Question about taking time off from work....

[CEDmom]

I'm surprised at many of the responses to your question. I work for a large financial institution and what you're requesting wouldn't be a big deal and certainly wouldn't mandate that your offer be recinded. If I were you I wouldn't even have bothered with the HR person because they don't have anything to do with vacation scheduling. I would have waited until the first day on the job and spoken to my immediate manager. These kinds of things happen quite often and most employers aren't surprised by it. My only suggestion would be to see if you could scale back the time you need for your shower. If it's on a weekend do you really need to take any time off at all? I wouldn't sweat this too much. The HR rep is probably going to tell you to see your manager on Monday. Good luck and congratulations .

 

[danacara]

Can I ask, if you thought it was such a minor thing, why didn't you mention it offhand at any point during the interviewing/hiring process? I speculate that you didn't because you were afraid you wouldn't get the job if you mentioned it. That being said, I think you can understand some of the responses you've gotten.

Also, you've managed 100+ people and you were born in 1978? You are perhaps the most managerially accomplished 25-year-old claims adjuster I've ever met.

Enjoy your wedding --
Dana

 

[DMickey28]

I do not believe I mentioned that I thought this was so minor. The wedding plans where not set at the time of the interview, which was nearing two months ago now. Also, this job is not my career. It's a job and one that I will enjoy doing but it won't break my heart not to get it. I had many other interviews and offers, but held out for this job because it's within 15 miles of my house. and at this time that's what's important to me.

Danacara~
Short of my Branch Manager at a large insurance company I can't imagine anyone having 100 claims adjusters working under them. I left my career in the Hospitality Industry a year ago now. At that point I was the Manager for a department of 100+ employees and at any given time was the sole Property Manager for well over 100 employees. I appreciate that you think that is accomplished for a 25 year old. Thank you good wishes on the wedding.

CEDmom & caitycaity~
Thanks for the response. I am glad I am not the only one that has or does work at a company that would not firing you for asking for a few unpaid days off for a wedding within your first year. The wedding shower is definetly flexible. I will probally just fly home on Friday night and back on Monday night, therefor not taking anytime. The wedding itself will cause me to need 1 extra day than the vacation time and personal holiday time I will have. I can hardly think that's a huge deal. Thanks agian!

 

[clh2]

Originally posted by DMickey28

Sorry if this is at all harsh or anything. I don't mean it that way, I just feel that sometimes things or people are so negative. It's a wedding for crying out loud. No one will rain on that parade for me....

I know that your wedding is the most important thing going on in your life right now, but don't forget - its not the most important thing in the world for your employer.

 

[m&m's mom]

I think working for a larger company may be to your disadvantage. The larger the company the higher the odds of having a written and dispursed vacation/personal time off policy. Basically what that means is a company is less likely to grant exceptions. That gives other employees to scream "unfair".
I program vacation/ PTO, sick, personal etc. policies for employers with over 1000 employees and I work for an international data processing company with about 40,000 employees. I see very little flexibility, especially for a brand new employee. I would definitely expect a moral issue w/ your fellow employees if you were to receive special treatment.
Good luck! I hope they make an exception for you.

 

[Michelina]

I don't think all hope is lost for you I was in almost exactly your same position. I got hired by a big health insurance company in January 2001 as a customer service rep and was getting married in August. I would only have 4 vacation days earned by then. I needed 9 days off for my wedding and honeymoon. Honestly, I didn't say anything in my interview because I was afraid that they wouldn't hire me... Anyway I told my manager on my first day and she said that it would be fine, I got paid for the days I earned and the rest were unpaid. It worked out great! By the time my wedding rolled around the department gave me a shower and my managers and supervisor got me gifts! I think a lot has to do with your attitude, most co-workers aren't going to begrudge you your honeymoon if you're giving 110% the rest of the time! Weddings are pretty special in the grand scheme of things

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by m&m's mom
I think working for a larger company may be to your disadvantage. The larger the company the higher the odds of having a written and dispursed vacation/personal time off policy. Basically what that means is a company is less likely to grant exceptions. That gives other employees to scream "unfair".
I program vacation/ PTO, sick, personal etc. policies for employers with over 1000 employees and I work for an international data processing company with about 40,000 employees. I see very little flexibility, especially for a brand new employee. I would definitely expect a moral issue w/ your fellow employees if you were to receive special treatment.
Good luck! I hope they make an exception for you.

I work for a large company and there it NO flexibility in vacation times, the senior people pick their 5 weeks first and it goes to to the junior people basically being told, you have the first week in Jan and the first week in November or somthing like that and it is picked the September before the next year and there is NO changing it what so ever....anyone that tries to get theirs changes for any reason is told no. If you take it anyway you are consider absent without leave and written up and either fired or given a long time off with no pay before you can come back to work. There would be heck to pay if a new person came in and tried to get a week off that someone that is already working for the company wanted and couldn't get.

 

[swea_pea1]

I work for a large company and I too think that is somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to vacation time.

We have a department of about 50 people. We hired a woman 2 years ago in March who never mentioned anything about vacation time prior to being hired. After she was on board, she then told us that she had paid for a cruise the week of July 4th. Well, that's a pretty popular week for vacation and we already had a whole bunch of people off. Additionally, there were some folks who had requested it even before this other woman was hired and been denied because we had reached our limit for people off that day. I know it sounds mean, but we had no other choice but to say no. It wouldn't have been fair to the others that had requested it and not received it for us to say yes to her. She had her choice of cancelling her vacation (which she eventually did) or going anway and being put on probation or possibly being terminated for taking unapproved time-off. If she would have asked on her interview, we probably would have told her up-front that it was going to be a problem and she could have made the decision then whether the vacation was more important to her than the job.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but I can guarantee that if somebody was requesting more time than was earned in the year, we'd say no. Saying yes would set a precedent that I wouldn't want to deal with in the future. Your wedding may be just as important to you as a "once in a lifetime" trip for somebody else. I'm reminded of a woman who did quit because she worked on the side in a theatre company and got a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to sing in Italy for a month. She wanted the time off, unpaid, but we didn't approve it. As a manager in a large company, we don't have the authority to make the call on what's "more important" to one individual vs. another. The only factor we can use is how it affects the company and how the policy is being used (i.e. if one person gets unpaid time off in excess of what they've earned, everybody get it regardless of the reason - unless it's covered in another policy, such as disability leave).

This is one of those "hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst" scenarios. Good luck to you and congratulations!