New employer has rejected holiday

Marktheshark

Love the people playing "Boss", thank goodness some of these people are not jumped up 50p an hour more supervisors.
LOL !

Takeaway_Addict

livewire_82 wrote: »

I value all of your replies but I think a number of you misunderstand what I've said. She didn't book time off as soon as she started - she had pre-booked holiday which was booked in January.
I appreciate this probably should've been discussed when the job was offered but why should it be discussed during the interview process? It should have no baring on whether you get the job or not. Can you imagine the reason for not getting a job being because you have holiday booked at an inappropriate time? As far as I'm aware, a new employer should honour any pre-booked holiday. It's ludicrous to expect you to cancel a holiday in order to get a job.

No I understood fully.

If your wife had said she had a pre booked holiday and the employer offered the job with this knowledge then yes you would have an arguement. But your wife didn't and so the contract is as the employer set out.

LMH67

I think it's sadly clear here the error rests with your wife not telling them at interview and asking for an OK before proceeding any further. That said, this must happen all the time.

I had this happen to me once but I had told them at interview and had it agreed. On starting my job, my line manager (not present at interview) refused my request when I formally submitted it. I let him know it had all been agreed at interview and did he want my resignation right then, in time to leave for my holiday or the invoice for the £2.5K we had spent on the trip.

I kept my job and had my holiday. It's fair to say though relations between him and me were never great after though.........

pinkshoes

livewire_82 wrote: »

I value all of your replies but I think a number of you misunderstand what I've said. She didn't book time off as soon as she started - she had pre-booked holiday which was booked in January.
I appreciate this probably should've been discussed when the job was offered but why should it be discussed during the interview process? It should have no baring on whether you get the job or not. Can you imagine the reason for not getting a job being because you have holiday booked at an inappropriate time? As far as I'm aware, a new employer should honour any pre-booked holiday. It's ludicrous to expect you to cancel a holiday in order to get a job.

The pre-booked holiday DOES NOT have to or need to be mentioned in the interview, BUT... To guarantee it being granted, it would need to be mentioned before accepting the job. (Assuming the job was offered...)

Most companies would have December and Summer holidays designated months in advance, so unless your wife made her acceptance of the job conditional of being allowed to take that week off, then they are perfectly entitled to refuse the holiday.

Savvy_Sue

livewire_82 wrote: »

I appreciate this probably should've been discussed when the job was offered but why should it be discussed during the interview process? It should have no baring on whether you get the job or not. Can you imagine the reason for not getting a job being because you have holiday booked at an inappropriate time?

On one level, having a pre-booked holiday should have no bearing on whether you get the job or not, BUT if you have two roughly equally good candidates, one of whom wants to take a leave at an inconvenient time and one of whom doesn't, who are you going to choose?

SandC wrote: »

I would have said the employer is only really likely to ask if there are any prebooked holidays if the interview and recruitment is taking place over the summer. Your wife should have brought this up once an offer had been made (ie. ring them as soon as letter received to check this would be okay before accepting the position).

Having been hit by this problem in the past, we now ask at interview. But I don't think anyone has ever waited until they've started, they've always asked at the point where we've made the offer.

shortcrust

livewire_82 wrote: »

My wife started a new job today.
Before she started we had booked a holiday for December.
At no point during the recruitment process was she asked if she had any pre-booked holiday - nothing in the application form or during the interview. So she assumed it would be dealt with once she had started. She submitted the holiday request today, on her very first day and it was promptly rejected. Bearing in mind, we're talking a matter of 3 and a half months in advance. Is this new employer being unreasonable? Is there any way she can contest this?

It's also worth pointing out that the individual in question that personally made the choice to reject the holiday has evidently made life very difficult for my wife on her first day - no credit for doing a good job on her first day, no asking how it went. Just a number of criticisms including this one which had little substance. So I have my suspicions that she's a power hungry egotist or just sees her as a threat because she is a very capable senior member of staff.

I count at least eight ridiculous things in this post. Didn't tell her she did a good job on her first day? Diddums.

GlasweJen

As a "not particularly senior member of staff" I thought it was common knowledge that you mention pre-booked holidays when you get the phone call telling you that you'd been successful at interview. Surely someone senior would have been all over this?

tir21

My sympathies lie with the OP. The employer has gone to a lot of trouble to find the right person for that role - so why risk antagonising a new employee so early into the relationship. Surely at the least they should express regret that the holiday cannot honoured and reasons given

The employee should have mentioned it during interview but so should the employer.

Takeaway_Addict

tir21 wrote: »

My sympathies lie with the OP. The employer has gone to a lot of trouble to find the right person for that role - so why risk antagonising a new employee so early into the relationship. Surely at the least they should express regret that the holiday cannot honoured and reasons given

The employee should have mentioned it during interview but so should the employer.

But the employee is ok to risk antagonising a new employer?

tir21

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

But the employee is ok to risk antagonising a new employer?

The employee is just stating the fact that they have a paid for holiday - and could be out of pocket by thousands of pounds if they are not able to go

That it didn't come to light earlier is partly both parties fault

I don't think some measure of understanding and sympathy would be too much to expect of a good employer. Part of that would be to explain why it's simply impossible for them to have the time off