To apply for retail jobs when I’d need time off during a busy season?

[Fuzzysock]

Finding it difficult to find jobs in my field at the moment and hoping to secure part time retail whilst freelancing. The only niggle is, our wedding falls in between Christmas and New Year with honeymoon straight after, both are booked with deposits paid so I would really need to be off then for almost two weeks, even if it is unpaid. But would it BU to even ask given that Christmas is a busy time for retail with sales, etc? And would you mention it in interviews? Not sure what to do really What would you do?

It’s normally written into your contract that you can’t take holidays at Christmas

Hospitality and retail are desperate for workers.
Tell them at the interview and then if you get it. It should not be a problem.
Good luck

Retail usually take on extra temp staff for Christmas so if you're up front and make sure they honour booking it in the diary then there shouldn't be a problem. The problem comes if you leave it until close to the time to request it and they have hired staff to cover you.

• haven't hired that should say

You have to be upfront about it I think. You are not asking for every Christmas/New Year off.

Depends on which area of retail you're interested in, supermarkets are dead immediately after Christmas, and pick up for New year's Eve. But then go dead again for most of January.

Be up front otherwise you’ll need to quit… can you really afford not to worn, do you really have any choice?

I work in a supermarket and we have a holiday blackout period from mid December until the first week of January.

If you wanted that time off and said so in the interview then you would be very unlikely to be hired (unless there was literally nobody else suitable) and if you didn't say anything and then requested the time off it would be denied due to the holiday blackout.

We are reviewing our seasonal temps at the moment to see how many we are keeping on from the summer and how many more we need to recruit before the Christmas period. Part of the contract for seasonal staff is that they have to be available from December 1st - January 6th. If people have specific events and require one or two days off then that would be accommodated but if you couldn't commit to the minimum term them you wouldn't be hired.

Retail manager here. We get many many applications for jobs and someone unable to work over Christmas/New year wouldn't progress past the telephone interview stage, as that's when we explain our expectations of that time period.

Apply and just let them know in second interview or if they offered you the job. Definitely don't hide it. As others said it's only a one off.
It could be a deal breaker, but better to be honest and let them decide. Good luck and hope you have a fab wedding!

I'd go for it and hand in my notice in plenty of time before Christmas.

im a retail manager and it wouldn't put me off if you were right for us

go for it

I was a retail manager in a clothes shop for years. It wouldn't put me off if you were straight with me from the start.

@joangray38

It’s normally written into your contract that you can’t take holidays at Christmas

This. No holidays allowed for the whole of December.

Our store would be happy with this as it’s a holiday booked before you started working for us, providing you mention it in the interview.

It's your wedding, a total one off. I would still hire you and hope that you would do your share next year.

I work in retail. It might put some people off but certainly not all. But you definitely need to mention it at interview. Good luck!

The only issue you'll have if you plan on staying in retail is that in future years you'll be unlikely to be able to book time off if you wanted to to celebrate your anniversary.

If you're looking for part-time, would you be able to manage doing a bit extra in the pre-Christmas rush? My dad worked Christmas, and my mum was part-time in retail, but managed a trade where she did extra on the run-up to Christmas and was then let off the requirement to be in for the post-Christmas sales. I realise it may depend on how much wedding prep you'll be needing to do in December.

Depends on the retail place. This would be fine where I work