If you don't ask, you don't get!

Having posed the question in work as to whether I am entitled to special paid leave to go on my Adoption Prep Course, it was apparently new to those working in civil labour.

Normally, you get time off during placement but there is nothing written down in the employment manual for any sort of leave during the adoption process...... Those that are pregnant get time off for parentcraft classes or ante-natal classes but the adoptive parent is left out - a common trend I fear.....

Close friends and colleagues know about the adoption but I hadn't actually mentioned it to my line manager yet. So I thought I had better tell him, rather than let him hear from someone else. He told me he was pleased for us and would support me in any way he could.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised today when I got a letter from HR to say that my request for 5 days Special Paid Leave had been granted. Four days for the prep course and a day's travelling.

If you don't ask, you don't get!! If something isn't written down as being a definite no, then challenge it!