front-of-house staff for the weekend. Could you look at the following week instead?"
Respond to time-off requests promptly. Employees often need to book travel or make arrangements, and a request sitting in "pending" for two weeks creates unnecessary anxiety.
Calendar View
The Calendar View shows approved and pending time off on a monthly calendar, with each employee represented as a row. This gives you an instant visual overview of:
- Who is off and when.
- Where the gaps are.
- Peak periods where you might want to restrict approvals.
Colour coding distinguishes between approved (solid) and pending (striped) requests, as well as different time-off types.
List View with Filters
The List View shows all time-off requests in a sortable, filterable table. You can filter by:
- Status - pending, approved, rejected.
- Type - annual leave, TOIL, compassionate, etc.
- Date range - show requests within a specific period.
- Employee - view a single employee's history.
- Location - if you operate multiple sites.
This view is particularly useful for payroll processing, where you need to see all approved time off for a given pay period.
Affected Shifts Detection
When an employee requests time off, StaffBrik automatically checks the published rota for any shifts assigned to that employee during the requested period. Affected shifts are displayed on the request so you can see the operational impact before making a decision.
If you approve the request, affected shifts are flagged on the rota as needing cover. This keeps your rota view accurate without requiring you to manually cross-reference calendars and schedules.
Auto-Calculation of Hours
StaffBrik calculates the number of hours covered by a time-off request based on the employee's scheduled shifts. This matters because:
- Annual leave deductions are calculated in hours, not days, giving accurate entitlement tracking for employees with variable shift patterns.
- A full-time restaurant manager taking Monday to Friday off uses 40 hours, while a part-time barista taking the same week off might only use 16 hours.
If no shifts are scheduled for the requested period, StaffBrik falls back to the employee's contracted hours per day setting from their profile.
Auto-calculation ensures part-time employees are treated fairly. A part-time worker who works 3 days a week uses 3 days of entitlement for a full week off, not 5. This is a legal requirement under the Part-Time Workers Regulations 2000.