Starting new job with holiday booked

Claire2626

Hi all,

I'm a recent graduate, and have just received a job offer to begin work on May 23rd. The only issue is I have a large holiday booked from June 16th to July 5th, which required three weeks off, and I have my graduation on July 15th, which will require two days off work. I let the company know about both of these both at interview and when I received my job offer, making it clear I would be happy to take these as unpaid holidays. Today I received an email off the hiring manager stating "You will be over the holiday allowance and we will discuss how this is treated when you start". Now I'm slightly afraid my holidays are going to be denied; would this be unreasonable on behalf of the company, when I have been clear about my plans throughout the hiring process? Anyone have any experience/advice?

Thanks!

cuddlymarm

If you have discussed this in the interview anything already booked is usually honoured but obviously sosoon would be taken as unpaid leave.

TELLIT01

It's far more likely that they will say you have to take unpaid leave than for them to meet you face to face in order to say the job offer has been rescinded.

[Deleted User]

I think you'll be ok if it was not in your favour, you would have your start date moved. You could even bat them that offer to start later?

I once in what was these Brexit/bank holiday laden times, had a job offered that knew my notice period finish but it didn't stop them delaying my start date and when I walked into my first day, turned around and said wasn't expecting you (when only days after my delayed start date apparently needed signing off and I was the temp! to cover holiday from then what I worked out) so it could be worse. I'm not sure I would rock the boat in these times getting well this was said etc. (Least they have not genuinely forgotten you'll need time off for holiday.)

tyllwyd

There might be a question whether they want you to take the entire three weeks plus two days as unpaid leave, which would leave you with your full holiday allowance for the rest of the year, or to use up your holiday allowance plus a few days unpaid leave. If they have said they want to discuss it, I would take it as they are happy for you to have the leave but they want to agree the exact arrangement with you. Have a good think through about the options so you can give them a sensible answer if they ask (and if you haven't had a full time job before, do a back of an envelope calculation on how much you earn per day - I've taken unpaid leave in the past then been a bit shocked at how much my pay has gone down).

getmore4less

Make it a contractual condition of accepting that you will not be working those days, they can't then give you notice you will need to work them.

How they are managed paid unpaid is a later conversation.

BrassicWoman

getmore4less wrote: »

Make it a contractual condition of accepting that you will not be working those days, they can't then give you notice you will need to work them.

How they are managed paid unpaid is a later conversation.

Bit aggressive IMO and gets you off on the wrong foot

What happened to just phoning to clarify? Does no one speak any more?

General_Grant

Claire2626 wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm a recent graduate, and have just received a job offer to begin work on May 23rd. The only issue is I have a large holiday booked from June 16th to July 5th, which required three weeks off, and I have my graduation on July 15th, which will require two days off work. I let the company know about both of these both at interview and when I received my job offer, making it clear I would be happy to take these as unpaid holidays. Today I received an email off the hiring manager stating "You will be over the holiday allowance and we will discuss how this is treated when you start". Now I'm slightly afraid my holidays are going to be denied; would this be unreasonable on behalf of the company, when I have been clear about my plans throughout the hiring process? Anyone have any experience/advice?

Thanks!

They are not going to deny your holiday. You are starting work there, so there is no rescinding of a job offer.

You have said you are willing to take unpaid leave, so there is no need to phone them ahead of your start date as obviously you are not concerned about missing some pay early on.

If the holiday year finishes at the end of March or December (the most common year ends) then you are likely to have accrued sufficient holiday in the year to cover the your booked holiday and bank holidays, so they may even agree to not deduct the full holiday as unpaid leave at the start as long as you agreed to repay them if you left this employment before you had accrued sufficient leave time. Only be aware that taking unpaid leave technically reduces the time you accrue as paid leave.

Ja7188

Today I received an email off the hiring manager stating "You will be over the holiday allowance and we will discuss how this is treated when you start"

To me, this implies that they're prepared to honour these days off and discussing how they are treated probably means that you have the option to use holiday to cover some of them. They may however be concerned that if you use your entire holiday allowance by July and then have to run to the end of the holiday year with no time off then your performance may suffer as a result - so they may want to suggest holding some of your annual leave for later use and take some unpaid leave.

getmore4less

BrassicWoman wrote: »

Bit aggressive IMO and gets you off on the wrong foot

What happened to just phoning to clarify? Does no one speak any more?

No it doesn't it clarifies the terms of engagement, by all means call and discuss but put it in writing as a condition of acceptance before you resign from the old job.

General_Grant

getmore4less wrote: »

No it doesn't it clarifies the terms of engagement, by all means call and discuss but put it in writing as a condition of acceptance before you resign from the old job.

The OP is a "recent graduate" so probably has no "old job" to resign from (or it was in their university town and no longer appropriate).

Why go back and make it a "contractual condition to accept" when they will already have accepted the position and are now due to start in less than a fortnight's time.

I certainly see no reason to raise a query in writing or by phone at this stage when they will shortly have a scheduled face-to-face discussion.