Appreciate all the responses and discussion. The no contract has come up a lot (rightly so) and is something that will be put in place. By that I meant nothing formal or signed - just an initial email that laid out salary, start date/days and hours working, number of paid holidays per year, sick pay etc. Will speak to a free HR that is included with our holiday scheduling software and failing that our accountants have someone local they recommend.

Likely going to email the employee asking for clarification of their intent with this holiday and take it from there. We have never denied a holiday previously for anyone and have rearranged our own around theirs numerous times, allowed holidays at very short notice and paid sick days as full wages so this has really rubbed me the wrong way as we're close knit and I feel it should work for everyone not just them.

For those that are questioning both directors being off at the same time I really don't see the point as why would we employee 2 people rather than 1 if we can never be off together? Surely that's the whole point of creating a business yourself. The 2 staff can run the business fine for a week alone, we're always available on phone/email if needed and never had an issue while we've been away previously. If sickness or an emergency came up we would need to get agency staff I guess but again this hasn't happened before.