AI by NicheJob 2 of 10ChatGPTGemini
Set up a staff holiday request form, reply wording and a cover planner for your practice
A practice director describing her week in an AOP column lists processing staff holiday requests among her admin and says the one thing she would invent is 'something to manage staff holidays'. Requests, approvals and cover for test days all pile up in a small practice. GOV.UK says almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday. AI can draft the request form, approve and decline replies and a blank cover planner from your own rules. It never calculates entitlement, and the owner decides how many registered staff must be in on any test day.
Time: About 45 minutesTool cost: you can start with a free AI tool
Steps
- Write your own holiday rules in plain words: how far ahead to ask, who approves, any busy periods, how many registered staff and how many front-desk staff you need on a test day, and how decisions are told to staff. Do not put staff names in the AI tool.
- Check your employment contracts and the GOV.UK holiday entitlement page for the basics. Do not ask the AI to work out anyone's entitlement; use the GOV.UK calculator yourself.
- Paste your rules into the prompt. The AI returns a one-page request form, three reply templates (approved, declined with your own reason, and more information needed) and a blank cover planner grid using staff codes (S1, S2) and roles.
- Add the cover requirement yourself. If cover means a locum, check the locum on the GOC register yourself, using the GOC employer-check page.
- Share the form and rules with the team, track requests in one place and review the rules after the first busy season.
The exact prompt
I run an independent optical practice in the UK. Below are my practice's own rules for staff holiday requests, written in my own words. They contain no staff names. Task: write (1) a one-page holiday request form with fields for request dates, a reason slot (optional), manager decision and date; (2) three short reply templates: approved, declined with [MY REASON IN MY OWN WORDS], and more information needed; (3) a blank cover planner as a table: weeks across the top, rows for roles and staff codes S1 to S10, and a row for 'registered cover on test days'. Use only my rules. Do not calculate any holiday entitlement, do not state any legal rule, and do not say how much cover is needed beyond what I wrote. RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my practice's own facts, rules, dates, prices and headings. I have not included, and will not include, any patient name, address, phone number, email, date of birth, appointment, prescription, test result, clinical note, reason for a visit or any information about anyone's eyes or health, and no staff, locum or applicant name or personal detail. Do not ask for any, and do not invent any: use roles and blanks such as [OPTOMETRIST], [PRACTICE MANAGER], [STAFF MEMBER A] and [PATIENT]. Never give or suggest any clinical, referral, sight-test, test-interval, diagnosis, treatment, lens or product-suitability judgement, never say who is or is not entitled to an NHS sight test or any help with costs, and never say whether anything is compliant, adequate, lawful, valid or safe. Do not do arithmetic or count dates: copy every figure and date exactly as I typed it. If something is unclear, write [FOR THE PRACTICE TO DECIDE] instead of guessing. MY HOLIDAY RULES: [PASTE]
✓ Check before you send
- Your rules, not the AI, set the notice period, approval route and cover levels.
- No entitlement figure was calculated by the AI; you used the GOV.UK page and calculator.
- Registered cover for test days is decided and checked by you; any locum is checked on the GOC register by you.
- Declined replies use your own reason and treat people with the same role consistently.
- No staff name or detail went into the AI tool.
UK notes extra
- UK: GOV.UK says almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, and that for a 5-day week this is 28 days; part-time and irregular-hours workers are covered differently, so use its calculator. GOV.UK: holiday entitlement (UK; the page does not say which nations it covers; Northern Ireland employers can check nidirect).
- One owner's voice only: an AOP column lists processing holiday requests among a practice director's admin and says she wants 'something to manage staff holidays'. The words were edited by the magazine. AOP, Optometry Today: a practice director describes her week, 7 February 2025 (one owner; a trade-magazine interview, so the words were edited).
- If cover is a locum, the GOC says to check the register yourself and not rely on an agency. General Optical Council: how an employer can check if an optical professional is registered (UK-wide).
Last reviewed Oct 2026. Free tools change. If a screen looks different, the steps still apply.Back to top ↑