Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Am I took fussy/is annual leave a deal breaker for you

103 replies

Ladyoftheapple · 04/02/2025 11:19

New to a new role. Smaller team, I work part-time, my husband works full-time. In my old job, I could pretty much pick the weeks I wanted off and they would be approved the majority of the time.
In this new job, one person can be off per week so it's limited. I love having two weeks off over the school summer holidays so that I can have that time with my husband and children but it's looking like I'll be lucky if I get a full week approved!
I'm struggling with this more than I thought and actually I am feeling like the quality time with my small children is more important. However, I have family members telling me that I need to suck it up, "I'm lucky to have a good job and I should want to get somewhere in life" 😳

OP posts:
BoldBlueZebra · 04/02/2025 11:38

How many people are in your team? Is there enough weeks for everyone to have one each?

TimeForSpring · 04/02/2025 11:36

Not getting a full week off (in school holidays) would be a deal breaker for me.
Less bothered about 2 weeks - especially if PT meant I could technically get 10 days.

Do you think it will be easier next year when you aren't new, and so get a chance with everyone else? Or is this going to be an ongoing thing every year??

AirborneElephant · 04/02/2025 11:31

Having restrictions on how many people are off at one time is very, very common. Whether it’s a deal breaker for you is your choice, it would be important to me but probably rank below how interesting the work is, how much autonomy I have and what the team is like. You can play the game to some extent, make sure you get your requests in the moment the system allows, plan ahead ect, but ultimately you also need to compromise with the rest of your team.

So YANBU if it’s too important for you, but if so it’s something you need to really bottom out before accepting another role. Speak to people in the team and your prospective manager as well as to HR to see how reality differs from their policy.