Vacation and a new job

[Shellyb84]

Not sure where to post this! I think I know what I should really do, but I want more opinions of what other people would do in this situation.

So, I've had a Disney trip planned for months now. Myself, DH, DD, my mom and dad. March 8-13, 2016. Last week I was offered a new job and I accepted, my start date is January 19th. Should I even mention the vacation and see if it would be ok to take, or just suck it up and reschedule for later in the year? It would have to wait until Fall probably, we have a longer trip planned in July (just me, DH and DD but it isn't an issue since it's past the first 3 months) and I don't want two trips super close together.

I'm excited about the job but bummed to cancel my trip, especially since it's so close I feel that's probably the right thing to do though. I'm also not able to take any time off between leaving my current job and starting the new one.

What would you do??

 

[kamik86]

Honestly it somewhat depends on the job.

Is this a job that needs X number of warm bodies in the building at any time to function or the kind of job where everyone has X responsibilities and has due dates months in the future and it is up to them to manage their workload?

My job is the later. If someone knew started on my team in January and had a vacation scheduled in March I would hope they would tell me about it and not just postpone because as long as we didn't have some big customer meeting or deadline right then (and even then a person that was only with the company for 2 months wouldn't be critical to one of these if we did have them) they could go. However if they had a document due on March 31st I would expect them to manage the rest of their time in March to have it done on time. Which may mean pulling some unpaid overtime (we are salaried).

 

[weeniecat2442]

congrats on the new job! if it were me, I would have mentioned the vacation right after I was offered the job and let them know it was booked and paid for.
I'd think a company would be understanding of that but ya never know. Good luck and I hope you get to go!

 

[ptlohmysoul]

What type of job is it? Do you have leave benefits? Will you eventually get leave benefits? Or is it hourly, no benefits? With an hourly, no benefit job, you could ask first clarifying that you are perfectly fine with cancelling your vacation, but wanted to make sure that wasn't a slow time where the company would be fine without you for a short period of time.

 

[Shellyb84]

It's a staff accountant position, so the latter. I feel like I should've mentioned it as soon as I got the offer, but I was just excited and didn't think about it.

 

[Shellyb84]

What type of job is it? Do you have leave benefits? Will you eventually get leave benefits? Or is it hourly, no benefits? With an hourly, no benefit job, you could ask first clarifying that you are perfectly fine with cancelling your vacation, but wanted to make sure that wasn't a slow time where the company would be fine without you for a short period of time.

It's salaried, with paid vacation benefits.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

When I have had a vacation planned (or more importantly, paid for already) and started a new job, I told them at the offer conversation to see if it would be a problem. It never has been an issue with any of my employers.

If you have to accrue leave at this new job, they may approve the time but you may have to take unpaid leave. Some employers won't let you do that, or you may not want to take unpaid leave because it will mess with your seniority date.

If it's not going to hurt you financially to cancel the trip and you can reschedule, that may be an appreciated gesture. It doesn't hurt to ask your new employer, but I would call them immediately.

Congratulations on your new job!

 

[Shellyb84]

Thanks! I just sent a very polite email and said I would cancel if necessary but I wanted to check first and see if it would be an issue or not.

 

[Shellyb84]

They said I can take it!!!! Woohoo! Thanks guys for the advice!

 

[kamik86]

Thanks! I just sent a very polite email and said I would cancel if necessary but I wanted to check first and see if it would be an issue or not.

That is generally a good plan. My company has been hiring a lot of new people and many have had to take vacation towards the beginning, some were moving or had christmas plans etc. This is a place where people rarely have vacation denied... most of the time you just have to tell everyone a few weeks before. Occasionally someone will really be indispensible to an activity but someone that is only here a few months would not fall into that category.

 

[Allison]

I had a vacation scheduled when I started the job I have now. I mentioned it once I was made the offer.