To be annoyed work posted this job in this way?

Agree. For an in-department vacancy, they should all receive the same opportunity to apply. It's totally valid to be pissed off about that not happening.

Yes, and OP is entitled to be annoyed about it.

Call them now and ask them to extend the closing date until tomorrow, and then get it in tonight at some point. Very often in my job someone will contact us and say they've been on holiday or only just saw the ad and would really like to apply and we will normally give an extra couple for days.

For the love of god don't chuck in a half-assed chatgpt application.

The situation is what it is. That doesn't make if fair, but that's how it is.

The OP can sit, cry, naval gaze or find a solution in the time they have before the deadline.

Wailing about being a parent and half term is not likely to secure an internal interview.

I’d email my boss when able and express the desire to apply even if you have missed the deadline

I’d have flagged to my staff who were off for half term.

At my workplace this timeline means that there's someone lined up. I would view it as a heads up and not bother applying.

Go home a bit earlier?

I'm missing the point of this thread but all this talk of contacting HR, call your manager! It is your manager's vacancy, not HR's. HR didn't need to tell you there was an opportunity coming up, your manager did!

It's all been said but in your position I'd call your manager right now and say you plan to apply, but you only saw it today so will need some time. It would be wholly unreasonable for your manager to refuse, unless you don't have the requisite qualifications required so wouldn't be eligible to apply.

Yes! Who cares about children anyway? The OP chose to have them, to the great inconvenience of her employer no doubt. I bet she even took maternity leave, the entitled so and so! And now she has the gall to want to take time off when her children are off school and spend some time with them and perhaps other family members and friends without checking work emails and intranet every few minutes. Best to stick to promoting just childless people and men. OK, there are these tiresome things called laws and policies, but they're easily circumvented. Just tip off good old Harry, he's a safe pair of hands and his wife does all the childcare, and make sure the advert goes out when the OP and all the other women with kids and the odd man who also takes responsibility for his own children are out of the way. Sorted.

No, it doesn't change every year, but that's not the point. HR should be thinking about these things. Suppose a job was advertised internally and put on the intranet at 4pm on 24th December with a closing date of 28th December, and only one member of staff applied, having been tipped off, while the rest were in total ignorance that the vacancy even existed. Would that be fair?

I think posters have got distracted by half term/ looking after dc.
A four day recruitment period for an internal role is incredibly dodgy.
OP is this part of an unfair culture? Do send that email, you need a timestamp that you only knew about the role in a short window.

Email your manager cc’ing hr

Dear x
I hope you’re having a good week.
I was surprised to see the post of x advertised with a short window covering my annual leave. (If your company has a not checking emails whilst on leave policy maybe mention it) I would like to apply for the role, but obviously cannot give the application sufficient attention in such a short timespan. Please confirm you’ll be able to consider my application on my return from AL on date.

I’d also consult my union / ACAS
It stinks.

I’m absolutely sure men people are.

I think this is really unfair and awful of the company and probably breaching some policy. Surely employees should have equal knowledge and time to be informed of/apply for a role. Especially something internal that is related to your role. I work for the NHS and if an internal post is coming up, we get emails in advance informing us 'next week a job advert is going out for...' also our managers would keep us updated if on leave.

Those saying "it's up to you if you want to prioritise your children" are just plain rude. The OP is currently out with the children, it's only by chance she spotted the advert.
Why shouldn't the OP have equal time to apply for the job, why should she have to do some rushed application whilst others have had a full week notice. It's about equal opportunity, which they should all have. If you really want the job then I would try to get an application done if you can but also email your manager explaining you weren't aware of the post due to annual leave, they should allow you time to do your application as they haven't treated you fairly.

This.

Some people find solutions, other excuses. Which are you?

Before kids I had not a tiny idea when half term was. Ever. Doesn’t it change every year?

I think parents do over estimate how much attention non-parents pay to half terms etc.

I would respectfully disagree. There are very few - if any - people who are oblivious to the metronome of the school year.

Obviously as a child you are aware of it. And even as you leave full time education (which could be early 20s) there is every chance you - or friends - will have younger siblings still doing the time.

Then you move into the world of work where it takes about 10 seconds to remember how the school year runs as colleagues fight it out for annual leave slots. That's even if you are unobservant enough to wonder why your commute can treble in term time.

From there you - or family or friends - will become parents yourselves. That's going to be at least 14 years when you are directly exposed to the school calendar.

After that when the kids piss off, there are still those colleagues fighting over annual leave.

And when you leave work, there's the grandparent phase. And - guess what - that too will march to the beat of the term time tempo.

Even having my morning tea, I am aware of the parents walking their kids to school, and there absence during half term.

(really just proving a post I made yesterday that the fossilised remains of the western educational calendar was centred around getting the harvest in).

You don’t know how long the application will take.

It was a bit sneaky of them I suppose. But thats life. Theyve obviously got somebody in mind so short window to apply and advertised when you're on holiday. Dont think Id bother applying under this set up. Look for a new job with another company.

Take the kids to the park/soft play and do your application whilst supervising. Like any other working parent would do if they really wanted the job.

I disagree if people are told to disengage completely on their personal time/holidays as it's supposed to be a genuine break from work. And many companies do follow this policy.

YANBU to be annoyed, that's incredibly underhand and sneaky of your company. Given it's internal only they MUST expect at least one of your colleagues to apply otherwise there wouldn't be any point in advertising it, so does sound as though they've deliberately done it when fewer people would be aware. Apart from anything else it's lazy - if there are only 8 of you it's hardly a huge swathe of applications to sift through!

However as pp's said, it is on you that you didn't apply. You had at least 6 hours, you could have put something in even if it wasn't great, before/after going out with the kids or postponed your plans with them. Mum getting a potential payrise is worth more to them long term than one trip to the cinema or whatever.

Personally I'd be considering whether I wanted to work for a company that were so underhand and unfair.

I imagine thry have someone in mind with such a small window and/ or,if I was being cynical, don't want parents applying as they have requirements that they don't want to accommodate.

I’m not sure people are fucking ChatGPT.