Hi all, looking for some advice because I’m honestly getting a bit stuck and frustrated with my situation.

I’ve been working at Greggs as a Shift Manager for just over a year now. A while back I applied to become a Special Constable, and after going through all the checks, interviews, and assessments, I’ve finally been accepted. My training starts on 15th May.

The training is mostly weekends (usually 2–3 days every couple of weeks) so I thought it would be manageable alongside work. When I first mentioned it to my manager, he said it would be fine and didn’t raise any issues.

Now the problem: out of nowhere, he’s started pushing back. He’s already saying that in September he “won’t be able to give me the days off” for training. That’s five months away, and he’s basically telling me now that I won’t be able to take around 6 days off in total that month.

I’ve explained that I can’t miss even a single training day, because I’d have to redo it at a later date, which I really want to avoid. I’ve also reminded him that this was discussed earlier and agreed in principle.

For context, I’m on a 5-day-a-week contract, and I’m not asking for random time off, this is structured training with dates given well in advance for the whole year.

It’s got to the point where I’ve told him I might have to either transfer to another shop or hand in my notice before September if we can’t sort this out.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? Any advice on how to handle this properly before it escalates? Not sure if I’m being unreasonable here or if I should push back harder.

Thanks in advance.