The Challenge
One team member asks for a week off in February, another wants the same week, and suddenly you are staring down Valentine’s Day with half your workforce missing. In a team of three or four, losing even one person at the wrong time can mean turning away orders or delivering substandard work. Holiday management is not an admin chore — it is a genuine operational risk.
UK Statutory Holiday Entitlement
All workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year. For full-time staff working five days a week, that is 28 days including bank holidays. There is no requirement to give bank holidays off separately — they form part of the 28-day total, which matters if your shop opens on bank holidays.
Part-time staff receive pro-rata entitlement. A florist working three days a week gets 16.8 days (3 x 5.6). For irregular hours, the calculation uses an average of the previous 52 working weeks.
Our True Cost of Employment Calculator helps you understand the full cost picture including holiday entitlement, employer National Insurance, and pension contributions.
Calculating Part-Time Holiday Fairly
The simplest method is to calculate everything in hours rather than days. If your full-time week is 37.5 hours, the annual entitlement is 210 hours. A part-timer on 22.5 hours per week gets 126 hours. This avoids disputes about whether a “day” means a four-hour shift or a full day.
Record bookings in hours using our Staff Holiday Manager, and the maths stays clean regardless of shift patterns.
Peak Period Blackout Dates
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and the two weeks before Christmas are non-negotiable. Define blackout periods in employment contracts from the outset, then publish exact dates every January:
- Valentine’s Day: 10th to 15th February
- Mother’s Day: The full week leading up to Mothering Sunday
- Christmas: 10th to 24th December
If you add blackout dates after someone has started, discuss it openly and get written agreement.
Building a Fair Booking System
A written policy removes the awkwardness of saying no and gives everyone a framework to rely on.
- Annual deadline: Everyone submits main requests by end of January, giving a complete picture before spring
- Rotating priority: Whoever missed out last year gets first pick this year
- Split popular weeks: Two people wanting the same half-term each take half
- Minimum notice: Four weeks for a full week off, two weeks for individual days
Write the system down, share it with every team member, and stick to it.
Cross-Training to Cover Absences
A holiday policy only works if the shop can function when someone is away. Cross-train so nobody is the sole person who can handle opening and closing, relay orders, funeral tributes, delivery planning, or till reconciliation. This also protects against unexpected illness.
Carry-Over and Unused Holiday
Workers must take their statutory 28 days within the leave year — you cannot pay in lieu except when someone leaves. If an employee has 8 days remaining in November, schedule them before year-end. Tired staff make mistakes, and burnout is a real risk in floristry.
Allow a small carry-over of two or three days above the statutory minimum, but never let large balances accumulate.
The Real Cost of Holiday
When someone is off, you pay wages without productive output. For a florist earning £12 per hour, 28 days costs approximately £2,520 in paid non-working time. Factor this into your staffing budget from the start. If you need temporary cover during peak weeks, build a small network of reliable freelance florists.
Beyond the Spreadsheet
Tracking holidays on a wall chart or spreadsheet works until dates clash without warning or pro-rata calculations go wrong. Our Staff Holiday Manager was built for small teams — it calculates entitlement automatically, flags clashing requests, and keeps a running total of days taken and remaining.
