I'm in the UK, I requested a day of annual leave for the day after a deadline (~3 weeks time) which will result in an estimated 4AM finish for me (could be earlier or later, so 2AM-5AM). I will be the only person carrying out this task at this time.
I am not needed in the office after finishing that task, as we have other people who are already fully briefed, trained and ready to take over with any 'support' needs after the deadline.
So, I put in a request to take the next day as annual leave from my holiday entitlement. So I can sleep!
My boss has said that this needs to be recorded as "sick" leave as I have said in advance that I'd be unfit for work that day (who wouldn't be, after working until 3-4AM to start again for a normal 9-5!)
If recorded as sick leave it could be counted against me in the future for disciplinary actions, taken into account in layoffs (redundancies), etc. We also use the "Bradford factor" which considers the number of times taken off "sick" already to determine how severe the current situation is.
I won't be "sick"! I will be recovering from 4AM demands of the job - but I guess they need to classify it somehow.
What can I say to my boss and HR to get them to record this as paid holiday rather than sick?
ETA: what have I tried so far: I've spoken to my boss requesting the day off, and he consulted HR and came back with the "he's indicated he will be unfit for work on [specific date] so we have to record it as sick". Not sure if relevant but our HR is in my view inept, untrained and only has the HR position due to politics and doesn't have any actual HR training.