Reasonable amount of notice to give for requesting leave

[5Foot5]

What do people think is reasonable notice for booking leave?

I have worked in several organizations over the last 25 years and they have all operated a similar system for leave, i.e. you are entitled to x number of days a year and have to get leave requests approved by a manager, usually giving as much notice as possible for longer holidays. Also most places I have worked operate some sort of controls to make sure that there is always cover even at popular holiday times like school summer holidays and Christmas.

I have been in my current job for two years and thus far this has been the approach adopted here. However, I was recently transferred to a new team owing to a re-organization. The manager of this team did say that, where possible, could we book holidays well in advance. Basically what happens is that he is asked to provide resource for projects and typically if he has allocated someone to a project then any leave requests submitted after allocation were liable to be turned down.

This morning (Monday) I found I was one of the people sent an email about allocations next year. This email was sent on Friday but only after most of us had gone home. The email said that we were being allocated to a project which would run from the middle of March to the middle of June, though some people may be required to support it until the end of November. These allocations had not yet been confirmed to give us chance to book major leave (i.e. 1 to 2 weeks) for that period. They would have to be confirmed by close of play Tuesday (i.e. tomorrow) and any major leave request received after then would not be allowed.

Now personally I find it rather extreme that I have to give up to 6 months notice if I want a weeks leave, or potentially up to one year for people who end up on support. Especially so since we were only told today and have to decide by the end of tomorrow.

Does anyone else agree with this? I can't find anything in the company policy that is specific about length of notice we need to give. Does anyone know if there is any sort of employment law / guideling that cover this?

[AMumInScotland]

I don't think there's any laws about the amount of notice they are required to give. My DH usually puts all his planned leave into their system within a few days of it being allocated, and they get nagged to fill it in very quickly.

But they do allow a certain amount of flexibility - so if he books 2 weeks in July, but later wants to change them to August, then that's not normally a problem (cover permitting)

Could you do something like that with this system?
Say, guess you'll want a week at Easter and 2 weeks in the summer, and "book" them into the planner, then adjust from there when you know what you really want?

[theITgirl]

I used to get email like this in my last job.
What they wanted to know, was what did you think you would be doing. For example 2 weeks in August and 1 week in May.
Then when they put the project plan together they know they cannot allocate you 3 weeks of work in August. They should be flexible around this during the project and odd days off also shouldn't be a problem.
Getting the project in on schedule & within budget (e.g. no unexpected contractors needed for holiday cover) has huge incentives and a good bargaining chip for the next round of promotions & pay rises for you and your manager.